Freediving: Self-funded Elys Lai, 44, gains national records and confidence at World C'ship

SINGAPORE - Local freediver Elys Lai got her money's worth on her self-funded World Freediving Championships expedition when she set two national records at the June 20-24 competition in Burgas, Bulgaria.

In doing so, the customer service executive now owns all four national records in the pool disciplines.

The 44-year-old, who trains once or twice a week, told The Straits Times: "I feel very happy that my training has paid off. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, my training has been more confined to the pool.

"I hope to improve on all my results and technique, hit 200m in dynamic with fins during competition, and also do better in the open water disciplines, which requires a different kind of training for the body to adapt to the different conditions and pressure."

Lai claimed her first record in Bulgaria in the dynamic with bi-fins event on June 20 when she placed sixth with a distance of 180m to eclipse training buddy Patricia Ong's mark of 174m.

Three days later, she was 12th in the static apnoea event after holding her breath for 6min 4sec to overtake Lim Yee Hui's old record of 5:57.

In the other events, she was ninth in the dynamic with fins (181m) and 17th in the dynamic without fins (112m) categories. Her national records for these are 189m and 125m respectively.

Overall, she finished fourth with 309.3 points, behind Poland's Magdalena Solich-Talanda (340.5) and Julia Kozerska (326.7) and Sweden's Paula Johnsson (313.6).

The dynamic events typically require athletes to cover the longest distance possible in a pool on a single breath, while for static apnoea events, competitors need to hold their breath for as long as possible with their face down and respiratory tracts submerged.

Lai first picked up freediving from a course in Phuket when she turned 40 in February 2018. She has a habit of doing something unique on her birthdays, and had previously tried cliff-jumping and marathon-running.

This was after she had "lost confidence" in herself after a failed marriage in 2015.

Lai, who has a 17-year-old son, said: "I had a lot of self-doubt and kept worrying about failure. I wanted to change this and freediving gave me a very different feeling from other sports. I'm able to find the inner me and enjoy the calmness when I'm submerged underwater. I also learnt to trust myself more."

Thus began her freediving journey, as she trains for the dynamic disciplines with coach Fu Qingxiang at FreediveXQ, where she is also now an instructor. She also trains with Tom Way for static apnea.

Lai's breakthroughs came last year when she set national records in the three dynamic disciplines to earn herself a wild card for this year's world championships. However, she initially turned it down as she was not sure if she could be away from work to train and compete in her first world meet.

But after realising she could take leave from June 15 to 26, she took the plunge on the May 31 registration deadline, and dug into her savings to fork out $5,000 for the trip, which included flights, accommodation and competition fees, while Apnea Association of Singapore helped her with the administrative aspects.

She said: "After so long without competing overseas, I wasn't sure if I could perform well so I also didn't reach out to sponsors. But after this, I feel more confident and I hope to participate in more overseas competitions with the help of sponsors."