Top effort puts freediver at No 2

Wanganui freediver Tania Rounthwaite is now ranked second in the world for 2012 in the discipline of dynamic without fins after she produced a personal-best effort at the Genesis Recreation Pool in Masterton last week.

Rounthwaite reached a distance of 133m for swimming underwater on a single breath and only one other female freediver on the planet has done better this year - Martinborough's Kathryn Nevatt recorded 163m at the national indoor championships in Porirua.

Nevatt's effort bettered the world record of 160m set by Russian Natalia Malchanova in 2009 but could not be recognised as such because an international A level judge was not part of the judging team on that occasion. Rather than a world record, it was labelled a world's best. As has been well documented, Nevatt made five attempts at Malchanova's mark at the Masterton competition but exceptional swims of 164m and 160m were ruled out when she was disqualified for rule breaches.