Why do we continue to lead off the 2nd,3rd and 4th days of the meet each year with a distance event? I can think of NOTHING more deadening to the atmosphere of a swim meet than dozens of heats of 400IM and 500 free. We need to start the meet with the 50 freestyle and get the place rockin' !! Stick the long events at the end of the meet each day after the relay and give the majority of participants the opportunity to spend less time at the pool.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
1. Women 1000 Freestyle 2. Men 1000 Freestyle
3. Women 1650 Freestyle 4. Men 1650 Freestyle
Friday, May 2, 2008
5. Women 400 Individual Medley 6. Men 400 Individual Medley
7. Women 50 Butterfly 8. Men 50 Butterfly
9. Women 200 Backstroke 10. Men 200 Backstroke
11. Women 100 Breaststroke 12. Men 100 Breaststroke
13. Women 50 Freestyle 14. Men 50 Freestyle
15. Mixed 200 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, May 3, 2008
17. Women 500 Freestyle
19. Women 100 Individual Medley 20. Men 100 Individual Medley
21. Women 200 Butterfly 22. Men 200 Butterfly
23. Women 100 Backstroke 24. Men 100 Backstroke
25. Women 50 Breaststroke 26. Men 50 Breaststroke
27. Women 200 Freestyle 28. Men 200 Freestyle
29. Mixed 200 Medley Relay
31. Women 200 Freestyle Relay 32. Men 200 Freestyle Relay
Sunday, May 4, 2008
34. Men 500 Freestyle
35. Women 200 Breaststroke 36. Men 200 Breaststroke
37. Women 100 Butterfly 38. Men 100 Butterfly
39. Women 50 Backstroke 40. Men 50 Backstroke
41. Women 200 Individual Medley 42. Men 200 Individual Medley
43. Women 100 Freestyle 44. Men 100 Freestyle
45. Women 200 Medley Relay 46. Men 200 Medley Relay
Maybe because the two courses were not identical? The way we did it, everyone swam roughly equally in both courses, assuming they did both days. At the GMU pool, I like the shallow end better; the metal walls were slippery on the deep end.
I did object to the order of events, though: 50 fly directly followed 200 back, and then 50 back directly followed 200 fly later the same day. Enough of this discrimination against buttefly/backstrokers! That's why we have breaststroke -- to give the real swimmers some rest between their events.
I like Rick's reasoning a lot but don't think we have a big enough Zones meet to justify 3 days.
That's probably correct. But we could wait on the start of the women's events to keep the timeline even in both pools.
I like the slippery deep end better and historically have always swum faster there, even though the other pool is supposed to be faster and is where the finals of championship meets are held. I regularly botch freestyle flip turns in the bulkhead pool.
OK, that would explain it. The only meet I've even seen this done was 2006 Worlds at Stanford. There the two pools were very different, so men and women flip-flopped between them on alternating days.
Pacific's course was equal so we did odd/even as well...Until the last event - the men's 1000 - and of course, in trying to make the meet conclude on both courses at the same time, well, let's just say it should have been left alone and everything would have been just fine.
Maybe because the two courses were not identical? The way we did it, everyone swam roughly equally in both courses, assuming they did both days. At the GMU pool, I like the shallow end better; the metal walls were slippery on the deep end.
That is exactly the reason they have to do a mens and womens course for GMU.
Back to topic...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I think it is a load that the mens 500 is swum the day after the womens in 3 out of every 4 nationals. At least this time, the rest of the order of events is so crappy, and it is first on Sunday that it won't be the very last event of the meet like last year.
Also... some of us distance people also like swimming some of the shorter events too, so I'm not a fan of the separate distance Nationals. How discriminatory.
In the meantime, enjoy all that extra rest and sleep.
Pacific's course was equal so we did odd/even as well...Until the last event - the men's 1000 - and of course, in trying to make the meet conclude on both courses at the same time, well, let's just say it should have been left alone and everything would have been just fine.
:wiggle:
The even pool women were finished well before the odd pool, so they chose to put heat 1 in the even pool. So it went 1, 2, 4, 6 and (theoretically) 8 in the even pool, while they went 3, 5, 7, 9 in the odd. These faster heats ended up finishing ahead of heat 6 by a significant margin, so they moved heat 8 to the odd pool at the conclusion of heat 9.
What they should have done was to flip heats 1 and 2 so that it would go like this:
odd pool:
2, 3, 5, 7, 9
even pool:
1, 4, 6, 8
In fact, I think they should do this more frequently, like in the long events such as the 400IM or events where the first heat will take 12 minutes but the 2nd heat will take 6 or even 5.
'Course... I know that that would create heartaches.
But I did enjoy my extra long shower while you were swimming the 1000 free, Jim. :lmao:
Swimmers should be allowed to leave early and not be held hostage by dozens of 400IM heats and 500s.
You can admit it, John. You just want to start drinking earlier. :drink:
osterber,
While I understand you logic in trying to "build" the days events with excitement, I must point out that this is an all day affair. There is no building from beginning to end in an event like this. It's a virtual marathon! It's a packed POW camp for old rotting swimmers. The only thing that builds throughout the day is the heat, body oder and claustrophobia. Swimmers should be allowed to leave early and not be held hostage by dozens of 400IM heats and 500s.
John Smith
Looking at the pool assigments for Worlds in Perth, it seems pretty fair to me.
I like the fact that all the *** events are in the same pool. as well as all the relays men and women.
