Fintastic LMBS student nets gold
8th April 2009
You might think that it sounds like something out of James Bond, but
finswimming is in fact one of the toughest underwater swimming
disciplines on the sport circuit, and London Met has been harbouring
its very own finswimming gold- medallist.
Second year BA Sports Management student Andrey Burakov has recently returned from the Finswimming World Cup in
Aix-en-Provence, France, where he won two gold and one silver medals.
Andrey has been competing in the sport since the age of 12 and has
achieved considerable international success. He holds World Junior
records over three distances and in 2005 was a member of the Russian
4x100m relay team that set the current World Record. He is also a
three-time World Champion (2004, 2006 and 2007) and European Champion
(2005).
Finswimming is not currently an Olympic sport, but is officially
recognised by the International Olympic Committee. It features in the
World Games, an international multisport event held every four years
for sports that are not part of the Olympic programme. Although not
well-known in Britain, the World Games are a major international event
involving over 4500 competitors in 31 sports.
In
July, Andrey will be traveling to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as part of the
Russian squad for this year’s Games and will be aiming to defend the
two gold medals that he won at the 2005 Games in Duisburg, Germany.
Away from the pool Andrey is using the knowledge he has gained from
his studies in the Sports Management programme to help to promote and
publicise the sport. He is one of the co-founders of the ‘World
Swimming Speed Record’ challenge, and has gained the support of the
Guinness Book of Records in supporting this initiative.
Details of this event, along with more information on the sport of finswimming, can be found here.