Can someone please tell me what sandbagging is? I heard some people discussing it at my last meet, but didn't know exactly what they were talking about. It didn't sound very flattering though by the tone of their voices. Thanks in advance. :banana:
Former Member
I was just looking at his year's Ottawa Winterlude one LCM event and came across this Heat Sheet:
Event #10 : Men 100 LCM Meter Freestyle
(Since we don't have tabs in this editor, I'll use .... for spaces)
Lane........Name.........Age........Time
1.............J ..............30..........1:03.69
2.............A..............29...........1:00.00
3.............M..............50...........0:59.99
4.............B...............58...........0:01.35
5.............S...............36...........0:58.00
6.............M...............44...........0:59.56
7.............M...............26...........1:02.00
In the original sheet there were no zero paddings, but the
times were right-justified (lane 4 was shown as 1.35 )
Registration was done on-line and the program did accept an entry
of 1.35 (instead of 1:35.00 obviously).
I don't know if B did swim that heat (the fastest and last heat in a timed-final) or if he or someone else caught the error before the race and had the heats re-arranged.
There are other sports where sandbagging actually does affect results.
That's what I was thinking about when I decried wrongful sandbagging accusations. I used to play in the American Pool Association's billiard league which is handicapped. There is undoubtedly some sandbagging that goes on there, and it can clearly affect match results. But the amount of sandbagging accusations also undoubtedly exceed the actual amount--and there's few things more unsportsmanlike or sour grapes than condemning someone who happened to do particularly well at some given event.
Sounds like these swim heat times are not that big a deal.
