Today, Canadian freediver William Winram announced and realized a clean 75-meter dive in the discipline of constant weight without fins (CNF), hence claiming the silver medal at the 4th AIDA Individual Freediving World Championships held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, from October 23 till November 3, 2007.
Last time William dove deep was at the First Annual Thermocline-Free Invitational, in Dahab, Egypt, where he broke the Pan-American record at 76 meters in CNF, on September 12 of this year.
Shortly after that, back in Switzerland, he resumed his pool training. Unfortunately for him, two days prior to flying back to Egypt, he developed a middle ear infection which proved to be persistent and had him patiently sit out and watch records fall at the Triple Depth Challenge in Dahab, held one week prior to the beginning of the World Championships.
Not knowing whether his ears would heal in time or not, William maintained his daily dry training and mental preparation while waiting for the antibiotics to take their course. Just days prior to the official competition, he still did not know if he could safely dive after having spent over seven weeks without the possibility of deep water training. On November 1, 2007, he decided to pass up the constant weight event as he felt he had not yet fully recovered.
Yesterday, as CNF announcements were due, William decided to pick a depth which he intuitively felt safe to achieve. Despite his lack of training at depth, he climbed onto the podium after a flawless dive. Former CNF world-record holder William Trubridge (New Zealand) had announced the same depth but experienced an unfortunate surface black out after he completed his dive. Current CNF world-record holder Herbert Nitsch from Austria dove to 77 meters therefore claiming the gold. Bronze goes to Russian champion Alexey Molchanov with 65 meters.
This silver medal nicely wraps up William Winram’s competitive year after he broke several national and Pan-American records, one of which won him bronze in the discipline of dynamic apnea at the Indoor Freediving World Championships in Maribor, Slovenia, early July 2007.
Photo by Jure Daic
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