Dear freediving friends,
Martin Stepanek of the Czech Republic recently achieved a performance of 83 meters in Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) during his world record event in Dahab, Egypt. The record dive was judged to be valid by the judges on site. The AIDA board was asked to review the dive. Upon review of the events connected to the dive the AIDA Board has made the following comments and conclusions.
Martin’s record dive is valid. He is the new world record holder. The regulations call for on site judgment being made for world records by the judges at the site. In addition, if an error is made in that judgment, the benefit of the doubt goes to the athlete when an error is not related to the validity of the athlete’s performance. In this case, the judges on site judged the performance as valid. Martin’s performance was not flawed; he made the depth and returned. It is the board’s decision to respect the on site judgment of the judges and give the benefit of the doubt to the athlete.
Protests are available for world records even after a decision has been made by the on site judges, just as they are available during a competition. The AIDA Board functions in this role for world records. If a protest of the Board’s decision is desired, that protest should be addressed to the AIDA Disciplinary Committee at the following E-mail address. Discipline_AIDA @ yahoogroups.com This option still remains in this case.
This decision was not an easy decision. The AIDA Board will make changes in an attempt to never have a situation such as this occur again. The Board will be working on documents to attempt to eliminate any mixed messages between documents that exist currently.
The issues in this case should in no way be thought to reflect poorly on the validity of Martin’s performance or his record.
All non-sled depth disciplines require the use of a tag. Both world record and competition performances require the athlete to recover a tag. This regulation remains in place and will continue to be respected.
AIDA Executive Board
2007-08-13
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