Last year at about this time, I had a forum entry about USMS not accepting the times because of a supposed clerical error in the pool certification application. It was pointed out to me that it was a pool measurement error and not a clerical error that caused this. It frustrated me because I had swum 5 LMSC freestyle records and 6 top ten Zone records. I had done this under duress as I had a stent placed in a blocked artery not long after the meet.
Well, since that time, I have swum in two competitions, SCY and LCM. On both of these meets, I asked the individuals if the pool measurement were certified. The SCY was in a stationary bulkhead pool that received certification before the meet and the LCM in a movable bulkhead pool.
Everything went ok in the SCY but when I looked up my times in the Zone and USMS sites, they did not appear. Just this week, I found out it was another pool measurement issue and my, once again LMSC records and top tens have been wiped out.
I know the reasoning behind the exclusion of the times but +/- 1cm would not make a difference in where I or anybody in the meet would finally appear in any top 10 or record.
This is a stiff penalty to pay for people to pay for driving good distances to swim in meets, pay good money and spend all day Saturday and Sunday for what comes to be a glorified practice. If USMS is going to be draconian with its rules, they should, in this day of instant messaging, have a set up whereby the pool measurements could be verified and certified on the morning of the meet if it is being held in a movable bulkhead pool.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Bob Sigerson
I did the calculations before, and at 30 sec/ 50 in an SC pool 1 cm made about .01 sec difference per 50.
In this case, if they knew the pool had one lane short, they should have closed that lane(if the others were OK.) In a meet I was at in AZ in 2003 they did not invalidate all the results from the first day, only the ones from the lanes that measured too short. They caught this at the end of the first day and let those affected reswim our events if we wished the second day, when all lanes measured OK. That had the ""interesting effect that in the official results, I was shown as slower than people I had beaten head to head.
I worry a little at every meet I go to with a bulkhead, but most venues do seem to get it right. I pray that we don't end up with a measurement controversy about a Nationals.
I did the calculations before, and at 30 sec/ 50 in an SC pool 1 cm made about .01 sec difference per 50.
In this case, if they knew the pool had one lane short, they should have closed that lane(if the others were OK.) In a meet I was at in AZ in 2003 they did not invalidate all the results from the first day, only the ones from the lanes that measured too short. They caught this at the end of the first day and let those affected reswim our events if we wished the second day, when all lanes measured OK. That had the ""interesting effect that in the official results, I was shown as slower than people I had beaten head to head.
I worry a little at every meet I go to with a bulkhead, but most venues do seem to get it right. I pray that we don't end up with a measurement controversy about a Nationals.
