Upon arrival at the Nats on Wed for warmup and then again Thur the Colorado Timing backstroke starting ledge was on all 20 lanes in the competition pool. On Fri morning they were all gone. What a disappointment !!! We ran into a meet referee/official at dinner who claimed that they were not compatible with the timing/scoreboard. Even I knew that was a wee bit of misinformation. Sunday I ran into a rep from Colorado Timing who was hawking the new starting ledge. I asked what was the real reason all the ledges were pulled. She stated that the Head Ref did not want to use them for the first time at the National Championship. Really!!! If not then when ? That would not have worked at an elite meet. The learning curve on these are use it twice and your good and the rep agreed that its twice and your good to go. They had several set up on the sprint lanes in one of the warmup pools. The rep also said that in a couple a months they'll have a practice/workout version available for about $100. Well it was a disappointment but the light is at the end of the tunnel. We backstrokers have to convey to meet directors that we will be looking for these at future meets. Next up some sort of grid/lite device that can be used/projected above outdoor meets so we indoor swimmers are not all over the lane when outdoors, which i saw and personally experienced at the Nationals.
Thank you for your comments, as you may not be the only one to wonder what happened to the wedges. The facility pushed very hard to get the wedges in on time and to set them up for Nationals. We were very excited to offer something on the cutting edge of innovation. The concern was, since they hadn’t been tested or used for any meet, what if something went a little sideways with their use. If we started the 100 Back, but couldn’t complete the entire event, there may have been an unfair advantage to those swimmers in the earlier heats of the same age group. From both the Officials and Timing System personnel, it was determined to be in the best interest of the swimmers and/or the timeline to remove them. We understand your disappointment, just as I know you will understand our decision.
