Mighty Mouse goes silver

Silver gong for champion British freediver

Sara Campbell, the British freediver and four-time world record holder dubbed ‘Mighty Mouse’, has won silver in the AIDA World Freediving Championships at Dean’s Blue Hole.

It was a return to the Bahamas spot where she set a new World Record in April – and pushed herself to the very limit, passing out at the end of a 100m dive.

“It was a really nice competition, Sara told WideWorld on her return. “I’d done a lot of training in Dahab before, I’m lucky to have deep water all year round there. I would have liked to get to 100 in Dahab – I did 92 twice there at the Blue Hole, but that’s as deep as the Blue Hole gets!

“It took me a few days to settle in once we got to the Bahamas – I made a decision there that I was guaranteed a silver there knowing what the field was, assuming Natalaya Molchanove was going to dive deeper and the next best diver to me not likely to come close. Psychologically, I had to keep the pressure on and it paid off.”

She suggests that her warm-up technique may have something to do with her comfort at these startling depths – or rather, her lack of a warm-up. Campbell now eschews warm-up dives to keep waste gases from building up in her system and interfering with her internal mechanisms.

Campbell is also now a spokesperson for the British Freediving Association, and is keen to see other Brits getting involved in this nascent sport. There are more opportunities to train at both Richmond and Crystal Palace this spring, and she plans to hold follow-up sessions in the Red Sea later next year. “I feel there’s a real momentum coming now,” she states.

For more information on freediving, see www.britishfreediving.org
To learn more about Sara, go to www.sarafreediver.com