Day four of competition is now over. We have had two more
days of heats, this time the Dynamic (with fins) event. Again 23 men and women
will proceed to the finals, leaving about 10-15 of each without a spot. A good
clean dive is almost a sure entry ticket to the finals with just a few of the
newer divers or those who made mistakes missing out, but many pleasantly
surprising themselves with a place.
Many of the competition issues have now been sorted.
Announcements are in a mix of Italian and English, the start buzzer has thankfully
been discarded, there are a couple of start lists available to the people in
the stands, we no longer have to remain in the cage after check in (however it
does provide quite a good view of the divers and a place for people to lie down
should they choose to) and the countdown is clearer and correct. In addition,
they have started to spell my name right, however people are still a bit scared
of using Nevatt (rather than McPhee).
Yesterday I coached Chris through a rather tough 165m
dynamic. He is starting to feel a bit tired from all his travelling and recent
lack of pool training. But the dive was clean and he managed 20th
qualifier for the finals.
I also coached Romain through his dynamic. He did not
bring his monofin and choose to go without fins. He did a nice 173m dive but
received a red card for not wearing fins. We protested as there is no rule
requiring the use of fins for dynamic but the judges did not budge, despite the
ambiguity in the current rules and the fact that the benefit of the doubt must
go to the athlete. In addition there is no advantage to not wear fins in this
event. They felt it was not in keeping with the spirit of the rules and the
competition. Chris tried to protest the decision a second time to no avail.
Expect some changes to the wording of these rules in the near future.
I was proud of my students’ performances once again and
am pleased to be competing with them in the finals.
Today I did a nice 165m dynamic dive. It was a very pleasant
dive again and another nice introduction to the pool. My start was terrible, I
kind of got stuck somewhere on the edge of the platform pushing away from the
wall, but I always take the first two or three kicks slowly anyway to sort
myself out and set the tone for the rest of the dive, so it was fine really. My
new technique is finally becoming natural and feels so much more comfortable.
My new kick has a much smaller amplitude but I’m still kicking about the same
number of times as previously. I have yet to time it but believe the dive was
about 3 minutes. I have recently slowed down to a more leisurely and comfortable
pace, my dives take longer but they tend to be less kicks and the distances
covered are about the same, plus I am much more relaxed and sleepy throughout.
The first length was 10 kicks, which I’m happy with, and I can’t remember after
that. I only remember that one because I thought I’d suddenly better pay
attention and the T was already underneath me.
A common problem seems to be that people are becoming
more buoyant, myself included. When I arrived in France I kept sinking as I’m
weighted for a very shallow pool and I tend to lose a little of my lung
capacity while travelling. Now I have to swim right at the bottom as I seem to
be very buoyant. I am able to do at least 5 more packs than usual, plus we are
eating two four-course meals every day, which is likely to be the main problem.
I was getting a bit too skinny before I left home anyway…
My poor old monofin is starting to delaminate after the
travel and years of abuse, so we have a date with SuperGlue tomorrow. It’s
almost time to consider a replacement/upgrade. I’ll have to try to sell a few
more Orca suits to try to pay for it though.
Fellow Kiwis Guy and William also made the Dynamic
finals, so thus far we have all qualified for all events entered. Guy did not
participate in Dynamic without fins.
The girls’ dynamic performances are pretty high so the
finals should be quite exciting and we shouldn’t count anyone out. I believe
there are probably between 3 and 6 men with their eyes on the world record.
Possibly 3 guys are realistically capable and another 3 that might not be too
far off, so that should be pretty exciting too. Natalia is not here due to
illness in the family so it will be interesting to see if any of her records
are advanced on. Make sure you tune in to the live stream of the finals at
www.europeevolution cup.com or www.evolutiontv.com.
Tomorrow is a rest day and there is a trip to Venice
organised. I’ll be completing the judge’s course and trying to avoid the great pleasure
of strolling the streets of Venice. I still haven’t made it to the beach here
and it’s only 5 minutes away! Static heats will be Wednesday evening in the 25m
pool. This pool is very hot – about 29 degrees in water but the air surrounding
it is a bit like a sauna so it could be interesting. I only have my Orca suit
with me anyway, but I know others are intending to wear 5mm suits. Maybe we’ll
see repeats of Timmo’s pants removal trick during static apnea. Hopefully the
organisers will open the windows and get some ventilation going through the
space. The depth is pretty nice at the shallow end (1.2m) but a bit too deep
for me at the deep end (about 1.5m) and the pool edge is again level with the
surface of the water, which should be nice.
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