Okinawa Team WC 2010

[bubbleless]

Will Trubridge got a white card for his -105m dive, the deepest of the comp other than that we down here in NZ dont have any other results for the other teams...I am sure that its great training sitting here holding our breath waiting for the results!!!

 

[trux]

The reporting from this WC is a real disappointment. The official websites were more or less useless at most previous WC's (except of Maribor), but at least we often had some people reporting live here on DB (I believe it was especially Pim from Aarhus, and Will from Bahamas). Knowing that the Okinawa WC is one of the most expensive ones, it is really frustrating that they did not assign one person to the reporting. It's a shame, and I think that AIDA-Int should enforce the requirement of live reporting into the WC directives, and should not permit the selection of any candidate without the guarantee of proper reporting.

 

[mortenkv]

Jakob and Rune (90 and 70m ) got white cards as well.... way to go!

 

[tecdave]

Back in 2004 in Vancouver I was the alternate for the UK men's team. I was given the choice to dive and took it. The alternates dived in the same line up as the competitors, in the usual deepest to shallowest order and not in a competition of their own. I think it worked well and really made me feel part of it all (it wasn't cheep to get out there either!!)

Dave

 

[TimoP]

About 4 persons team. It would be a big risk to see more BOs in team WC. Now you must avoid red card as much as you can, cause it would ruin your team's result. If you have 4 person, then one person can take a risk and go over his/her limits to BO and it's not so big deal for a team, as it is now.

 

[Aber]

I think the concerns about BO is important. But this responsibility lies with every athlete and with the organizer to provide sufficient safety. With 4 or 5 team members we might see less conservative announcements. Thus, we would have a more exciting and interesting competition and possibly a venue for more National and World Records. Freediving is after all a sport where you challenge your limits, but in a safe environment. I would like to see a 4 or 5 persons team. This would gather more divers, more fun and more diving for everyone. It's a small community. The downside is that it favors the bigger Freediving Nations and it will be more demanding for the Organizing country/venue.

 

[trux]

Good point, Timo. The question is whether it would not make the WC more interesting - seeing as many top performances and WR's as we do at individual WC's. So although there is the risk of more red cards and BO's, the performances would be also better reflecting the real level of the divers, the competition would be more attractive for the public, and it would be certainly more thrill than looking at competitors safely diving 20m below their PB.

Ah: sorry, Aber was faster

 

[Stephan Whelan]

The reporting from this WC is a real disappointment. The official websites were more or less useless at most previous WC's (except of Maribor), but at least we often had some people reporting live here on DB (I believe it was especially Pim from Aarhus, and Will from Bahamas). Knowing that the Okinawa WC is one of the most expensive ones, it is really frustrating that they did not assign one person to the reporting. It's a shame, and I think that AIDA-Int should enforce the requirement of live reporting into the WC directives, and should not permit the selection of any candidate without the guarantee of proper reporting.

Trux,

I spent many years trying to work with competition organisers on getting some official reporting going on (either with them or via a DB reporter). Ultimately these comps rarely break-even so every cost counts and media tend to be the last on the list for comp organisers. If there were some rules for competition organisers to have some media reporting within certain timescales that will help.

 

[trux]

Maybe you could try speaking again to the new leadership, Stephan. Things are changing, so perhaps there is a chance to change this too. Finally, it is in the interest of all involved parties - the organizer, the competitors, and AIDA will get better exposure and hence better chance to find sponsors, and the rest of the community will finally get some timely information. Getting the news with days of delays, and without any details, with no gossip is frustrating, and the WC remains so just an event for the handful of participants.

And I do not even speak about live videos, but at today's accessibility of technology it is really a shame, live videos are not the rule at such importantly events as the WC. We saw them several times at local competitions (lately at the Czech national championship, where the starting fee was 40 times lower than in Okinawa), so it is clear it is very well in the possibilities of WC organizers. However, they are not even capable to post a few videos from the judge cameras. Real shame :rcard

 

[trux]

The results are now on Jarmila's blog:

MS tým? - Okinawa - nejhlub?í ?eny na sv?t? | Jarmila Sloven?íková

 

[Goran Colak]

Guy Brew BO at 62m... this is mind blowing... he again forget to inhale like in Denmark or what??? Maldame 92m... but not in the team, I don't understand that to be honest... Nice diving or Jarmila... beating Natalia in first discipline hehe

I'm really interested in static, and hoping that competitors will not be 2 tiered for DYN on a last day...

