Shark Freediving

This weekend was again time for the already famous Mad Cup in Maribor, Slovenia. As it seems this competition is getting better every year and this year a total of 43 competitors from 13 countries came by to show their performance. Organizer Sandi Bitenc from the organizing H2O Team made sure that the athletes only had to focus on their performance by setting down ‘one of the best organized competitions I ve ever attended’, as quoted by Peter Pedersen from Denmark.

The competition started on Friday with the discipline dynamic without fins. Sandi promised almost real time results on their website, so it would be fun to follow. On the end of the evening Stig Severinsen from Denmark did an fantastic 151 meters without fins, closely followed with a distance of 150 meters from William Winram (Canada) which is a national record. Mitja Stamfer from Slovenia also set a national record with a 139 meter swim. AIDA president Bill Stromberg (Sweden) put down a good 118 meters, also a national record, and proofed that even a busy president still has time to train. Sergia Serban from Romania did a 75 meters and also applied for a national record. The winner with the woman was Elisabeth Kristoffersen from Norway with a distance of 106 meters, not to long ago this would have been a world record, wasn’t it for Natalia Molchanova who crushed the record in 2005 by setting it to 131 meters.

Next morning it was time for static. Christian Maldame from France put down a 6:55 min breath hold with the men and with the woman it was once again Elisabeth Kristoffersen who did an beautiful 5:40. More national records were broken; with the men by Ales Seliskar from Slovenia with a time of 6:37 min and with the women is was Karla Fabrio from Croatia with a time of 5:15.

In the afternoon it was time for the dynamic with fins discipline. The top 3 with the men was dominated by Denmark, with a first place win of 205 meters by Peter Pedersen. “Contractions before 75m, lost my noseclip passing 35m, but kept feeling good, so when I felt that I had the energy to make the turn, I did…Nice one!”, as told by Peter. Again the winner with the women was Elisabeth with a fantastic distance of 154 meters.

Overall winners for the competition were Stig Severinsen with 245,9 points and Elisabeth Kristoffersen with 198 points. The complete result list can be found here.