It is such an anti climax to be here.
I went to the dynamic pool today along with the others and I couldn't believe it. This is what we are supposed to compete in at the world championship? The pinnacle of freediving events this year? The pool deserves a separate discipline, a separate ranking list. It's a joke, and a bad one at that. BennyB and larsemis has already described it well, I just needed to vent my frustration here.
At the meeting tonight some of us asked the jury to reconsider giving this pool the blue stamp for an AIDA competition (and not just any AIDA competition...). Then Yehia pulled a new 50m pool out of his sleeve (where was this pool when he planned the event?), which the jury will go look at tomorrow, so no decisions yet. And no proper preparation for the athletes yet.
This is a very divisive issue - some are pragmatic and say "let's make the most of it, at least the bad conditions are equal for all". That's a nice, positive attitude. Others feel that a line has been crossed and minimum standards been violated, even if they are not in the regulations - "we should not sanction this by going ahead with the dynamic competition, as if this pool and the absolute lack of planning for it is okay". People have different reasons for joining one or the other position - some go by principles and some go by strategy, as a cancellation could really shift the final placement of the teams. Clearly I am not with the strategy-minded - my team would gain a lot in dynamic - but we need to draw the line.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. Please don't think that we don't want to update you, it's just that the internet connection here is so unreliable.
I went to the dynamic pool today along with the others and I couldn't believe it. This is what we are supposed to compete in at the world championship? The pinnacle of freediving events this year? The pool deserves a separate discipline, a separate ranking list. It's a joke, and a bad one at that. BennyB and larsemis has already described it well, I just needed to vent my frustration here.
At the meeting tonight some of us asked the jury to reconsider giving this pool the blue stamp for an AIDA competition (and not just any AIDA competition...). Then Yehia pulled a new 50m pool out of his sleeve (where was this pool when he planned the event?), which the jury will go look at tomorrow, so no decisions yet. And no proper preparation for the athletes yet.
This is a very divisive issue - some are pragmatic and say "let's make the most of it, at least the bad conditions are equal for all". That's a nice, positive attitude. Others feel that a line has been crossed and minimum standards been violated, even if they are not in the regulations - "we should not sanction this by going ahead with the dynamic competition, as if this pool and the absolute lack of planning for it is okay". People have different reasons for joining one or the other position - some go by principles and some go by strategy, as a cancellation could really shift the final placement of the teams. Clearly I am not with the strategy-minded - my team would gain a lot in dynamic - but we need to draw the line.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. Please don't think that we don't want to update you, it's just that the internet connection here is so unreliable.
