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Winners of 7th BFA Great Northern freediving competition and UK Pool National Championships – Alice Hickson and Adam Drzazga

UK Pool National Championships - Alice Hickson  UK Pool National Championships - Adam Drzazga

Picture Credit: Dean Martin

Monday 11 April 2016; — On Sunday 10 April, the 7th Great Northern International and the BFA UK National Pool Championships, organised by Steve Millard of www.learn2freedive.com was held at Wright Robinson School Sports College in Manchester (http://wrightrobinson.co.uk/)

The Great Northern looked and felt a little different this year, being held on one day with two disciplines in the 25m pool, however athletes from the UK and Europe flocked to this friendly event with enthusiasm, with the promise of displaying some impressive performances.

We were not let down. The UK male winner was Adam Drzazga from Blue Water freediving club with two strong performances; a huge 7.18 STA and 154m DYN. Coming in second for the Brits was Steven Tasker with 135m DYN and 4.59 STA and very close in third Paul Butterworth, with 5.02 STA and 132m DYN, both from the local Apneists UK club. Notably both Steven and Paul swam in bi-fins rather than the usual monofin. In first place for International male was also Adam Drzazga. Coming in second with an impressive performance was Aristo Vounakis from Apnea Revolution club with 5.27 STA and 130m DNF, and Marco Piccioni in third place with 113m DNF and 5.47 STA. Eoin Clarke set an Irish National Record in his dynamic swim of 117m DNF.

The UK female winner was Alice Hickson, last year’s Newbie Award winner and also DNF World Champion in 2015, with a solid 130m DNF and 6:33 STA. Alice trains with the Bristol Freedivers club along with Rose Van-Gowler who came second with a 3.39 STA and 68m DNF. In third place with a 2.31 STA and 70m DYN was Kate Goodwin. Alice also took the top prize for International female, with Go Freediving Club’s Delphine Brise from France in second, swimming 115m DYN and 3.23 STA and Rose Van-Gowler in third. Camilla Argent set an Irish National Record for the ladies, swimming 80m Dynamic.The winners of the Newbie Awards were Delphine Brise and Phillip Fennell.

The Great Northern is a competition that celebrates achievements both in the pool and the hard training effort it takes to get there. It recognizes that freediving is not always about numbers and times but about personal achievements and obstacles overcome. Sometimes dives won’t go as planned and it shows the true strength of an athlete to learn from their experience and come back stronger next time. The sense of atmosphere at this year’s competition spoke volumes, with athletes from clubs all over the UK and indeed the world, coaching, congratulating and celebrating personal bests with genuine enthusiasm.

The official kit sponsors were: Omer Breathless Emotions (http://www.omersub.com/), part of the Aqua Sphere UK and Aqua Lung UK family, Blue Orb (http://www.blue-orb.uk/) and the British Freediving Association (www.britishfreediving.org).

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Alice Hickson wins Gold & Bronze at AIDA Individual World Championships & Breaks two national records in DNF & STA

Four other Team Members also qualify for A & B Finals

UK Freediving Team Pool World Championships 2015

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

The Individual AIDA Pool World Championships ran from 21st to 27th June in the city of Belgrade in Serbia, with 122 athletes from 27 countries in attendance. A team of eight British athletes made the trip to represent the UK and fly the flag: Adam Drzazga, Alice Hickson, Beci Ryan, Georgina Miller, Jason Kirkpatrick, Lucelle Simms, Rebecca Coales and Shirley Turner.

The team was made up of seasoned and novice athletes alike. Despite it being an individual event the athletes worked together as a team, offering competition advice and coaching one another’s performances. All the athletes on the team are self funded and this year they were grateful to receive sponsorship from Divesangha, Bounce Energy Balls and Beet-it shots.

From the onset the team looked strong, with three athletes, Rebecca Coales, Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan holding wild cards (meaning they ranked top ten in the world for one or more discipline), and Jason Kirkpatrick and Alice Hickson having won best newcomer at the National Pool championships in March at the Great Northern.

But no one could have predicted that a 25-year-old, Swim Coach and Occupational Therapist, who had been freediving 8 months and this just her second competition, would break three national records, win a gold and bronze medal and become a World Champion! But this is exactly what Alice Hickson did with ease, grace and humbleness.

On day one Alice came out and performed like a professional, breaking the UK national record in dynamic no fins (DNF) by swimming 153m (the previous record was 145m set by Rebecca Coales) and securing herself a place in the A-Finals. In the A-Finals Alice continued to impress by adding almost an entire length onto her previous performance, 21m to be exact, and coming up clean and strong at 174m; winning her a second national record, a gold medal and the title World Champion.

It was in static (STA) that Alice went on to win her bronze medal. In the qualifying heats, despite the challenging cold conditions, which put a number of other athletes off, she held her breath for 05:58. In the finals she increased her time to 06:58 and broke her third national record. Georgina Miller had set the previous static national record at 06:33 at the Great Northern on 22 March this year.

