There is nothing more challenging for an official than having to DQ a swimmer for a false start: either a dual confirmation done after the heat has been started or for the lone swimmer who goes in all by themselves.
It is a shame that starting early and only gaining, at most, .5 seconds results in the entire race being nullified. I would hate to be the 400 IMer or the 1650 swimmer if that were to happen.
So, instead of nullifying the entire swim, consider a time penalty assessed for a False Start. In either situation that I mentioned in the first paragraph, the swimmer incurs a 5 seconds penalty when the False Start is dual confirmed. The swimmer gets the benefit of the race, albeit with a time penalty.
This could be managed quite easier with a software change in Meet Manager or whatever meet software is being used.
Paul
Good Morning Jeff,
You know, we live in a subjective world - it is all around us. How much a house costs? How much we get paid? The cost of s speeding ticket or the length of a prison sentence.
I suppose we could set up a "penalty committee" to decide on the severity of DQs that is dependent on the meet, the skill of the swimmer, etc.. Kind of like a jury trial with a jury of our peers. (LOL).
A couple of weeks ago, Oregon Masters had an Animal meet where each swimmer had to enter three events - fly, IM, and free (3 different levels of "animal"). Some swimmers choose to only enter two events and did not care if they were included in the overall ranking. Those swimmers were "awarded" a time of the slowest swimmer in the event they skipped PLUS 20 seconds. I thought this was kind of ingenious.
Now, if we are worried about being subjective, there is one rule in our rule books under Swimming Competition that should not be there - it is about as subjective as it gets. Read rule 102.13.14.
As a friend used to say - "Make for yourself a great day!"
Paul
Good Morning Jeff,
You know, we live in a subjective world - it is all around us. How much a house costs? How much we get paid? The cost of s speeding ticket or the length of a prison sentence.
I suppose we could set up a "penalty committee" to decide on the severity of DQs that is dependent on the meet, the skill of the swimmer, etc.. Kind of like a jury trial with a jury of our peers. (LOL).
A couple of weeks ago, Oregon Masters had an Animal meet where each swimmer had to enter three events - fly, IM, and free (3 different levels of "animal"). Some swimmers choose to only enter two events and did not care if they were included in the overall ranking. Those swimmers were "awarded" a time of the slowest swimmer in the event they skipped PLUS 20 seconds. I thought this was kind of ingenious.
Now, if we are worried about being subjective, there is one rule in our rule books under Swimming Competition that should not be there - it is about as subjective as it gets. Read rule 102.13.14.
As a friend used to say - "Make for yourself a great day!"
Paul
