The lovely ladies of London Freediving have been busy this October. Looking at their achievements in chronological order:
From zero to hero(ine) in 5 short months, we have the amazing Grace Capel. When she turned up on our watery doorstop announcing that she was aiming to learn freediving….and then go off and do a 100 foot dive in a flooded UK quarry…that spelled out B-I-G C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E. However, it didn’t take long for us to all realise there was some mettle there, and she meant it. Oh yes – there was an added incentive too. She was hoping to raise over £1,000 for The Multiple Sclerosis Society.On Sunday 2nd October, Grace put all her sponsor’s money where her mouth was, breezed down to the plate 100 feet down, and came back victorious. She made the depth, raised all the cash she’d hoped for ( and more ), and made us all at London Freediving feel proud of our new fledgling.
Georgina Miller has been with us for some time now, although it doesn’t seem that long ago I put her through a certain amount of stress at her first competition in Marseilles. That’s a story for another time, but I sometimes wonder if that experience made her resolute to excel in the static apnea discipline. Or is it just that she has a natural ability? Either way, on the 16th October, at the 2011 AIDA Indoor World Pool Championship in Lignano, Italy, Georgie put in an amazing performance of 6 minutes 11 seconds – and made a new UK record in Static Apnea. Let’s not forget that the Men’s record didn’t get past 6 minutes until 2004, which isn’t so long ago. Georgie has been grateful for the coaching she has received from Brittany Trubridge, Liv Philip, and Daan Verhoeven ( Goergie’s photograph courtesy of Daan ).
Last but by no means least, Liv Philip has also been on the record-setting trail. At the afore-mentioned Pool Championship in Lignano, she set about improving her current dynamic no-fins record of 111 metres. She managed to add an impressive 3 metres on top of this, and with a clean finish. Even though I’m an AIDA judge myself, I sometime despair with the minute rules we have to abide by, and unfortunately Liv fell foul of one of these. So her record stands at 111 metres…but we all know she can do more! But wait, there’s more….just a week or so before the Pool Championships, the AIDA World Cup for 2011 was held in Kalamata, Greece. Liv competed. Liv made 2nd place overall, by diving 46 metres in constant weight no-fins, 62 metres contant weight, and 63 metres free immersion. Be suitably impressed – I know I am. ( Stop press – the UK national record for dynamic no-fins has been increased to 116 metres as of yesterday, 5th November. Set at the Fusion Lifestyle pool in Camberwell by none other than Liv Philip. )
So this is London Freediving’s feminine hat-trick for October / November. Us boys have some catching-up to do.
Photograph left to right shows Grace, Liv and Georgie.
