Qualification Criteria for Individual World Champs

[chrismar]

With the pool world champs now about six months away, can an AIDA official please provide athletes with the qualification criteria? For those of us on the other side of the world (and fighting several top athletes for spots), it's pretty important to know if we should start booking tickets or not.

If the criteria for the depth champs were added too that would be a bonus.

 

[samdive]

Hi chrismar

According to the new competition rules - you'll be eligible to enter the Individual Worlds if you match or better the score of the top 12 ranked AIDA divers. So check the AIDA rankings for your discipline, and if you can do what the top 12 can do, you should be able to enter.

Sam

 

[mortenkv]

Someone has the updated Aida Ranking?

The ones on the aida-international is not updated...

Morten

 

[Aber]

Mr. Bill Strömberg wrote on this forum in November 2008 that the prerequisites for the individual world championship in cw in Bahamas should be announced in January 2009. It has obviously been delayed somehow. Maybe he is busy washing clothes in Milano (where there is a lot of it).

 

[martin_gk]

According to the new competition rules - you'll be eligible to enter the Individual Worlds if you match or better the score of the top 12 ranked AIDA divers. So check the AIDA rankings for your discipline, and if you can do what the top 12 can do, you should be able to enter.
Sam

Sounds to me like a lonlely WC when only 12 people are coming...

 

[chrismar]

Hi chrismar

According to the new competition rules - you'll be eligible to enter the Individual Worlds if you match or better the score of the top 12 ranked AIDA divers. So check the AIDA rankings for your discipline, and if you can do what the top 12 can do, you should be able to enter.

Sam

So can we have official word that these are the qualifying criteria then? That makes it:

Male:

Pool
STA - 7:13
DYN - 200m
DNF - 132m

Depth
CWT - 81m
CNF - 45m
FIM - N/A

Female:

Pool
STA - 5:41
DYN - 139m
DNF - 91m

Depth
CWT - 61m
CNF - 34m
FIM - N/A

 

[osusim]

Simo's website doesn't include many competitions 'cos organizers were lazy to sent results. So, criteria will be a bit higher.

 

[chrismar]

Simo's website doesn't include many competitions 'cos organizers were lazy to sent results. So, criteria will be a bit higher.

Fair enough. Perhaps AIDA could actually release the 2008 ranking list and confirm the criteria then?

 

[samdive]

it's not "only 12 people" - it's people who can achieve the scores of the top 12. So for example, the number 12 ranked male diver in Dynamic in 2008 did 201m - if you can do 201m, you can enter. Not sure exactly how it works for pool comps but for depth comps in the past, you have only been eligible if your subscribed depth was equal or deeper than that of the top 12 divers - so for CWF based on last year that would be 95m for men and 61m for women

 

[Mullins]

Also, I heard mention that qualification for one depth event would make you eligible for the other one. Does this sound right? If this rule applied to the pool events it could greatly increase athlete numbers. It would probably be good for the sport too, because the big names who specialise in one event would be seen again in others - even if they weren't particularly good at them.

 

[trux]

it's not "only 12 people" - it's people who can achieve the scores of the top 12. So for example, the number 12 ranked male diver in Dynamic in 2008 did 201m - if you can do 201m, you can enter. Not sure exactly how it works for pool comps but for depth comps in the past, you have only been eligible if your subscribed depth was equal or deeper than that of the top 12 divers - so for CWF based on last year that would be 95m for men and 61m for women

Hm, it does not make much sense. I suppose the limit does not mean you can do the same or better performance, but that you did it in some AIDA competition. So if you did it, you would be among the twelve, wouldn't you? Well, except if you did it in 2009, but it sounds pretty restrictive anyway, and I guess the number of admissible freedivers would not grow too much, because not everyone does his/her PB's at the beginning of the season.

 

[pehtran]

According to the new competition rules - you'll be eligible to enter the Individual Worlds if you match or better the score of the top 12 ranked AIDA divers.

