13th February 2008: – Sara Campbell, the 35 year old Briton, whoshocked the world by setting three World Records within 48 hours just ninemonths after starting the extreme sport of freediving, will attempt to set twonational records in her first ever pool competition on 23rd Februaryin Berlin.
Sara, nicknamed‘Queen of the Deep’ after she smashed all the depth World Records in Octoberlast year, is now hoping to make her mark in the pool disciplines, that of purebreath-holding, and swimming lengths underwater.
The currentnational record for static breath-hold is five minutes 32, held by Liv Philip.The current national record for dynamic is 119 metres, held by Hannah Stacey.Sara is hoping to break both these records on her first ever attempt at poolcompetition.
Saraexplained: “I have been training pool disciplines for the past few weeks andfind it far harder than even my world record dive to 90 metres on just onebreath. It is extremely challenging to hold my breath this way, but I havemanaged well over five minutes now, so the national record is potentiallywithin my reach.”
The reasonSara finds pool diving so much harder is to do with the mammalian dive reflex;when the body is immersed in water, the pressure of the water sets in motion aseries of natural physiological responses that more or less switch off thebody’s urge to breathe, and enable longer breathholds. In the pool disciplines,either floating on the surface, or swimming at just one metre beneath thesurface, the element of water pressure on the body is removed, and thereforethe body retains a much stronger urge to breathe. Combine that with the factthat the next breath can be just one second away in the pool, as opposed to anon-negotiable two minute swim to the surface, and static and dynamic become apure psychological battle to resist our most basic impulse, to simply breathe.
Manypeople base compare deep results to pool potential – a four minute deep divecan be doubled to give an eight minute static, and Sara’s 90m dive – there andback – means she should easily be capable of a 180m dynamic, both of whichwould place her in the top three women in world.
Sara will be in the UK for media interviews from 1st – 9th March. She will be speaking at the London International Dive Show on 8th and 9th March at London’s Excel.
For more information, orto contact her, please visit www.sarafreediver.com, orcall +20 12 744 5646 until 16th February, or 07949 005944 after thatdate.
