One interesting note... and I need to check the USA Swimming rulebook more closely for a reference. In all my workings with nationally-certified USA Swimming admin refs, they repeatedly pointed out that when using touchpads (i.e., automatic primary system), in the event of a pad malfunction, a corrected time (i.e., adjusted/calculated button, etc.) is then considered an automatic time.
I.e., if you're running a meet with touchpads, with one backup timer per lane, and have a pad malfunction on a finish... if you make the appropriate correction to the single button time, then that corrected/adjusted time is considered an automatic time for the purposes of the rules, records, etc.
Yes. I had a conversation with Charlie Cockrell (Officials chair) about this very issue. He said that 3 timers are only needed if they are the *primary* timing system.
So I wondered why at meets that have 2 timers/lane, there are often instructions that you should request a third timer if you are going for a record? I forgot to ask Charlie this, but I think the reason is that sometimes the pad simply fails to register. Or possibly a swimmer misses the pad. If there is NO time, then an adjustment is not possible and you need the 3 timers.
One interesting note... and I need to check the USA Swimming rulebook more closely for a reference. In all my workings with nationally-certified USA Swimming admin refs, they repeatedly pointed out that when using touchpads (i.e., automatic primary system), in the event of a pad malfunction, a corrected time (i.e., adjusted/calculated button, etc.) is then considered an automatic time.
I.e., if you're running a meet with touchpads, with one backup timer per lane, and have a pad malfunction on a finish... if you make the appropriate correction to the single button time, then that corrected/adjusted time is considered an automatic time for the purposes of the rules, records, etc.
Yes. I had a conversation with Charlie Cockrell (Officials chair) about this very issue. He said that 3 timers are only needed if they are the *primary* timing system.
So I wondered why at meets that have 2 timers/lane, there are often instructions that you should request a third timer if you are going for a record? I forgot to ask Charlie this, but I think the reason is that sometimes the pad simply fails to register. Or possibly a swimmer misses the pad. If there is NO time, then an adjustment is not possible and you need the 3 timers.
