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Well, although you are right that the video is grainy, I can see quite clear that you touch the wall far before you start surfacing your head, and grabbing the edge also before your face is clear. In fact it is much more evident and longer than on the discussed video of Wolle, where he was penalized. I am still persuaded that the penalization is nonsense, and do not want to put your performance in doubts in any way - it was respectful regardless of the grabbing. However, I really think this rule should be abolished, because it apparently lets space for speculations and subjective judgments. Even if I am completely wrong, and you did not touch the wall and grabbed the edge when being underwater, a judge may be exactly as wrong as me - and that's the very problem.Trux - Youtube's a bit grainy so it's a bit harder to make out but my arms were nowhere near the side when I came up, and my head was completely out of the water when I grabbed the side. I surfaced near the wall so I could grab it for support straight away. If you look at the vid again you can see that my left hand is about 20cm away from the wall when my mouth is out, then I place my left hand on the pool edge, then my right and support my head on both hands. There's never any pulling while my airway is either below or above the water, and the only time my hand touched any surface was after the dive.
Benny, I do take your word for it, but I still see you touching the wall and grabbing the edge before clearing your face from water very clearly. And as I told, I admit I may be wrong. And I also explain that the subjective opinion, and the space for it the rule creates, is the very problem of it. The rule creates more space for subjective judgements and injustice, than it compensates for unequal conditions. And that's my point - I do not want to discuss or doubt your performence. I could not care less if you really grabbed the edge before or after. For me it is very valid regardless if I see well or not. What I am attacking is not you performance, but the rule that I consider very damaging the sport and allowing for manipulation of results and speculations.Trux, as I said earlier at no point did I touch the wall during the performance. I can see that my hands are concealed from the video just before I surface, but this is due to the camera angle and i'm still nowhere near the wall. If it was remotely questionable then the 2 judges, the official video and the 20 people standing around me would have picked up something. I'm afraid you're going to have to take mine and their word for it.
No, sorry, Jorg, I do not really agree with this conclusion at all. The real life observation may be as subjective as watching video, and often even much more because you have no way to push the replay or slow motion button. The only way how to handle the problem is abolishing this stupid rule that only allows for this ambiguity and subjectiveness.Point of this story; never base your decision on what you see on video, but only base it on real life observation.
As I wrote, I believe you and have no intention to dispute what you tell and what the judges decided. I simply see you touching the wall and grabing the edge, but it may be really the angle. Maybe I would change my mind if I saw the surfacing sequence in full quality, but as far as I can judge from the YouTube clip, I see no big difference between this and Wolle's surfacing. And even if there were a tenth second difference, I do not see any reason why it should be penalized by -20m.I can't understand how you think i'm touching the wall.