4th Freediving World Record for Arnaud Jerald

07/2021

UPDATE: Arnaud Jerald signs a new world record at 117 meters deep

On Saturday, July 17, Arnaud Jerald broke his own world record in Long Island, Bahamas, during the Vertical Blue by descending to a depth of 117 meters. Four days after having reached - 116 meters in constant weight bi-palms, and beaten the world record (which was at - 115 m), Arnaud knew how to surpass himself once again and overcome the elements to enter the history of freediving.

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On Tuesday 13 July, Arnaud Jerald from Marseilles broke the third world record of his young career, in Long Island, Bahamas, during the Vertical Blue. At 11:49 am local time, he descended to a depth of 116 meters on two fins, 4 meters more than his previous record set last year in Greece at Kalamata. The free dive lasted 3 minutes 29 seconds in total.

The Vertical Blue, considered as the Wimbledon of freediving, gathers every year the best freedivers of the world. This competition takes place from July 13 to 23, each athlete can make up to 6 dives, in the discipline of his choice. This world record took place on the first day of the competition. Arnaud approached this dive in excellent physical and mental shape. Concentrated and relaxed, he descended to a depth of -116 meters, which he had already reached twice in training a few days before the competition.

Arnaud arrived in the Bahamas at the beginning of June, before all the other athletes, and took the time to adapt to this very special place, the Dean's Blue Hole, a natural blue hole of 202 meters deep, the ideal place for deep diving. He made no less than 15 training dives in the Bahamas.

"This dive was really extraordinary. I had a lot of fun training here in this magical place, the Deans Blue Hole, and today I felt like a state of grace during the whole dive. I was very focused. There are moments sometimes that are like suspended in time. Like every year I have a music that I listen to several times before diving to have it in my head under water. This year it's Within by Daft Punk. It accompanied me to the bottom.

I worked a lot this year to have even more margin on my performances, my training went to another level, and it pays, I have excellent sensations. I trained hard in weight training with my physical trainer Antoine Marmigère, and I swam a lot in the pool with Morgan Bourch'is. I take this opportunity to thank them, it was a pleasure to train with them. I am lucky to be able to train at the Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille, alongside Florent Manaudou and the cream of French swimming, and it is great to have this group energy, they pushed me to surpass myself. I am happy to participate in the evolution of my sport. Who knows how far we can go?"