Dent Breaks USA Women's Freediving Record at Australian National Championships

WAHROONGA, Australia - May 29, 2016 - PRLog -- Jackie Dent, an American athlete living and training in Perth, Australia, broke the USA Women's National Freediving Record in the discipline of Dynamic No Fins (DNF) with a swim of 142 meters / 466 feet on a single breath. Jackie added fourteen meters / fifty-six feet to the existing record set one year ago by Claire Paris, a university professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School Department of Ocean Sciences. Jackie's performance took place May 7 during the Australian Pool Freediving National Championships in Wahroonga, NSW, Australia.

Jackie's performance took three minutes and ten seconds. She was competing along with thirty of the regions top freedivers as the sole US athlete at the Knox Aquatic Centre May 6-8. The Australian Freediving Association hosted the event with Sydney Freedivers.

Jackie is a freediving and yoga instructor that lives and trains in Perth, Australia. She trains with her coach and partner Dave Gill, who was with her during the competition. She trains in a pool near her house twice a week. If she's not playing in the ocean, you can find her practicing her DNF technique in the pool and desperately trying to grow gills.

Jackie said, "I felt confident and ready for this dive, despite my stomach doing continual backflips. The atmosphere around the pool was buzzing and the water was cold so I was having a little trouble getting in the zone. As soon as my head submerged, my nerves disappeared and I was in my own little world.

I felt much more streamlined than normal, I was really enjoying my glides. I was told later that it looked as if I was waiting until I was completely still before I took a kick or a pull. I was just enjoying the sensation of the journey."

Dynamic No Fins (DNF) is performed by swimming without fins in a pool with the athlete holding their breath swimming as far as they can using a modified breaststroke technique.  Distance is measured with the use of a metered tape measure.

USA Freediving is a non-profit association founded on a democratic representation of freediving within the United States and internationally. Founded in 2003, US Freediving brought together a diverse group of 21 founding members, all interested in the development and growth of freediving. In just six months, this highly dedicated group was able to create an association recognized as the voice of freediving in the United States by the international community. The association has grown to over one hundred members with continued growth expected. http://www.usafreediving.com