AIDA International, the Freediving federation that is governing the Team World Championships in Kalamata, have announced that a line was set to the wrong depth during the first day of competition. The line was set to 80m instead of 101m and caused issues with Guillaume Bussiere of France.
AIDA and the French team agreed that no public news or statement would be issued until an investigation was completed. Brussiere was initially awarded the full amount of points for the 101m dive, however in a tremendous show of sportmanship declined to accept and requested the lower number of points for 81m.
You can see AIDA’s statement by President Carla Hanson below:
Team WC -Kalamata .
Some time following the completion of the cwt event and posting of the results , it was discovered that the line had not been set to the announced depth declared by Guillaume Bussiere of France .
Upon notification of the mistake , the French team and Aida agreed that no statement would be made until the occurrence was fully investigated , all parties were informed , and a resolution could be achieved . According to Aida rules : an athlete is awarded points in accordance with the announced performance when a white card is given . Guillaume and the French team did not believe he should receive points which exceeded the actual depth he achieved ,and requested the jury lower the points to reflect the actual depth which was 81m not 101m . The judge jury voted and accepted the request .
Grant W. Graves, on behalf of the entire jury and the persons who were setting that line ; explained the situation to all at the event committee meeting . The jury accepted full responsibility for the error , and apologized for the very serious mistake which created stress and embarrassment for all involved .
Aida France was informed of the situation and resolution , as was Aida International .
We applaud Guillaume and Team France for their honesty and integrity and the most outstanding example of good sportsmanship .
Good luck to all in the pool portion of the competition .
This has echoes of the line fault last year at the World Championships in Cyprus where French superstar Guillaume Nery had a line set to 139m instead of 129m. Luckily Nery escaped serious injury in that instance.
AIDA has promised revised rules will be investigated to help prevent this from happening again.
The competition has continued with the pool portion of the competition starting today.
