Fresh from winning the Australian Freediving Pool Nationals women’s title in Cairns, the 46-year-old joined eight other freedivers who last month set a Guinness world record — just awaiting ratification — for a 24-hour underwater relay.
The freedivers cumulatively swam 3918 laps of a 25.02m Sydney pool to notch up 98.028km — averaging 22.05 seconds per lap.
That smashed the prior record of 81km set by a team in Austria earlier this year.
Each swimmer undertook eight one-hour shifts, performing breaststroke for one length on one held breath.
Nevatt — one of only two women on the team and the only Kiwi — says her 1.40am to 2.40am shift was hardest as her body really wanted to sleep.
"But in general the hours passed by quickly and my body felt pretty good and strong with just a few aches and pains in places I’ve never really thought about before.
"I got into a rhythm of efficient and fast diving.
"The breath-holding part really was not a big issue as we were only swimming 25m at a time with a rest of approximately twice the dive time.
"It was more a matter of pacing myself at a sustainably high speed."
The divers raised $A10,500-plus ($NZ11,985) for Rainbow Club Australia — a charity providing swimming lessons for children with disabilities.