 

[silkyshark]

Results are being posted almost instantly on this link: We freedive | Facebook
We generally are uploading them by phone as soon as they come out, it is faster and easier than getting to our laptops and updating here.

Only one BO, Guy Brew came up and did not complete his SP before falling back into the water. One protest from Guillaume understandably after his 102m dive. He was first to dive after the opener and so the line dropped to his AP to 102m, as it shows on the bottom video; approx. 10 minutes after dropping the line what appears to be an abandoned anchor line comes across the competition line at a right angle. As Guillaume comes into view you can hear and see that he begins to pull the anchor line down so that he can get to the bottom plate (anchor line is at about 92m). He proceeds to pull the line down as far as he can before it dawns on him that this may not be such a good idea and you can see on the video that the anchor line begins to tighten around the competition line. At 98.9m he gives up trying to get to the bottom plate and you see him turn and leave towards the surface.

The jury received his protest and viewed the video and the vote came in to award him the 102m dive as, a) a white card not the yellow he first received b) 102 points instead of 98 points.

His protest also came with signatures to support his protest from: Japan, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark among others.

Tomorrow will be announcements for STA, they will be released at 22:00 Japan, to start from 15:00 on the 8th July. Will keep posted on any new developments.

 

[sanso]

We're also trying to get some more information out on our website - today's results and pictures are here: AIDA Team World Championships, Okinawa: Results CWT day 2

 

[trux]

His protest also came with signatures to support his protest from: Japan, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark among others.

Kudos to the teams, and I suggest a special fair-play prize for them! It is much more pleasant seeing such support of an adversary's protest, than protesting adverary's mistakes (sometimes inexisting), as we saw in the past, several times.

 

[trux]

Sanzo, can you tell us what happened to Julie Gautier? She allegedly had a an accident at 60m during the training. And for the competition she announced only 32m, which is far less than her PB. Looks almost like some bad spell on Guillaume and Julie. Perhaps the vengeance of the Dean's Blue Hole spirits for making it famous through the world with their free fall video?

 

[efattah]

Someone please explain Julie Gautier. What an astonishing story. She announced a 73m french record at the recent Greece world cup. She reaches the depth (!), but aborts on the ascent and pulls up. On subsequent days she announces only 50m.

Then now in Okinawa she announces 32m ?? This is not even a warm up dive for her... squeeze? Some other accident?

 

[Stavros]

I hope this is ok with Julie ( ) but since the question has been asked I would like to shed some light on her announced performances PBs and other fun facts.

Julie (and Guillaume) dive in a slightly different way than most of the athletes I have met - their main goal in their dives is to have fun during the dive - enjoy themselves and feel happy in the water. If this does not happen then they are unhappy with the dive even if it is ok according to "competition standards". This is a really amazing approach especially in top level competitive freediving nowadays.

Back to facts - Julie had done a nice 70m+ (the plus will remain a mystery) and she announced a 73m dive on a comp day. That dive was not a really "happy dive" for Julie (any other athlete would have saved it with a stressed SP but for Julie since the feeling was wrong she did not care about the cards).

After that she was just not happy diving deep during the comp - I even suggested that she should try a 50m dive during which I would safety and follow her during the entire dive which we did but she was still not back in her happy place...

So thats the story - no squeezes, no accidents - just a different idea of what the goal is in a freedive

... Best of luck to all the athletes

Stavros

 

[trux]

Announces for STA are now online on Jarmila's blog:

http://www.slovencikova.cz/cs/blog/ms-tymu-okinawa-zavod-pokracuje

 

[Kimmo]

[ame="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aida-team-freediving-world-championships-2010"]AIDA Team Freediving World Championships 2010 on USTREAM: AIDA Team Freediving World Championships 2010 in Okinawa.@@AMEPARAM@@cid=4738834@@AMEPARAM@@4738834[/ame]

 

[trux]

AIDA Team Freediving World Championships 2010 on USTREAM: AIDA Team Freediving World Championships 2010 in Okinawa. Other Sports

Great! Just a pity, there are no comments, and that we see no results!

In fact it would have been much more useful having a surface camera, or even better: just aiming the camera on the display with results as they are being typed in. Here, on the UW video we practically only see a single competitor, without knowing who it is (well we can guess one from the four on starting list for given round), and do not know what time he/she did, and what card was given. So it is better than having nothing, but unfortunately it is relatively useless.