Oslo Ice Challenge was indeed what its name implies, a challenge. The water was around 0 degrees on the surface and the ice was more than 30 cm thick. The weather conditions were far from optimal though, with wind and snow. The air temperature was 2-3 degrees, giving some problems with water on the ice.
Despite all this, the world’s first freediving competition under ice was a great success with good dives and happy contestants. The competition ran smoothly thanks to a job well done by the organizers, judges, helpers and the athletes who volunteered to help out with safety diving.
The results were quite impressing, taking the conditions into account, with strong dives and safe dives. The athletes were diving twice on Saturday and once on Sunday in whatever discipline they choose, with CNF giving 1,35 points and CWT and FIM giving 1 point each. The maximum depth was set to 52m, which made the top four athletes chase depth in CNF to gain the most points.
The winner was current world record holder in CWT, Guillaume Néry, doing a 45m CNF dive. On second and third place were Christian Earnest and Christian Maldamé, both doing a 42m CNF dive and therefore going head to head in the Frozen Viking Static competition. Maldamé surfaced after 3’38 and Earnest won the duel with 4’02.
For a couple of the freedivers, the water got just a little too hot, and they chose to take off their wetsuit and go diving in only a pair of Speedos. The Oslo Ice Challenge proved that freediving does not have to be a sport restricted to warm, tropical waters, but can be carried out under real Nordic conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment