The anti-sandbag law:
"if a swimmer enters an event with a time significantly slower or faster than that swimmer's recorded time in the past two years, the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer, change the seeded time to a realistic time" (104.5.5.A(10)).
Concerning my Auburn nationals entry, I confess, when faced with a 7 hour 2 stop flight and 3:45 nonstop at an earlier time, I did what any warm-blooded middle-aged American swimmer with low self-esteem would do--sandbag my entry so I could catch the earlier flight, thus diminishing the possible time spent sitting next to a 400 pound Alabama slammer with sleep apnea wearing nothing but overalls and body odor. Of course, I was caught in my bold fabrication and my time was "fixed."
USMS seems to have an identity problem. Are we hard core with rigid qualifying times? It would seem not as 2 of my not-so-speedy family members were allowed to swim four events last year in Puerto Rico. If we are not hard core, why does anybody care that I sandbag? More to the point, why can one person enter a crappy time and another cannot? Just wondering.:)
And the same thing happens when someone uses a perfectly legal black and white split request.
One thing puzzles me. Can no one swim there own race?
Beat me. But, it's not a race if you have no one to race. Then again, sandbaggers are typically afraid of racing, hence the sandbagging.
I don't claim to be an innocent in this, nor a victim. I did participate in a group sandbag last Fall so that six of us could all be in the same heat of the 1650 and we could race. We put fast times that we felt would guarantee us all be in the same heat. Maybe that was an anti-sandbag.
Listen, sandbag all you want, convince yourself and others it is awesome. Just be mindful that it impacts others, to varying degrees. I think sandbagging is poor sportsmanship, you don't. We don't agree, which is fine.
And the same thing happens when someone uses a perfectly legal black and white split request.
One thing puzzles me. Can no one swim there own race?
Beat me. But, it's not a race if you have no one to race. Then again, sandbaggers are typically afraid of racing, hence the sandbagging.
I don't claim to be an innocent in this, nor a victim. I did participate in a group sandbag last Fall so that six of us could all be in the same heat of the 1650 and we could race. We put fast times that we felt would guarantee us all be in the same heat. Maybe that was an anti-sandbag.
Listen, sandbag all you want, convince yourself and others it is awesome. Just be mindful that it impacts others, to varying degrees. I think sandbagging is poor sportsmanship, you don't. We don't agree, which is fine.
