New US Men’s Freediving National Record Opens the 2011 World Championships.

Sept. 19, 2011 - PRLog -- US Freediving is pleased to announce that Robert King set a new men’s national record in the freediving discipline of Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) to a depth of 70 meters / 230 feet during the opening of the 2011 AIDA Individual Depth Freediving World Championships taking place in Kalamata, Greece.

Rob’s dive took two minutes and fifty-two seconds to complete.  He broke his own record of 68 M that he set only days before in the 2011 Mediterranean Cup.  Rob has spent a lot of time in Greece preparing for this World Championship event arriving week prior to the competition.

Rob has been dominating US Freediving for the last few years.  Recently, new athletes coming into the sport have challenged him.  Rob welcomes the competition.  He goes on to say, “Most of all, I’m pleased to bring home a 6th place finish for US Freediving in Constant No Fins.  There were a number of impressive performances today, among them Michal Risian (Czech Republic) diving to 84m to break Martin Stepanek’s former national CNF record of 80m, and Morgan Bourc’is diving to 80m to take France’s CNF record from Guillaume Nery (who looked proud to see his friend set the new record).”
Rob continues, “I’d like to dedicate this record to my father Fred King, who was an avid breath hold diver and SCUBA diver (and from whom I got any innate diving abilities).  I'd like again to thank William Winram for his coaching and support, and Grant Graves for his continuing contribution to US Freediving.  Finally, kudos to Stavros Kastrinakis, Freediving Club Greece and the City of Kalamata for organizing a well run competition, with over 160 athletes (the most ever).”

CNF is one of the most difficult of competitive freediving disciplines, as it requires the athlete to swim to depth and back under their own power with no swimming aids while holding their breath.  The athlete may only use arm and leg strokes to perform.  The technique is a modified breaststroke style.

This year’s competition features over one hundred and fifty male and female athletes from thirty-nine nations competing in all three freediving depth disciplines that AIDA sanctions in competition.  This event is the biggest world championship in AIDA’s history.  The first day of competition has seen fourteen new national records; one of the biggest results of any world championship.  Carla Sue-Hanson is also competing for the US.

US Freediving is a nonprofit association founded on the democratic representation of freediving within the United States and internationally.  Founded in 2003, US Freediving consists of an active membership dedicated to furthering freediving in the United States and abroad. For more information about the US Freediving, the U.S. National Freediving Team, and membership please visit www.usfreediving.org.

The International Association for the Development of Freediving, AIDA, is the international sanctioning body for freediving, individual and team competition, and freediving world record attempts.  For more information about AIDA please visit http://www.aidainternational.org.