"The Miracle in Hurghada".
If it were up to me, the history books will remember this competition by this tagline. I still can't believe that it was pulled off and that it actually became a fantastic competition with amazing results people around.
We have been plagued with outrageous incapability from the original organizer. The competition only happened in the end because of four factors:
Kirk Krack, who took all available seconds he had as coach for the Canadians to reorganize the depth event so no one got killed;
The five judges, me one of them, who never got enough sleep, had to organize start lists and results lists for 100+ competitors, even if it's not supposed to be their job;
A load of freedivers jumping in as safety and other tasks when it was the most critical, and even if some of them were competitors;
And finally the badge of 20+ volunteers, Egyptian or foreign, mostly teenagers, whose lack of training in being a part of such a major sports event was redeemed by their willingness to give all they had and learn as they went, despite that they worked for free and weren't even being fed or watered some days.
The organizer got together perhaps 20 percent of this competition; a huge but empty barge, the boats, the scuba guys, the Egyptian media, acceptable T-shirts, a marvelous Fort Arabesque hotel that almost wasn't paid. The organizer got the individual bits and pieces, but no final knowledge about how to put them together and make the machinery work.
Sorry about the delay of results, we really did all we could. Glad you have it now. For the winning teams, especially to my countrymen, congratulations. To Herbert, my respects for pulling off 111 under these conditions. Martin, my respects for reaching silver with your team despite your decease. And for those I barked at during some days, I apologize with all my heart. I have never been closer to a personal collapse before this fortnight.
Slovenia, learn as much as you can from all these millions of shortcomings before next year. This is not how to organize a world championship.
Best regards,
Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen
If it were up to me, the history books will remember this competition by this tagline. I still can't believe that it was pulled off and that it actually became a fantastic competition with amazing results people around.
We have been plagued with outrageous incapability from the original organizer. The competition only happened in the end because of four factors:
Kirk Krack, who took all available seconds he had as coach for the Canadians to reorganize the depth event so no one got killed;
The five judges, me one of them, who never got enough sleep, had to organize start lists and results lists for 100+ competitors, even if it's not supposed to be their job;
A load of freedivers jumping in as safety and other tasks when it was the most critical, and even if some of them were competitors;
And finally the badge of 20+ volunteers, Egyptian or foreign, mostly teenagers, whose lack of training in being a part of such a major sports event was redeemed by their willingness to give all they had and learn as they went, despite that they worked for free and weren't even being fed or watered some days.
The organizer got together perhaps 20 percent of this competition; a huge but empty barge, the boats, the scuba guys, the Egyptian media, acceptable T-shirts, a marvelous Fort Arabesque hotel that almost wasn't paid. The organizer got the individual bits and pieces, but no final knowledge about how to put them together and make the machinery work.
Sorry about the delay of results, we really did all we could. Glad you have it now. For the winning teams, especially to my countrymen, congratulations. To Herbert, my respects for pulling off 111 under these conditions. Martin, my respects for reaching silver with your team despite your decease. And for those I barked at during some days, I apologize with all my heart. I have never been closer to a personal collapse before this fortnight.
Slovenia, learn as much as you can from all these millions of shortcomings before next year. This is not how to organize a world championship.
Best regards,
Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen
Last edited:
