On Friday and Saturday, I was at the Czech Championship. It was a very nice experience for me. My first competition outside France, and I have met for the first time many of my freediving compatriots. Some of them I knew from forums, so it was nice to meet them in person. I also met some foreign DB residents who also came to Prague: Andrea Richichi from Italy, Mark Harris from the UK, Michal Mrozowski and Mat Malina (both from Poland), and then a bunch of Slovaks who are no foreigners to me, since I was born in Slovakia too. And then, of course, the charming judge Ute Gessmann. Just a pity she did not hold her promises about singing some dirty German songs at the final dinner.
The atmosphere at the competition was great, and the organisations was excellent and smooth. I only found one serious problem in the organisation - the timing: the DNF finished on Friday around 11PM, and on Saturday we ought to be there already at 7-8 AM. So for those who did not stay at the hostel near the pool, and who had to drive an hour to the other side of the city, it meant just about 4-5 hours of sleep (and even just 2 hours for Martin Zajac, the organizer, and some others from his team).
We saw at least 4 national records, but it is possible I missed some at the girls. 2 Czech records: 166m DNF and 207m DYN by Martin Petrisko, a newcomer in Czech freediving. Also the Pole Michal Mrozowski (our DB resident) has set two national records, but both in DNF - 149m within the DNF discipline, and again DNF 154m within the DYN run the next day. And not only he has set and reset the DNF record, but he also took the second place in DNF, and the third in DYN (although done without fins)! And this guy started with freediving just a year ago. Mat, the other Pole was according to them both even stronger in training, but apparently did not manage to handle the competition stress and the travel fatigue too well. Also Michal did not quite look to be satisfied with his performance
The most funny was that Michal started to fight with the judges at the ceremony, because he did not want to accept the medal for the third place in DYN, telling that he did not deserve it because he did it without fins We had to push him onto the podium.
Martin Petrisko won all three disciplines, and also the combination. At girls, the winners were little bit more mixed. You can see most of the results in the Twitter column at APNEA.cz. The official results are unfortunately not yet all on the website of the organizer, and since Martin Zajac had to leave to Croatia almost immediately after the competition, I am not sure if someone else from his team will remember to upload the results.
Myself, I finished 4th in DNF with 125m (thank to the miracle swim cap I have from the Kiwis), and I believe I qualified for the WC, which was my reason for coming to the competition, so I am very happy. In STA I chickened out, not being really motivated, and at DYN I just tested my new bi-fins (the Sporasub Revolution fins with blades fixed on shoes). I did very easy 102m, and surfaced more or less because I was not quite happy with my technique, and because I slightly collided with the safety at the 100m turn. However I do not blame him, because I could easily continue if I really wanted. So the result of the test was not that bad for the fins, but I will need to train with them much more to adjust my technique to them.
EDIT: As I wrote already in the thread about the NZ swim cap, I was rather surprised by the number of blackouts and bad sambas - especially the first day in DNF, it was really considerable: I see 6 BO's in the result list for 33 competitors, and several more DQ's, where some of them were likely caused by a BO or heavy samba too. Perhaps long travel, or the late hour took the toll at some people.
The atmosphere at the competition was great, and the organisations was excellent and smooth. I only found one serious problem in the organisation - the timing: the DNF finished on Friday around 11PM, and on Saturday we ought to be there already at 7-8 AM. So for those who did not stay at the hostel near the pool, and who had to drive an hour to the other side of the city, it meant just about 4-5 hours of sleep (and even just 2 hours for Martin Zajac, the organizer, and some others from his team).
We saw at least 4 national records, but it is possible I missed some at the girls. 2 Czech records: 166m DNF and 207m DYN by Martin Petrisko, a newcomer in Czech freediving. Also the Pole Michal Mrozowski (our DB resident) has set two national records, but both in DNF - 149m within the DNF discipline, and again DNF 154m within the DYN run the next day. And not only he has set and reset the DNF record, but he also took the second place in DNF, and the third in DYN (although done without fins)! And this guy started with freediving just a year ago. Mat, the other Pole was according to them both even stronger in training, but apparently did not manage to handle the competition stress and the travel fatigue too well. Also Michal did not quite look to be satisfied with his performance
The most funny was that Michal started to fight with the judges at the ceremony, because he did not want to accept the medal for the third place in DYN, telling that he did not deserve it because he did it without fins
We had to push him onto the podium.Martin Petrisko won all three disciplines, and also the combination. At girls, the winners were little bit more mixed. You can see most of the results in the Twitter column at APNEA.cz. The official results are unfortunately not yet all on the website of the organizer, and since Martin Zajac had to leave to Croatia almost immediately after the competition, I am not sure if someone else from his team will remember to upload the results.
Myself, I finished 4th in DNF with 125m (thank to the miracle swim cap I have from the Kiwis), and I believe I qualified for the WC, which was my reason for coming to the competition, so I am very happy. In STA I chickened out, not being really motivated, and at DYN I just tested my new bi-fins (the Sporasub Revolution fins with blades fixed on shoes). I did very easy 102m, and surfaced more or less because I was not quite happy with my technique, and because I slightly collided with the safety at the 100m turn. However I do not blame him, because I could easily continue if I really wanted. So the result of the test was not that bad for the fins, but I will need to train with them much more to adjust my technique to them.
EDIT: As I wrote already in the thread about the NZ swim cap, I was rather surprised by the number of blackouts and bad sambas - especially the first day in DNF, it was really considerable: I see 6 BO's in the result list for 33 competitors, and several more DQ's, where some of them were likely caused by a BO or heavy samba too. Perhaps long travel, or the late hour took the toll at some people.
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