There were some strong performances from other members of Team GB, with Georgina Miller qualifying for the STA A-Finals and now ranking number 7 in the World. Shirley Turner and Adam Drzazga made the STA B-Finals and rank number 10 and 11 in the World. Beci Ryan qualified for the DNF and STA B-Finals. Lucelle Simms narrowly missed out on the DYN finals with a solid 166m swim. Jason Kirkpatrick at his first World Championships and his second ever competition did brilliantly, his performance in DYN was impressive, swimming 124m in bi-fins, not an easy feat.

With the Pool World Championship over, we now look forward to the AIDA Depth World Championships in Limassol, Cyprus. The UK Team and sponsors will be announced very soon, so watch this space!

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New Static National Record for Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Georgina Miller beat her own static national record
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Saturday 28 June 2014; — On the 20th June 2014, Georgina Miller beat her own static national record, holding her breath for an incredible 6 minutes and 27 seconds at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis. The previous record she set was in 2012 of 06:20.

On the morning of the static competition, George, who has been suffering from bouts of competition nerves of late, dealt with them beautifully by she says ‘concentrating on one step at a time, rather than looking at it as a target’. A lot of thought, training and energy goes into a long static performance and George is very positive when talking about the discipline which she genuinely enjoys tackling. Georgina freely offers advice and openly shares her experiences with fellow athletes, genuinely wanting to help them improve and see them succeed. She credits her partner and coach, Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com), with her success: ‘I give enormous thanks to Daan for all of his help, love, advice, incredible pictures and fantastic coaching.’ George also reflects that a calm environment is essential to performing at your best and at such a high level: ‘Stavros Kastrinakis has organized an amazing 7th Med World Cup series, making the athletes feel relaxed and supported. Good performances and records are only possible with the help of friends, coaches, safety and organization. So thanks to my friends at London Freediving too for your support!’ As well as gaining a new national record, Georgina also came 2nd out of the women for the main depth event.

For higher resolution versions of the images attached, or for other official images of Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, please contact Daan Verhoeven at: info@daanverhoeven.com

The official video of Georgina Miller’s static national record is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqJQpkkKbU

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British Indoor Freediving records sent crashing for second time in under two weeks

Friday 16th March 2012: — Three British freediving athletes set incredible new records at the UK Indoor Nationals last weekend on 10th and 11th March; Georgina Miller pushed her own static record even further for the third time with 6 minutes 20; John Moorcroft took Chris Crawshaw’s brand new record with a Dynamic No Fins (DNF) swim of 153m; and to top off the excitement Chris reclaimed his record within the hour with an incredible DNF swim of 163m.

Georgina Miller, or George as she is known, has been training and competing for a few years now, but really found her confidence in 2009 when she made her first mark on the British records, with a static performance of 5 minutes 46 seconds. Since then she has gone from strength to strength, her second record coming just three months later when she became the first woman to break the magical six minute mark with a new records of 6:04. She knocked that record with 6:11 and now tops that with 6:20! George has represented the UK at all recent World Championships and also serves on the British Freediving Association.

She said: I had a great weekend getting a national record in the static of 6:20 and a first overall for the ladies. I would like to thank Daan Verhoeven who was a fantastic coach and has put lots of work into helping me, particularly in static. Thanks also to Orca for the wonderful sponsorship of the comp with a Breathe suit

John Moorcroft is one of British freedivin’s most consistent and persistent athletes and not only did he make a stunning performance with his second British record of 153m DNF (first in 2000 STA 5:05) at this year’s Indoor Nationals, he was also honoured with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the BFA for a decade of service to the freediving community. John’s commitment to competitive freediving goes back to 2000 when he competed in the 3rd ever AIDA World Championships in Ibiza. This weekend he not only took second place in DNF but also came third overall in the men’s competition. He is now in training for the UK Depth Nationals in Chepstow in May where he hopes to be in the mid-50s in Constant No Fins (CNF) and mid-60s in Constant Weight (CWT).

John said: Basically I’m really pleased with my record even if it only lasted an hour. My training is going well, and thanks go to Steve Millard for his coaching. I started snorkeling at the age of nine, and now at 44 my passion for breathhold diving depth and spearfishing mainly is stronger than ever. Thanks to PoloSub (www.polosub.com) for sponsoring me a new suit to keep me warm for my depth training in cold UK quarries over the next few months!

Chris Crawshaw is still cutting his teeth in freediving compared to John, but he is doing it in style. With two National Records in just two weeks, the first one was a beautiful 150m DNF hosted by www.totalfitness.co.uk and the second was a massive 163m in the main competition on the Saturday. This took the DNF record from 144m to a huge 163m, Chris has suddenly become a very compelling prospect for the future of British and possibly World freediving. He already has his first Worlds experience under his belt from the 2011 Indoor Championships in Lignano, Italy and is now setting his sights on even greater things. While he has a long way to go to the current DNF World record of 218m, with progression like this, who knows where he might end up!

