Wandsworth freediver Sara Campbell has shattered the world record for diving 96 metres (314ft) below the surface of the ocean on a single breath.

Sara - nicknamed the Mighty Mouse because of her petite 4ft 11ins frame - spent three minutes and 36 seconds under the water in the Vertical Blue competition in the Bahamas on Thursday, pushing the boundaries of human endurance to new levels.

The depth she dived to was the equivalent of the height of Big Ben’s clock tower. Sara plunged the first 60 metres in 43 seconds before gliding to the plate where she spent six seconds finding a tag.

The 37-year-old emerged from the Atlantic with a light head and a new “constant weight” women’s world record - the most sought-after record because the diver must use only a monofin and their own power.

Sara said: “This was by far the toughest World Record I've earned. The emotional journey to 96m and back was just a formality, compared to the emotional journey of losing my mum last year, and struggling to dive in the most challenging conditions I've ever experienced here.

“I have completed only 17 training dives since I became World Champion in November 2007. I'm delighted to be back.”

Sara Campbell shocked the diving community by setting three freediving world records within 48 hours after only nine months of competition.

In “incredible” year in 2007 saw Sara claim three World Records and become the world champion of breathhold diving.

However she was forced take a break from the death-defying extreme sport after her mother’s death last summer.

In an exclusive interview with the Wandsworth Guardian last month, Sara said: “It’s impossible to train without 100 percent mental focus and last year that just wasn’t possible.

“I had to sit by and watch as my world records were taken from me, but I am determined to be the first woman to dive to sub-100m in Constant Weight.”

Sara’s bid to become the first woman to reach to reach 100m in the constant weight discipline will take place next week.

Sara - also dubbed “half-woman, half-fish” - is the smallest freediver on the circuit and is something of a physiological phenomenon because her lungs are about 22 per cent larger than average, baffling doctors who have been trying to understand her unique talent.

She was teaching yoga in Dahab, on the Red Sea in Egypt, when a student suggested she try freediving because her breathing capacity might make her good at it.

Freedivers use a “mammalian dive reflex” which sustains the body underwater by helping divers withstand deep water pressures.

Like other freedivers, Sara practices special breathing exercises before she plunges underwater which lowers her heart rate to reduce the amount of oxygen needed by the body.

There are six disciplines in freediving: three in the pool and three in the "deep".

Static involves athletes holding their breath in a pool without moving for as long as possible.

For Dynamic, divers wear a monofin and swim as many lengths of a pool as possible underwater on one breath. Dynamic No Fins also involves swimming lengths of a pool, but the athlete use a modified form of breaststroke.

The "deep" disciplines are Constant Weight where athletes use a monofin to swim vertically down and up, following a rope.

Constant Weight No Fins involves swimming breaststroke vertically downwards until your lungs become so compressed, the body becomes heavier than water and begins to sink. Free Immersions is the only discipline in which you can hold on to the rope to pull yourself down and then up.

The extreme sport of freediving was made famous by French director Luc Besson in the film, Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue), released in 1988.


Watch our reporter diving with Sara Campbell