Ear infections, hopes and expectations

Since travelling to Okinawa, I had a small ear infection in my right ear. It hadn't given me any problems during the training, but after sitting around waiting for the CWT competition to happen, it decided to get worse to the point where it completely blocked me from leaving the surface. I kept trying to make it come around with ear drops etc, but I was unable to start in the competition. This left me in a sad state for the rest of the championships, as I had really wanted to do my 60m dive.

Static training (where I did 6'08!) had left me with slightly too big expectations, and I came up too early at 4'49 in yesterday's static competition. The guys did great though, with Bjarte setting a new national record for Norway with 6'31. Well done!

Today I played around in the nice 50m outside pool, testing some new monofins and getting my body going. I feel more positive again and hope to come up with a smile from my dynamic dive tomorrow. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

White cards and delays

Bjarte made his dive today, getting a white card for the 75m and securing the first points for Norway. Well done! Apparently, the current was none excisting today, but instead the waves had picked up pretty good. The weather forecast has predicted strong wind tomorrow aswell, so the constant weight dives have been postponed. Hopefully we will get to dive on Monday 5th instead.

Instead of going diving, many of the athletes are taking an excursion to the aquarium (me included) to watch the whale sharks and many other creatures there.



While waiting for the deep dives, I've been doing statics to get some training. It seems to be going very well and my body is doing what it's supposed to! I did an easy 5'45 in the morning, and hope this will do some good for the static competition later.

Constant weight announcements

The official training is over and the announcements for constant weigth is out. Half of the athletes will compete tomorrow, on Saturday, and the rest on Sunday. The Norwegian team starts as follows:

3/7 - Bjarte Nygard, AP (announced performance): 75m, OT (official top): 11.32
4/7 - Steinar Schjager, AP: 70m, OT: 12:09
4/7 - Elisabeth Kristoffersen, AP: 60m, OT: 12:37

The weather was a little lighter today out on the boat, but the current is strong and the sea is a bit choppy. Scenery was beautiful though.

I am very happy to have a rest day before my deep dive, as I was a little sea sick and tired today at the training. But I had a nice 52 m dive yesterday, so I feel confident going for 60 for the competition.

The 2010 World Championship has started!

On Wednesday 30th June, all athletes, coaches and staff was ready to kick off the 2010 AIDA Team World Championship. At the opening ceremony, the teams were represented and welcomed to the first World Championship taking place in Asia (!). Although we are fewer teams than the last years, the competition will be fierce among top teams like Japan, Denmark and France. Our Norwegian team also looks strong and we are ready to give the others a real fight.

We are all staying at the Tokyo Dai-ichi Hotel in Okinawa, which (just to mention) has a 5 m deep pool where we freedivers are playing around. I have started my training in the pool with some statics, and yesterday on the 1st of July we also did our first official CWT training. The weather was a little rough, but everybody on the german and norwegian team made their dives :)

Today we are off for some more deep training, and the first competition day is tomorrow where half of the athletes are competing in CWT. More updates and announcements will follow...