The British Freediving Association has announced a new UKrecord in the Men’s Dynamicdiscipline. On Saturday 23rd February 2008 at the 3rd German IndoorChampionship in Static and Dynamic Apnea held in Berlin, MartinMacnaughton completed aperformance of 178m. The new record beats theprevious record of 156m, which had been the oldest of all Britishrecords, set by Dave King in 2004. The discipline of Dynamic Apneainvolves the athlete travelling horizontally to cover the greatestdistance on a single breath.
Macnaughton lives and trainsin Copenhagen, and has only been freediving since Autumn 2007, which makeshim a relative novice. With this in mind Macnaughton’s dynamic dive is thehighest result for anyone in their debut AIDA competition, which makes it anachievement that has escaped all the current top freedivers. Mr. Macnaughton apparently also achieved his record with a heavy cold. He also achieved a 5 minute 32 second static breath hold,securing him 4th place in the competition overall.
The Berlin German Indoor Championship is part of the annual German Championship and is the 10th Berlin Master Cup. It attracts top athletes from throughout Europe to compete in Static and Dynamic.
Inrecent months British freediving has seen a resurgence, with nationalrecords for Dynamic and Dynamic No-Fins falling in the last month, andalso the meteroric rise of triple world record holder and 2007 ConstantWeight World Champion Sara Campbell.
