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 don't think it's the pool's fault. This is a pool at a major university, LSU, which has numerous NCAA sanctioned meets and some USA Swimming meets. Both of these governing bodies require that the pool be 50 meters long with zero tolerance for under measurement. The only fudge factor is a plus factor and that doesn't come into play here.
The problem, as I see it, is that the pool has not been used for a USMS meet in a long time and for that reason, has never been certified. If it had been certified, only the outer two lanes and a middle lane would have had to been measured and, although I have not seen the measurement certificate, if lane 2,3,4,6 & 7 were the short lanes, the certificate would have passed muster and our times counted.
Last year's LCM meet was at the University of New Orleans pool which has been used by the LMSC for decades to hold meets, both USMS, USA Swimming and NCAA. The people from the LMSC who measured the pool had been doing it for a bunch of years and had never had a pool come up short until the 2017 meet. In fact, one of the guys who measured the course is a member of my club and he said there were no short measurements that he knew of. He seems to think that someone transcribed the numbers wrong.
From last year's discussion, Paul Windrath said the LMSC officials were given every benefit of the doubt but could not come up with a good enough explanation as to whether or not there was an actual short lane.
This is what I would like for USMS to consider, either have the measurement certificate emailed to the top 10 administrator so it can be verified before the meet or national USMS require the LMSC to post the certificate in a conspicuous spot prior to the start of the meet and at the end of the day for all to see. If this cannot be done, USMS ought to come up with a fudge factor as we are not talking about people that .01 seconds is going to be extremely relevant. In my case, in a 50 meter swim with only one touchpad, you are talking in the 1,000th of a second differential.
I am still communicating with m LMSC as to why and how this happened and I will post more when I find out.
Bob Sigerson
I don't think it's the pool's fault. This is a pool at a major university, LSU, which has numerous NCAA sanctioned meets and some USA Swimming meets. Both of these governing bodies require that the pool be 50 meters long with zero tolerance for under measurement. The only fudge factor is a plus factor and that doesn't come into play here.
The problem, as I see it, is that the pool has not been used for a USMS meet in a long time and for that reason, has never been certified. If it had been certified, only the outer two lanes and a middle lane would have had to been measured and, although I have not seen the measurement certificate, if lane 2,3,4,6 & 7 were the short lanes, the certificate would have passed muster and our times counted.
Last year's LCM meet was at the University of New Orleans pool which has been used by the LMSC for decades to hold meets, both USMS, USA Swimming and NCAA. The people from the LMSC who measured the pool had been doing it for a bunch of years and had never had a pool come up short until the 2017 meet. In fact, one of the guys who measured the course is a member of my club and he said there were no short measurements that he knew of. He seems to think that someone transcribed the numbers wrong.
From last year's discussion, Paul Windrath said the LMSC officials were given every benefit of the doubt but could not come up with a good enough explanation as to whether or not there was an actual short lane.
This is what I would like for USMS to consider, either have the measurement certificate emailed to the top 10 administrator so it can be verified before the meet or national USMS require the LMSC to post the certificate in a conspicuous spot prior to the start of the meet and at the end of the day for all to see. If this cannot be done, USMS ought to come up with a fudge factor as we are not talking about people that .01 seconds is going to be extremely relevant. In my case, in a 50 meter swim with only one touchpad, you are talking in the 1,000th of a second differential.
I am still communicating with m LMSC as to why and how this happened and I will post more when I find out.
Bob Sigerson
