Lane no.s in swim-off

I thought it was cool that there were 9 women in the 800 free final today. There was a tie for 8th, so rather than have them do a swimoff for such a long event, they put one of them in lane 8 and one of them in lane 0 for the final. Of course it helps to have a 10-lane pool handy... I wonder what rule allowed them to do that? It introduces a number of interesting questions: * The person who was swimming in lane 1 expected to have open water to one side of them. Depending on the speed of the person in lane 0, that swimmer could help or hinder. I.e., what if lane 1 wins by a hair, only because they were able to drag off the swimmer in lane 0 for 750 meters, and sprint at the end? * In prelims/finals, you're stick in top-8, bottom-8. With 9 swimmers in finals... how does that work? I would assume that the top 7 qualifiers could not drop below 8th. What happens if lanes 8 and 0 (qualifiers tied for 8th) go 1-2 in the final and beat everyone else in the final? Does that mean that 1st stays 1st, and 2nd becomes 9th? (Whoever would have lost the swim-off should be no higher than 9th.) Or could they bump down further? * How do you seed the consolation final? Leave lane 4 empty? Or fill it, and leave lane 8 empty? Either way, that changes the dynamics of the race in the consolation final. If you take the situation that the slower of the tied-for-8th-qualifiers gets bumped into the 9-16 placing. Then you'd have the consolation finalists racing against someone not in their heat for placing. For this example, number the qualifiers Q1-Q7, Q8a, Q8b (the two tied for 8th), and Q10-Q16. You have the bizarre scenario where: * In the championship final, Q8a wins, Q8b is second by 0.01 seconds. * In the consolation final, Q10-Q16 are all faster than everyone in the championship final. * How does the placing work out? Do you have Q8a is 1st overall, and Q8b is 16th overall, their times being 0.01 second apart. What if Q8a and Q8b tie in the finals? What happens then? What if Q8b finishes last in the championship final. Clearly that swimmer would be 9th or lower. But that person's time is 0.01 second faster than the winner in the consolation final. The winner in the consolation final wins by 30 seconds. But in placing got beat out for 9th place points by 0.01 seconds by someone in a different heat that they couldn't race directly against. Way too many questions here for my comfort. :-) -Rick

I thought it was cool that there were 9 women in the 800 free final today. There was a tie for 8th, so rather than have them do a swimoff for such a long event, they put one of them in lane 8 and one of them in lane 0 for the final. Of course it helps to have a 10-lane pool handy... I wonder what rule allowed them to do that? It introduces a number of interesting questions: * The person who was swimming in lane 1 expected to have open water to one side of them. Depending on the speed of the person in lane 0, that swimmer could help or hinder. I.e., what if lane 1 wins by a hair, only because they were able to drag off the swimmer in lane 0 for 750 meters, and sprint at the end? * In prelims/finals, you're stick in top-8, bottom-8. With 9 swimmers in finals... how does that work? I would assume that the top 7 qualifiers could not drop below 8th. What happens if lanes 8 and 0 (qualifiers tied for 8th) go 1-2 in the final and beat everyone else in the final? Does that mean that 1st stays 1st, and 2nd becomes 9th? (Whoever would have lost the swim-off should be no higher than 9th.) Or could they bump down further? * How do you seed the consolation final? Leave lane 4 empty? Or fill it, and leave lane 8 empty? Either way, that changes the dynamics of the race in the consolation final. If you take the situation that the slower of the tied-for-8th-qualifiers gets bumped into the 9-16 placing. Then you'd have the consolation finalists racing against someone not in their heat for placing. For this example, number the qualifiers Q1-Q7, Q8a, Q8b (the two tied for 8th), and Q10-Q16. You have the bizarre scenario where: * In the championship final, Q8a wins, Q8b is second by 0.01 seconds. * In the consolation final, Q10-Q16 are all faster than everyone in the championship final. * How does the placing work out? Do you have Q8a is 1st overall, and Q8b is 16th overall, their times being 0.01 second apart. What if Q8a and Q8b tie in the finals? What happens then? What if Q8b finishes last in the championship final. Clearly that swimmer would be 9th or lower. But that person's time is 0.01 second faster than the winner in the consolation final. The winner in the consolation final wins by 30 seconds. But in placing got beat out for 9th place points by 0.01 seconds by someone in a different heat that they couldn't race directly against. Way too many questions here for my comfort. :-) -Rick