Through the eyes of our Austrian friend, as it happened
Mad, Mader, Madchester...
Normally you would start the report of a competition with the meeting of the athletes. Not so today where even the car ride to the venue proved to provide all sorts of climaxes of Bene. For the steamy details I will refer you to either her or Steve.
When arriving at the venue we were greated by a lot of familiar faces from the liverpool competition. While everybody was signing in, I was talking with a few people and the general consesus was that the main motivation to be here is the feeling for when it is over. And yes if somebody detects a hint of masochism in freedivers he is definitely not wrong.
At 12 o'clock the old ladys were chased out of the pool by alien looking Georgina in her smurf-blue wetsuit. As usual the poolside was immediately littered with people doing yoga, listening to music or simply sleeping. Duncan, our medicin man of the day has already proclaimed that he is properly lazy and just wants to sit there and do nothing. Let's hope his wish will be granted.
And I have good news, in this new episodes Kenny is alive again. We'll see for how long, but before you have to read any more of my rambling I will give you some details of the competition today.
We will have two lanes, one for static and one for dynamics with and without fins. Static coach is Mandy, closely observed by her little son during his 9 month static. And walking on the poolside on the other side is Gary. The paparazzo in the water are Kenny, Martin and Daan so we sure should have some great pictures to add to this report.
The first ones to get ready are Smurfette Georgina Miller in the statics lane and John Moorcroft in the dynamics lane starting for another big no-fins attempt. At the liverpool competition he failed the surface protocol so we are all anxious to see whether he can perform a clean dive today. And indeed he surfaces after 154 meters and delivers a perfect protocol, a great start to this competition. In the meantime Daan is whispering sweet nothings into Georginas ear. And after 6:15 she surfaces, she manages the protocol just in time and gets a white card being just 5 seconds away from her PB and so the UK record.
Normally you would start the report of a competition with the meeting of the athletes. Not so today where even the car ride to the venue proved to provide all sorts of climaxes of Bene. For the steamy details I will refer you to either her or Steve.
When arriving at the venue we were greated by a lot of familiar faces from the liverpool competition. While everybody was signing in, I was talking with a few people and the general consesus was that the main motivation to be here is the feeling for when it is over. And yes if somebody detects a hint of masochism in freedivers he is definitely not wrong.
At 12 o'clock the old ladys were chased out of the pool by alien looking Georgina in her smurf-blue wetsuit. As usual the poolside was immediately littered with people doing yoga, listening to music or simply sleeping. Duncan, our medicin man of the day has already proclaimed that he is properly lazy and just wants to sit there and do nothing. Let's hope his wish will be granted.
And I have good news, in this new episodes Kenny is alive again. We'll see for how long, but before you have to read any more of my rambling I will give you some details of the competition today.
We will have two lanes, one for static and one for dynamics with and without fins. Static coach is Mandy, closely observed by her little son during his 9 month static. And walking on the poolside on the other side is Gary. The paparazzo in the water are Kenny, Martin and Daan so we sure should have some great pictures to add to this report.
The first ones to get ready are Smurfette Georgina Miller in the statics lane and John Moorcroft in the dynamics lane starting for another big no-fins attempt. At the liverpool competition he failed the surface protocol so we are all anxious to see whether he can perform a clean dive today. And indeed he surfaces after 154 meters and delivers a perfect protocol, a great start to this competition. In the meantime Daan is whispering sweet nothings into Georginas ear. And after 6:15 she surfaces, she manages the protocol just in time and gets a white card being just 5 seconds away from her PB and so the UK record.
Next in the dynamics lane we have Bart Lubecki so we are expecting another great no-fins dive. In the meantime Catherine is getting ready for hers in a purple blanket with sleeves, cozy factor 10/10. Bart surfaces after 119 meters and gets a well deserved white card.
Out of the cozy blanket and into statics lane is Catherine Luke at the opposite side Matt Ruttimann. Even though Matt is swimming horizontally he has to fight the clock once he comes up. Because in Liverpool he was just a tad to slow with the protocol so fingers crossed this does not happen again. And both of them are smiling. 4:22 for Catherine after a surface protocol where you could think she was stoned and Matt surfaced after 64 meters not quite happy with the distance but better safe then sorry.
In the meantime Lars Isaksen got shipped into the competition zone for statics by his coach Mike. Since I have drunk 5 beers yesterday he needs to do at least 5 minutes today. Since we have only a 25 meter pool today everybody seems to be doing no-fins so yet another DNF attempt from Rebecca Coales. And just to prove the point Lars finishes with a white card after 5:01. Next time I'm going to drink 6 pints. Rebecca also shows a perfect performance with 91 meters.
