The 11th edition of the Aronnax Apnea Cup 2018 race took place at the end of January at the swimming pool of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of Comenius University in Bratislava.

The freediving relay race is named after Professor Pierre Aronnax, a character from Jules Verne's novel — 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In 1866, there was mention of a sea monster of enormous size attacking ships. The French naturalist Professor Aronnax also took part in the expedition that set out to learn more about this creature. However, his presence aboard the submarine was not voluntary — he was a prisoner of Captain Nemo. The expedition was unsuccessful for a long time, until one night the crew spotted a glow of light coming from near the ship. The frigate attempted to pursue and harpoon the creature. But suddenly the creature turned and swam at tremendous speed toward the ship, colliding with it, and the crew fell into the sea...

What makes freediving races challenging? It is a relay with ten swimmers competing in anaerobic endurance. They swim underwater for 25 meters on a single breath, and the race lasts one hour. The swimmers change at the opposite end of the pool every 25 meters. Endurance lies in the ability to perform this activity for an extended period without reducing its effectiveness; at the same time, the body's ability to resist fatigue during that hour is put to the test.

The race starts in the usual way — with a starting acoustic signal. Athletes begin swimming from the water without a dive start. After pushing off, the swimmer-diver must submerge. They must not surface with the facial part of their head above the water. They may swim any distance that is a multiple of 25 meters, but at least the length of the pool (25 meters). When the arriving swimmer touches the pool wall with their hand, the next relay member may continue by pushing off from the wall.

The order or rotation of the swimmer-divers, as well as the length of the segments swum, is at the discretion of the coaches or the competitors themselves. Some teams put seven competitors at the start, who rotated throughout the entire hour; others chose a tactic where they alternated: five swimmers swam the first half hour and the other five the next thirty minutes. In some teams, five swimmers were on one side of the pool and five on the other, and they all swam the entire hour. The winning team was the one that managed to swim the longest distance in sixty minutes.

Competition was held in the categories: Amateurs, Masters, and Professionals Amateurs, Masters, and BiFIN Professionals could only use serial fins with a maximum length of 77 cm. The fastest and most demanding category, Professionals Mono, used special monofins used in competitive diving.

About the competitors In addition to several current Slovak representatives in fin swimming, the pool also hosted athletes who had previously been members of the national teams of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Canada. The Amphora team from Budapest was also represented. The swimmers were current or former competitors in orientation diving, fin swimming, freediving, competitive swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo, and underwater rugby.

The eleventh edition of the Aronnax Apnea Cup 2018, with nearly 300 participants (swimmers, coaches, team leaders, attendants, judges, technical crew, supporters), entered the annals of Slovak diving as the largest event to date. And since the vast majority of that number were youth under 20 years of age, it means freediving has a future ahead of it.

Results In the professional category with fins, the team KVŠ Oceán Bratislava won, swimming 7,350 m, which is 294 pool lengths. The swimmers covered one pool length in 12.24 seconds.

In the fastest category with monofins, the team KVŠ BARAKUDA ŠAĽA won, swimming 8,200 m, which is 328 pool lengths. The competitors covered one pool length in 10.97 seconds; they swam under the guidance of Štefan Miku, coach of the Slovak national team.

The youngest team was the Club of Sports Divers Neptún, which competed in the most demanding category with monofins. The youngest swimmer was 11 years old and the oldest was 16. They swam without a single premature surfacing and broke the 6 km barrier, swimming 6,025 m, which is 245 pool lengths. They covered one pool length in 14.93 seconds, for which the race organizer also awarded them.

Atmosphere The race stood out for its amazing atmosphere. Its excellent organization allowed new teams to line up for the start every hour for the next heat. The tension rose as the running order of teams changed; the standings were evaluated every 5 minutes and complemented by great music. Great credit for organizing and successfully running the race goes to the sports, technical, and expedition diving instructor PaeDr. Korim Robert from Aronnax, a graduate of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of Comenius University in Bratislava and a longtime competitor.

After the end of this year's eleventh edition of the race, team registration for 2019 has already begun.

More information can be found at www.aronnax.sk

Author: Mgr. Peter Senko The author is a fin swimming coach Photo: Ing. Martin Brilla, Dana Duchoslavová, Andrea Kiss