Методы аннотированного контроллера Spring MVC, не удается «найти» метод для операции DELETE

Вот фактический код:

@RequestMapping(value = "/competitors/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public Competitor getCompetitor(@PathVariable("id") long id)
{
    Competitor competitor = competitorService.getCompetitorById(id);

    if (null == competitor)
    {
        EmptyResultDataAccessException e = new EmptyResultDataAccessException(1);
        logger.log(Level.WARN, e.getMessage());
        throw e;
    }

    return competitor;
}

@RequestMapping(value = "/competitors/{id}", method = RequestMethod.DELETE)
public String deleteCompetitor(@PathVariable("id") long id)
{
    Competitor competitor = new Competitor();
    competitor.setId(id);
    competitorService.deleteCompetitor(competitor);

    return "Solid gone!";
}

Отправка запроса DELETE на /competitors/200 приводит к ошибке:

"Статус HTTP 405 - Метод запроса 'DELETE' не поддерживается"

Регистрация из Spring подтверждает, что путь к этому методу не может быть найден:

5559 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet  - DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher' processing DELETE request for [/vrsboserver/competitors/200] 5562 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping
- Matching patterns for request [/competitors/200] are [/competitors/{id}] 5565 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping
- Mapping [/competitors/200] to handler 'com.gtspt.vrsboserver.controllers.CompetitorController@4fe7f80' 5565 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.WebContentInterceptor  - Looking up cache seconds for [/competitors/200] 5565 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.WebContentInterceptor  - Applying default cache seconds to [/competitors/200] 5566 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerExceptionResolver
- Resolving exception from handler [com.gtspt.vrsboserver.controllers.CompetitorController@4fe7f80]: org.springframework.web.HttpRequestMethodNotSupportedException: Request method 'DELETE' not supported 5567 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.ResponseStatusExceptionResolver
- Resolving exception from handler [com.gtspt.vrsboserver.controllers.CompetitorController@4fe7f80]: org.springframework.web.HttpRequestMethodNotSupportedException: Request method 'DELETE' not supported 5568 [tomcat-http--3] DEBUG org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.DefaultHandlerExceptionResolver
- Resolving exception from handler [com.gtspt.vrsboserver.controllers.CompetitorController@4fe7f80]: org.springframework.web.HttpRequestMethodNotSupportedException: Request method 'DELETE' not supported 5568 [tomcat-http--3] WARN  org.springframework.web.servlet.PageNotFound  - Request method 'DELETE' not supported

На что мой ответ "BUH?".