Ladys only in the next round. We have Masa Sorn in the no-fins lane and Beci Ryan in the statics one. Masa does a nice 97 meter dive and shows a clean protocol. Beci stops the fight with her mind after 4:05 and also gets a white card. So that was it with the statics.
On the no-fins side the second-last before the break is Edin Begic in a no-fins attempt. He has been working extensively on his technique so I expect a great performance.
And the last one now is Julie Filain again doing no-fins. She finishes cleanly after 57 meters she is smiling and urging me to perform as well. I have to say it is tempting to go into the water but since I am the computer slave and computers don't work well under water I'm going to have to leave the lube in the bag.
And after a short session of data entry we have the first DYN swim of the day. Let's hope that the adrenaline of the car ride has worn down from Benedicte Philippon. She surfaces cleanly after 82 meters. Not quite happy with that but at least we know who to blame.
Another short break and then we move on to Catherine Luke who is the first of three who will compete in two disciplines and as I write this the lube is out and applied to her feet to make them fit into her monofin. I wonder how many feet fetishists we have around here, they sure would have a blast here. Still a solid 100 and new PB for her and the only shadow that is cast on her smile is due to one breach which got her a yellow card.
Next up is Adam Drzazga going for a DYN attempt with his mono. He surfaces clean after 126 meter dive.
Last of the group of three is Georgina Miller now no longer in her smurf suit but still determined to show us a great no-fins dive. For the fashionistas it is black with light-blue stripes and cap. She turns at 100 meter and she ends up at 104 and gets a white card.
Last in the lane is William Mealyea who has the honour of closing this competition. While he is preparing Lars launches an attack with water on my computers. But the data is safe and his static remains at 5:01. And he closes the day with a clean 75 meter no-fins swim. Well done everybody. Now it is up to me to enter the data and determine the winner of todays Madchester competition.
Out of the cozy blanket and into statics lane is Catherine Luke at the opposite side Matt Ruttimann. Even though Matt is swimming horizontally he has to fight the clock once he comes up. Because in Liverpool he was just a tad to slow with the protocol so fingers crossed this does not happen again. And both of them are smiling. 4:22 for Catherine after a surface protocol where you could think she was stoned and Matt surfaced after 64 meters not quite happy with the distance but better safe then sorry.
In the meantime Lars Isaksen got shipped into the competition zone for statics by his coach Mike. Since I have drunk 5 beers yesterday he needs to do at least 5 minutes today. Since we have only a 25 meter pool today everybody seems to be doing no-fins so yet another DNF attempt from Rebecca Coales. And just to prove the point Lars finishes with a white card after 5:01. Next time I'm going to drink 6 pints. Rebecca also shows a perfect performance with 91 meters.
Ladys only in the next round. We have Masa Sorn in the no-fins lane and Beci Ryan in the statics one. Masa does a nice 97 meter dive and shows a clean protocol. Beci stops the fight with her mind after 4:05 and also gets a white card. So that was it with the statics.
On the no-fins side the second-last before the break is Edin Begic in a no-fins attempt. He has been working extensively on his technique so I expect a great performance.
And the last one now is Julie Filain again doing no-fins. She finishes cleanly after 57 meters she is smiling and urging me to perform as well. I have to say it is tempting to go into the water but since I am the computer slave and computers don't work well under water I'm going to have to leave the lube in the bag.
And after a short session of data entry we have the first DYN swim of the day. Let's hope that the adrenaline of the car ride has worn down from Benedicte Philippon. She surfaces cleanly after 82 meters. Not quite happy with that but at least we know who to blame.
Another short break and then we move on to Catherine Luke who is the first of three who will compete in two disciplines and as I write this the lube is out and applied to her feet to make them fit into her monofin. I wonder how many feet fetishists we have around here, they sure would have a blast here. Still a solid 100 and new PB for her and the only shadow that is cast on her smile is due to one breach which got her a yellow card.
Next up is Adam Drzazga going for a DYN attempt with his mono. He surfaces clean after 126 meter dive.
Last of the group of three is Georgina Miller now no longer in her smurf suit but still determined to show us a great no-fins dive. For the fashionistas it is black with light-blue stripes and cap. She turns at 100 meter and she ends up at 104 and gets a white card.
Last in the lane is William Mealyea who has the honour of closing this competition. While he is preparing Lars launches an attack with water on my computers. But the data is safe and his static remains at 5:01. And he closes the day with a clean 75 meter no-fins swim. Well done everybody. Now it is up to me to enter the data and determine the winner of todays Madchester competition.
