Sports
Tanya Sets New Freediving Records Cayman Benefits from publicity
Pride of the Cayman Islands, Tanya Streeter,daughter of local watersports pioneer, Jim Dailey and Sandra Dailey,continues to add marks to her career by setting two new FreedivingWorld Records in the French Caribbean island of Guadaloupe recently.
At 5:26p.m. on Sunday, 6 May, 6 2001 sheset her fifth Freediving World Record 2 miles off the coast ofPigeon, near Bouillante in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.Using only the strength of her arms and wearing 3mm 2-piece wetsuitand a nose-plug, Tanya pulled herself down a rope to a depth of70m/230ft in a time of 1 minute 16 seconds, grabbed the verificationtag and pulled herself back to the surface in a total roundtriptime of 2 minutes and 28 seconds.
With this dive she set a new world recordin the Salt Water Free Immersion Category and beat the previousrecord held by Deborah Andollo of Cuba for 6 years by an astounding10m/33ft. She also put herself within 3m/10ft of the current men'sworld record in the same discipline.
The dive was officiated by two representativesof Freediving's international governing body; AIDA (InternationalAssociation for the Development of Apnea) who verified that itwas carried out in strict accordance with the regulations.
A team of safety scuba divers was placedat 70m/230ft, 50m/164ft and 30m/98ft., and there were 2 safetyfreedivers who awaited Tanya at 25m/82ft at 10m/33ft.
Tanya was also the first athlete in thehistory of this growing sport to undergo a doping test for herperformance, in accordance with the International Olympic Committee'sstatutes.
Following this feat, Tanya set out to breakher own World Record of 67m/220ft in the Constant Weight category(with fins) requiring her to kick to her expected depth of 70m/230ft.She also pursued another challenge of holding her breath for over6 minutes in a swimming pool to break the Static Apnea World Recordof 6:02 mins. currently held by Karol Dal Toe.
And then, at 8:30a.m. on Friday, 11 May,Tanya proceeded to set her sixth Freediving World Record again,in the waters of Guadaloupe.
This time in the most respected and physicallychallenging discipline of Freediving, Constant Weight, she kickeddown to 70m/230ft, grabbed a tag and returned to the surface ina time of 2 minutes and 36 seconds, wearing a 2-piece 3mm wetsuit,1.5kg/3lbs of weight around her wrists, special fiberglass/carbonfibre combination longblade fins and a noseplug. With this diveshe set a new world record in the Salt Water Constant Weight Categoryand beat the previous record of 67m/220ft held by herself sinceSeptember 1998. Since 1998 two athletes have attempted withoutsuccess to break this record.
As with her earlier World Record dive, (tothe same depth using only the strength of her arms to pull downand back), this dive was officiated by two representatives ofFreediving's international governing body, AIDA (InternationalAssociation for the Development of Apnea) who verified that itwas carried out in strict accordance with the regulations. A teamof safety scuba divers was placed at 70m/230ft, 50m/164ft and30m/98ft, and there were two safety freedivers who awaited Tanyaat 25m/82ft at 10m/33ft.
Tanya had planned this particular dive twodays earlier, but inclement weather caused problems with the permanentmooring set up for the record attempts and forced a postponementwhile a new location was sought and established.
The delay in time meant she was unable tomake the planned attempt to break the Static Apnea World Record,currently 6 minutes and 2 seconds.
Now back in Cayman, she will continue totrain in this category and looks forward to the opportunitiesto attempt to break the record, while promoting the Cayman Islandswith the attendant publicity the country receives following eachof her conquests.