Chris said: Thanks go first and foremost to Steve ‘raising the dead’ Millard because, as anyone who watches the video can see, without his coaching on the side it would probably have been a red card. That’s what it took, though, to put distance on John for whom I have so much respect as a diver and as a friend. I’m currently looking at a move out to New Zealand to train and to continue working as a doctor but the long term plan is to leave my job for a year and focus on the depth disciplines, providing I can find support and sponsors. It’s been such an incredible couple of weeks.

Thanks go to Steve Millard of Apneists UK, www.freedivers.co.uk for organising the event and coaching many of the athletes.

Prizes donated by Orca, Polosub, No Tanx and Emma Farrell

Thanks to www.totalfitness.co.uk for hosting the event.

We would like to thank the sponsors of this competition;

www.orca.com
www.polosub.com
liverpool.gov.uk/leisure-parks-and-events/leisure-facilities/
www.britishfreediving.org
www.sppv.co.uk
www.notanx.com
www.emma-freediver.co.uk

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New UK record!

The Richmond Freediving Club is pleased to announce a new UK record in the Womens Static Apnea discipline.

On Thursday 20th August 2009, at the AIDA individual indoor World Championships 2009, Aarhus Denmark, Georgina Miller completed a static breath hold of 6 minutes 4 seconds.

The new record beats the previous time of 5:46, set in May 2009, also by Georgina Miller.

Georgina has been competing for 2 years and trains at Pools on the Park Richmond, and at Fusion Leisure, Camberwell.

For more information on freediving visit Richmond Freediving Club

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3 New Womens Freediving National Records in One Day!

The BFA is pleased to announce that 3 new Women’s National Records were set on Sunday 31st May at the 2nd Great Camberwell Breath Hold in Camberwell Pool, Central London. The Freediving pool competition, organised by athlete and UK record holder Liv Philip saw freedivers from all over the UK and the world, compete in static, dynamic and dynamic no-fins disciplines.

In the run up to the World Indoor Freediving Championships in Aarhus in Denmark in August, some of the athletes were using the event for valuable competition experience and rankings. Alongside them were many new athletes who were competing for the first time. Organiser Liv Philip says ‘we wanted to create a competition with a different atmosphere that would be motivating and encouraging for athletes and give the as near perfect an environment as we could to help the atheltes stay relaxed and produce good performances‘. The girls especially took full advantage of the calm atmosphere – reflected by the result of 3 New National records being set during the day.

The first record of the day went to Georgina Miller who did an excellent static breath hold of 5:46 putting, 11 seconds on Livs existing record, well deserved after some months concentrated training on this difficult discipline. The next record went to Mandy Buckley with a wonderful swim of 140m to set a new Dynamic-with-Fin record. Both athletes gaining their first National record and beating there male counterparts by some measure. The final record came right at the end of the day seeing Liv Philip break her own existing record and swim 106m dynamic-no-fins to gain her 8th National record in Freediving. ‘I was very happy to do it as it was tough combining competing and organising – now Im looking forward to going home and sleeping!‘

Three New UK Records
Camberwell Breath Hold 2009 – The three new national record holders

The overall Winners with combined scores from 2 disciplines were Georgina Miller for the Women and Chris Holmes for the men, who was competing for the first time in a national competition, completing a static of 4:51 and a nice dynamic of 133m. Other athletes in the overall placings were Barbara Jeschke from Germany experimenting after swappping onto monofin for the first time and Martin Ashkenazy-Jones with a first rate no-fins dive and PB of 104m taking him into 3rd place overall just behaind Alan Barber who had broken his Dynamic record the day before. There were over 15 pbs in competiton at the event.

Athletes can now try to transfer their pool skills to depth as one of the next ebents on the UK freediving calendar is ‘SaltFree Double Dip’ competition held at NDAC in Chepstow www.saltfreedivers.com . Athletes get to choose 2 freediving depth disciplines over two days.

The event was supported by Fusion Lifestyle, Diving Matrix, Eat Natural Bars and the British Freediving Association.

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Liv Philip Sets New British Record in Static Apnea

On Saturday 23rd August 2008, at the AIDA 2008 World Team Freediving Championship Pre-Competition in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Liv Philip completed a performance of 5 minutes 35 seconds, which beats her previous record of 5 minutes 32 seconds, set in July 2007. Liv is part of Freediving TeamGB, who are about to compete in the main World Team Championships and also holds the British records in Dynamic apnea and Dynamic Apnea Without Fins.

The Pre-Competition has given team athletes a chance to compete as individuals in a number of disciplines, and David is the second British athlete to set a national record there.