Best Video of
2012 Olympic Gold Medalist
Nathan Adrian's
41.13 100 Freestyle at the
2014 USMS Masters Nationals in Santa Clara CA on Sat May 3rd, 2014
http://youtu.be/igb1wg7phMs
as someone that deals with picoseconds on a daily basis, something seems very "fishy" to me about the adding of 5 hundredths to his time.
1) how do you get a 19.74 split if the pad doesnt arm till 20.00 ? there should be no split time!
2) how do you get a 21.39 split if the pad wasnt armed for the 1st split? you wouldnt know the last 50 split because there was no 1st 50 split!
3) if the pad wasnt armed for his 1st split, why did that impact his finish time when it would never have had a 20sec disarm since he was already gone at the 20sec from the start?
4) the only valid time should be the 41.08 that "somehow" got changed to 41.13 because of some 20secs that he was not even on the pad to activate!
Agreed. It doesn't make any sense to me, and speaking to timing system operators (at both USS and USMS meets), a 20 second delay is definitely excessive.
Sounds to me like a combination of operator error (given the caliber of swimmers in that heat, the timing operator should have manually armed the pads) and boneheaded timing policies by USMS--there's no reason to have a 20 second arming delay built in when the event is neither a relay nor using flyover starts. Sure, keep a 5-10 second arming delay, but 20, really?
It doesn't make any sense to me, and speaking to timing system operators (at both USS and USMS meets), a 20 second delay is definitely excessive.
As a timing system operator, 20 seconds is NOT excessive for most meets. Typically I set the arm delay for 20 seconds and at any given meet with dive-over starts I will have 1 or 2 touches that need to be subtracted for slow exiting swimmers and 0 touches that need to be added. However, I do cut the arm delay down to 18 seconds(or 8 seconds on 25s) if it looks like anyone will get near 20 seconds for a touch.
timing policies by USMS I don’t believe USMS has a timing policy, but I bet our Championship Committee will now be looking into one.
1) how do you get a 19.74 split if the pad doesnt arm till 20.00 ? there should be no split time!
2) how do you get a 21.39 split if the pad wasn’t armed for the 1st split? you wouldn’t know the last 50 split because there was no 1st 50 split!I wasn’t at the event, so I’m not sure what timing equipment was used, but some timing equipment maintains a database of touches that can be interrogated. So even if the pad is not armed the database records all touches and the timing operator can after the fact go back and accept a touch.
3) if the pad wasnt armed for his 1st split, why did that impact his finish time when it would never have had a 20sec disarm since he was already gone at the 20sec from the start?
4) the only valid time should be the 41.08 that "somehow" got changed to 41.13 because of some 20secs that he was not even on the pad to activate! I have no idea what you are asking in question 3, but as for 4 – as I understand it the 41.13 was the pad time, it was just recorded as the 50 instead of the 100. The 41.08 was a button time. And as per 103.17.3 Determination of Official Time the the pad time shall be the official time.
No, but I imagine the 20 second delay is usually useful in masters competition. For one thing there are swimmers who start from the wall in the water. They are definitely going to be touching the pad at the start. Also there are relays and swimmers getting out or staying in the water after their leg. Because of this it's probably just easier to go with the 20 second delay.
These reasons make sense, especially the point about in-water starts. The article just confused me by saying that the delay was due to flyover starts and that flyover starts were the norm for USMS. Neither of those statements is true.
No, but I imagine the 20 second delay is usually useful in masters competition. For one thing there are swimmers who start from the wall in the water. They are definitely going to be touching the pad at the start. Also there are relays and swimmers getting out or staying in the water after their leg. Because of this it's probably just easier to go with the 20 second delay.
It seems like they should just always set it at 17 or 18 seconds and not have to worry about the few people who can swim a 18 or 19 second 50y free.
You are so funny Celestial! I say that only because one of the ladies on my team who went got a picture with him (I'm so envious!) He's not only cute, but a giant too!
You are so funny Celestial! I say that only because one of the ladies on my team who went got a picture with him (I'm so envious!) He's not only cute, but a giant too!
I got a pic with him too! :-) I was grinning from ear to ear. And, yes, he is giant. My chest was at his waist. Hehe.
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../39013.asp
"Why Nathan Adrian Did Not Set the American Record As Reported by The Media"
I stopped in at practice yesterday to chat with my coach about how my meet went and told him about this. He said a similar thing happened at the Washington High School State meet a few years ago. Sean Sussex (some of you might know his dad, Steve) went under 20 seconds leading off the relay, but his split wasn't recorded because of the 20 second arming delay. He was the first Washington high schooler to swim a sub 20 second 50 and it didn't count because of this. Oops.
The meet didn't use flyover starts, though.
No, but I imagine the 20 second delay is usually useful in masters competition. For one thing there are swimmers who start from the wall in the water. They are definitely going to be touching the pad at the start. Also there are relays and swimmers getting out or staying in the water after their leg. Because of this it's probably just easier to go with the 20 second delay.
