I, along with 58 others, swam the Southern LCM championship on 7/29-30/2017. We did so in the University of New Orleans Pool in New Orleans, LA just as we have for years with the exception of the Hurricane Katrina year and several subsequent years.
My problem is that, when I checked my times of the USMS website, the times were in red with an explanation that they could not be used as official for records because the pool's measurement was not certified as it had a moveable bulkhead. I emailed Southern and asked why the certification had not been sent in and they replied that it had been sent but it had an error and USMS would not let it be corrected. This bummed me out as I had 4 top 10 swims and 5 Southern record swims for my age group.
This seems to be an awful price to pay for the innocent, dues and event paying participant who has no control pool certification. All we know is that the bulkhead is at the far end of the pool, 50 meters, where it always has been for LCM meets in the past. There is nothing obvious that we can detect or correct to make the pool certifiable and there is no way to make sure the form is sent in correctly.
There must be some way USMS can rectify this situation without invalidating the times of the swimmers who invested time and money in the meet.
These move-able bulkheads should ideally be retro-fitted with some sort of pin - to be locked into the deck surface in the exact location, each and every time the length is being changed over to new course dimensions.
Not only would this guarantee a certified pool measurement, but it would alleviate the concern that the bulkhead would have shifted after several hours of being pushed against during competition.
Some bulkheads indeed seem to have some "flex" in the center, especially in the ten lane pools. Surely there must be a way to prevent any give over time. The center lane lines should be triple checked for a vary taut connection to ensure that the middle lanes aren't off by an inch or so.
All this to say - it's very unfortunate to see this happen to the OP. Meet directors should be more pro-active about the seriousness of having a legitimate competition pool.
...this thread from many years ago shed some light on the issues. It's interesting to consider that even a few inches of play could result in a thirteen foot difference over a 1,000 meters. forums.usms.org/showthread.php
These move-able bulkheads should ideally be retro-fitted with some sort of pin - to be locked into the deck surface in the exact location, each and every time the length is being changed over to new course dimensions.
Not only would this guarantee a certified pool measurement, but it would alleviate the concern that the bulkhead would have shifted after several hours of being pushed against during competition.
Some bulkheads indeed seem to have some "flex" in the center, especially in the ten lane pools. Surely there must be a way to prevent any give over time. The center lane lines should be triple checked for a vary taut connection to ensure that the middle lanes aren't off by an inch or so.
All this to say - it's very unfortunate to see this happen to the OP. Meet directors should be more pro-active about the seriousness of having a legitimate competition pool.
...this thread from many years ago shed some light on the issues. It's interesting to consider that even a few inches of play could result in a thirteen foot difference over a 1,000 meters. forums.usms.org/showthread.php
