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.:)
Parents
Former Member
In Mesa, I was in the fastest heat for my events along with my usual friends and competitors. It's fun to race head-to-head against the best people in the final heat, where on any given day any of us could pull out a win.
A couple of the sprint events, however, were won overall by someone in the second-to-last heat. This seemed unusual. Maybe they had the swim of their lives and dropped a second+ in the 50. And maybe they sandbagged an entry time. Who am I to say?
But to address the original post, I think it's questionable sportsmanship to enter a slow time purely to get clean water ... especially at big meets.
In Mesa, I was in the fastest heat for my events along with my usual friends and competitors. It's fun to race head-to-head against the best people in the final heat, where on any given day any of us could pull out a win.
A couple of the sprint events, however, were won overall by someone in the second-to-last heat. This seemed unusual. Maybe they had the swim of their lives and dropped a second+ in the 50. And maybe they sandbagged an entry time. Who am I to say?
But to address the original post, I think it's questionable sportsmanship to enter a slow time purely to get clean water ... especially at big meets.
