Here's some underwater events you may have missed ...

Before the Australian summer Olympics, the Olympic flame has made its first ever journey underwater when it was taken to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The company's managing director Charles Tegner said designing the torch was a challenge - not only to produce a flare to burn underwater at such a depth, but to burn like the Olympic torch flame as well.
"It had to be clearly visible," he said. "Such flares don't normally exist."
The flare's chemical composition, pressed into a steel tube, produces sufficient oxygen and nitrogen to maintain a very hot flame.

The flare burns so fiercely at more than 2,000 degrees Celsius that this creates enough pressure to keep the water from entering the tube.

Underwater Olympics
An aquarium is staging an underwater Olympics to mark Chinese New Year. The event, at Underwater World in Qingdao city, will feature sports including fencing, shooting, cycling and gymnastics, reports Qingdao Morning Post.
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For the fencing contest, participants will fight while blanced on a steel cable with the one falling off first being declared the loser.

Underwater World says the games will last almost two weeks, till the end of the Chinese Spring Festival, around February 12.

One of the most popular fixtures so far has been the "World Cup" under the sea. Players must carry a heavy oxygen cylinder on their back, wear a thick diving suit and endure the high water pressure as they attempt to kick a football beneath the water.

During a recent match, two Chinese national team players were invited to play against Brazil. "It was harder than they thought," says an aquarium spokesperson, "especially with sharks and thousands of fish swimming around!" Nevertheless, China won 2-1. Call it home advantage.

Other "Sporting" events: The inventors of football, cricket, golf and more lately extreme ironing

 

and with Spring romance in the air, head off to Thailand for your Underwater Wedding ... (its 14th annual I might add)

Being located along the coast of the Andaman Sea, Trang is an origin of an amazingly well-endowed coral reef, where is the habitat of aquatic plants and marine creatures. During the Trang Underwater Wedding event, when no disturbing monsoon emerges, the province's splendidly scenic resources simultaneously show their natural beauty, especially the sweet blossoms of 'Sri-Trang' flowers, to warmly welcome tourists worldwide.