Hi Bill,
Of course, athletes should be treated the same. However, its not a fair point to argue that if its ok for the others it should be ok for Stephane. It shouldnt be ok for the others to find that Aida World Records are broken and in a disputed fashion of red tape. That does a dis-service to Aida and devalues our athletes performance.
A genuine beating of a world record holder, enhances the value of both athletes in a spirit of endeavour and unity. The highest level of honour we can show to any competitor is by doing our very best to beat them, and by so doing, we raise the bar, sending out the call for a renewed challenge. If Aida were able to accept these genuine record efforts, it would add honour to each performance rather than dilute the performance of both athletes. In other words, the athlete who attempts to beat Stephane brings honour to Stephane as well as to himself.
Whats unusual here is that if I were in the pool at the same time as Stephane and we both started the static at the same time and I came up say 30 seconds sooner than him, I would hold the World Record even though it was obvious he did a better time.
So, the question is not "why AIDA should treat Mifsud different than Herbert, Tom, Stig, Mandy, Martin, Carlos, Tanya and Natalia etc.. etc", but why they cant create a system that accounts for the performance of these World class athletes? So that the title of World Record holder goes to the right person.
All it takes is someone writing a sentance or two to the rules. Its so easy, I dont understand why nobody seems to get the point. Change the rules and we embrace Stephane, Umberto and I guess a few other stalwarts of the sport. Its what any organsiation should do.
"It's not the first time that a national record exceed world record." Thats another problem that needs resolving.
Its only a matter of drafting rules that cater for the performance.