DATELINE :- 6th March 2000

Pipin regains record

Pipin gives himself a big birthday present
On his 38th birthday, as if to remind the world that body and mind remain competitive despite approaching middle age, legendary Cuban free-diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras regained the No Limits Free-diving World Record with a dive to 162m off Cozumel in Mexico.
The dive beat the previous record, set by Italian Umberto Pelizzari only last October, by a substantial 12m. Pelizzari had himself extended the record by a large margin and it now seems that a previous unwritten agreement among free-divers that they would only chip away slowly at each other's achievements has been well and truly discarded.
The No Limits category is free-diving's deepest-diving discipline, in which competitors are dragged into the depths by a weighted sled and return ballistically to the surface by hanging on to an airbag set off when they have reached their underwater mark.
Pipin, in the 3min 12sec he spent under water, descended at a rapid 1.5 metres per second - and returned to the surface at a mighty 2mps.
The dive, which took place on 18 January, was officially recognised by four judges, two from France and two from Spain, for governing bodies IAFD and AIDA.
Two days previously, a dive by Pipin to 163m had been declared void after he lost consciousness near the surface and had to be tended by support divers.
Pipin is reported to maintain a desire to be the first free-diver to reach 200m.

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