Onto my next pondering....
With the advent of relay judging platforms, perhaps it is time to change how "early exchanges" on relays are managed.
Currently, it only takes one early exchange (no matter how small) to negate the entire relay even if the other two exchanges are exceedingly slow.
Proposal: When relay judging platforms are in place, a relay time should be legal provided the initial start is fair and the cumulative time for all 3 exchanges is positive. Under this scenario, the team did not gain an advantage and the relay time should count.
For obvious reasons, this concept cannot be applied to meets that do not have relay judging platforms in place. However, a compromise could be accommodated. For each exchange that is judged too fast, the relay team is penalized 5 seconds. And, knowing that some relays might attempt a flagrant early exchange abuse, the Meet Referee could DQ the relay for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Paul
ForceDJ,
I now know why Masters does not allow the lead-off leg to count if the relay is DQ'd due to one of the other three swimmers. There have been several incidents where a masters swimmer wanted to set a record and the best way to do it was by swimming the lead-off leg of a relay. Unfortunately, the swimmer could not find 4 people on the same team, so he/she entered a fake relay (either all swimmers were not on the same club or, even though 4 names were on the relay card, not all 4 actually swam the relay). Not very sportsmanlike in my book and the equivalent to unsanctioned time trials.
So, there you have it.
Paul
ForceDJ,
I now know why Masters does not allow the lead-off leg to count if the relay is DQ'd due to one of the other three swimmers. There have been several incidents where a masters swimmer wanted to set a record and the best way to do it was by swimming the lead-off leg of a relay. Unfortunately, the swimmer could not find 4 people on the same team, so he/she entered a fake relay (either all swimmers were not on the same club or, even though 4 names were on the relay card, not all 4 actually swam the relay). Not very sportsmanlike in my book and the equivalent to unsanctioned time trials.
So, there you have it.
Paul
