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.
Hi Doug,
I had Mary Beth read through thread. She is not opposed to something like this although the post by "ljlete" from an old thread shows that errors can occur when bulkheads are involved. She encouraged you to write up a rule proposal to address what you are suggesting. I am glad that Bob S. posted this as it does demonstrate the challenges when bulkheads are involved.
BTW - to all reading this. Mary Beth does not make up the rules regarding pool measurements. They are the domain of the Rules Committee and her job as SWIMS Coordinator is to follow the rules. There are times when she wants to "play" God and allow swims, but I encourage not to do that. :)
Paul
Hi Doug,
I had Mary Beth read through thread. She is not opposed to something like this although the post by "ljlete" from an old thread shows that errors can occur when bulkheads are involved. She encouraged you to write up a rule proposal to address what you are suggesting. I am glad that Bob S. posted this as it does demonstrate the challenges when bulkheads are involved.
BTW - to all reading this. Mary Beth does not make up the rules regarding pool measurements. They are the domain of the Rules Committee and her job as SWIMS Coordinator is to follow the rules. There are times when she wants to "play" God and allow swims, but I encourage not to do that. :)
Paul
