Wellington Winter Champs, NZ

[KatFish]

This weekend marks the start of the Wellington Winter Champs in New Zealand.

There will be four days of competition in the pool and Grant is coming over to judge so it will be world record and world ranking status.

The first three sessions will be in a 25m pool, and the fourth in a 50m pool.

We don't have a lot of competitors but are expecting some high quality performances from them with 5 people attempting national or world records:

Dave Mullins, NZ
Chris Marshall, NZ
Gavin Gray, NZ
Phil Clayton, Britain
Walter Steyn, Australia

Kathryn McPhee, NZ
Ruth Griffin, Britain
Maria Hovden, Norway

 

[chrismar]

Does that mean Walt is having a crack at an Aussie NR?

Maybe I should've dug up my Saffer passport to increase my chances...

 

[GirlOfWater]

Good luck to all the athletes, but especially Maria (the second norwegian girl in freediving history...). Go Norway!

I hope you all have some fun and we'll wait in excitement for the results.

cheers,
Elisabeth

PS: Kathryn, I know you can beat a certain russian woman. Will have my fingers crossed

 

[KatFish]

Results from today and the draw for tomorrow are now up at WWC2008 | Lazy Seals Freediving Club

Fantastic dives today.

1 World record:
Kathryn McPhee 151m DNF

2 national records:
Walter Steyn 165m DNF
Phil Clayton 132m DNF

Plus well done to Maria who did a 4:38 static at her first competition and Ruth who very narrowly missed a new UK record with her 125m dynamic in miniscule fins (penalty in pulling up on the wall).

We're hoping for some more great results tomorrow.

 

[H.Balázs]

Hi Kathryn,

Wow, Congratulation!!! Really nice results. You beat the 'unbeatable' Natalia first since a long time. I hope you will hit the 200 as well with the fin

What happened with Chris?

Regards,
Balázs

 

[KatFish]

Chris had a wedding to go to today but will be there for the rest of the competition.

 

[KatFish]

Sunday's results are now up at:
Competition day 2 | Lazy Seals Freediving Club

The star of the show today was Walter Steyn who set a new Auzzie record with a 206m dynamic!

 

[H.Balázs]

Well done Khatryn and all the others! I hope we will see more nice results and performances under the rest of the comp.

Balázs

 

[island_sands]

Congratulations Kathryn!!! Fantastic news, i saw your update on facebook last week about a new PB but was afraid to ask..... know we all know your secret Fabulous work, hope to see more results coming from you soon.

 

[Goran Colak]

Awesome Kathryn!!!

 

[Phil C]

Well done Dave.

Proving once again that, when you are ready to, you can show us how it's done.

Phil

 

[KatFish]

Results are up on the Lazy Seal website. Only two divers today:
Chris Marshall toughed it out through a 5'04" STA.
Dave Mullins did a 213m DNF to equal the world record.

 

[GirlOfWater]

Big congratulations to Kathryn! Wonderful diving. Get the nerves off your back, you've done great and proven to us all you're world record holder. I wish you all the best for the rest of the competition and that you'll knock yourself out on the party afterwards

Congratulations also to Dave, Maria and all the others. I really wish I could be there.

Have fun!

Cheers,
Elisabeth

 

[H.Balázs]

Results are up on the Lazy Seal website. Only two divers today:
Chris Marshall toughed it out through a 5'04" STA.
Dave Mullins did a 213m DNF to equal the world record.

Woooow, this is amazing Dave!!! Good luck Chris for tomorrow, 200 would be realy nice number, just stay relaxed as possible! Well done!

Balázs

 

[KatFish]

Results are up on the LSFC website for today's comp. We moved to the 50m pool for one session and had four divers doing dynamics with fins:

Kathryn 179m (NZ record)
Walter 200m with his new fin that arrived in the post this morning
Phil 158m
Chris 178m (who once again was gutted to be beaten by a girl!)

Tomorrow is the last day with Dave having a go at extending his DYN WR and Kathryn having another go at the DNF WR.

 

[chrismar]

She's just not nice, is she?

The swim wasn't great, but at least I didn't BO this time.

 

[e.m.p!]

Uuuuhmmm, guys I'm gutted I couldn't join you (at least as a spectator). Anyway, congrats from the little German fella, hope to join you again soon (only 1 week left, yay!). Great work you are a real inspiration... and keep up the good work!
See you back at Freyberg !

 

[KatFish]

The final session of the Wellington Winter Champs was held last night (after work for most of us).

Walter couldn't wipe the big grin off his face after his 175m DNF setting his third Auzzie national record of the competition.

Maria did an easy 4:20 static - the biggest struggle seemed to be getting her feet onto the bottom of the pool at the end in her super buoyant wetsuit.

Dave came up at 150m on his DYN.

Chris couldn't get his nose clip to clip and didn't manage to start his DNF.

I misplaced my golden rule of listening to my body not my head at around 125m and just took a final bash at the WR, with a mini BO at 155m that made me miss my goggles during the surface protocol and dip my mouth back under.

I'd like to thank the multitudes of officials for their help in running a very smooth easy competition, there were more officials than divers: Grant, Fran, Joy, Braedon, Walter, Guy, Jude, Gavin, Kerian and Tammy.

 

[KatFish]

Final results are now up: Final results | Lazy Seals Freediving Club

I'll try to put some videos of the record breaking dives up on YouTube this weekend. Here's my 151m DNF:

 

[BennyB]

Awesome work everyone, especially you Kathryn!

I get on the internet about once a week (in Serbia today, god knows where next) and there seems to be so much bloody news to catch up on!

Wal - seriously dude, awesome display of firepower with the new fin. Can't wait to see what you can do when you get used to it. And the no-fins... well that's not bad either ;-)


Greetings from sunny Serbia!

Cheerio,
Ben