Can someone else from AIDA confirm this? It sounds rediculous. At least to me.
Miha

 

[samdive]

It's in the rules - and isn't a new thing. It's been the case as long as I can remember for individual worlds. Here's the quote - you'll find it on page 42 of the rules (attached)

14.2.1
AIDA International will publish the list of performance minima at least 6 months prior to the competition.
14.2.2
The first 10 athletes (per sex, per discipline) in the AIDA International ranking of the preceding year receive
a wildcard to enter the AIDA International Individual World Championships regardless of the maximum
number of athletes per nation/sex/discipline determined by AIDA International and/or the organizer.
14.2.3
The performance minima for AIDA International Individual World Championships are, by discipline:
• Static apnea: The 12th time on the AIDA International ranking from the preceding year.
• Depth disciplines: The 12th depth on the AIDA International ranking from the preceding year.
• Dynamic disciplines: The 12th distance on the AIDA International ranking from the preceding year.
For countries with a national AIDA, the performance must have been done in a competition with AIDA
International ranking not more than 2 years prior to the first day of the event. AIDA International World
Record attempts will be accepted when there are no competitions available for the athlete(s) asking for a
Special Invitation. This result cannot be older than 2 years prior to the first day of the event.
14.2.4
The list of performance minima for AIDA International Individual World Championships acts as a guideline;
the AIDA International Executive Board can increase or decrease the performance minima.

 

[martin_gk]

hm... but then it was never really applyed in the WCs I have seen.

It certanly was not the case in Maribor. There, the final heats where making sure the best athletes where competing against each other.

I will be in Aarhus next week and can try to bug the organizers to release the information about how many athlets are going to be taking part.

I totally agree this is a necessary information to prepare for the WC and it is in the organizers interst to do so as soon as possible to asure the maximum number of athletes is actually participating.

 

[Stuart]

Hmmm,

At the last individual worlds in Sharm (2007) for the men's CWT there were 55 listed athletes of which 2 DNS and 9 were DQ'd. Of the remaining 44 that did finish the lowest posting was 37m. However, to be in the top 12 athletes of 2006 (the preceeding year) you would have needed to have aquired a ranking of 77m or higher. Achieving 37m would give a ranking of 129.

Whatever the rule, as far as I can see it has never been applied. It is therefore a guideline only:

14.2.4
The list of performance minima for AIDA International Individual World Championships acts as a guideline; the AIDA International Executive Board can increase or decrease the performance minima.

It would seem logical therefore that the cut-off is better dictated by the maximum number of athletes the event infrastructure can handle.

Clarity, I agree, would be good.

Stuart

 

[rxcnc2]

Simo's website doesn't include many competitions 'cos organizers were lazy to sent results.

Maybe, but I find it odd that the AIDA world ranking is a link to a tool that says on its main page that "this is not an official AIDA page".

As for the qualification minima, by its own words AIDA should publish them now, and clarify whether qualifying in just one discipline means you can only compete in that discipline or in all others as well.

 

[chrismar]

I will be in Aarhus next week and can try to bug the organizers to release the information about how many athlets are going to be taking part.

I totally agree this is a necessary information to prepare for the WC and it is in the organizers interst to do so as soon as possible to asure the maximum number of athletes is actually participating.

That would be great, Martin. It would also help to know if qualification for one event gets you in for all.

 

[Monkey Matt]

As many have pointed out the performance minima is to have a ranked performance equal to or better than the 12th position on the rankings. This has been the case for many years but it has never been applied at the events.
What has always happened in the past is that the organisers have started out asking for entries according to the AIDA rules. This has put many potential athletes off and they go and make other plans for the up coming year. Then at some point the performance minima's are lowered or totally disregarded. This is usually about 6 weeks before the event as the organisers don't have enough entrants to cover their costs. Those athletes that did not originally enter now have to decide if they want to re arrange their plans and rush around trying to arrange flights etc.
These performance minima's are counter productive as they stop many good athletes from entering and improving and would totally exclude athletes from emerging AIDA nationals if they were actually applied.
The fact that they have never been applied, in my memory, indicates that they do not work and should be revised. Maybe each AIDA National should decide which of their members are eligible to represent their country as an individual. This way the organiser would know that they had a good chance of running an event with enough entrants to spread the considerable costs of the event.
Any thoughts?

 

[pehtran]

I do not know the critera for WC selection in other sports and I am really not in the mood for a google searching at the moment but I know that at each big competition be it WC or Olympics you have an oportunity to see many competitors from "exotic" countries and that is despite the fact that their performances are not even near the best ones.
If I overexagurate: if we follow the rule, the WC will soon be a competition reserved for Russian and New Zealand athletes and a handful of others. Maybe it is not what we want.
Miha

 

[rxcnc2]

1) a person that qualifies for one discipline should be allowed to enter in all disciplines - this is freediving not athletics.

2) the top 12 men and women in each discipline should be allowed (given that many are among the best in more than one discipline, this means less than 48 people, maybe 30 or so).

3) each country should be allowed an additional 3 men and 3 women (in addition to point 2), provided they have shown a minimum performance in the previous year. For example within 10% of the 12th best.

4) the 10 top men and 10 women from countries without other representatives should be allowed to participate.