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.:)
If people sandbag get a kick out of crushing a heat, that it rather odd. As for the other point, I have already admitted sandbagging in mixed gender meets where the fast women get the outside lanes and the fast men are in the center lanes. I don't think that is very sportsmanlike either.
In your mind you don't think it is unsportsmanlike to sandbag when it benefits you (mixed gender meet, avoid outside lanes, etc.). I also understand your concern about not wanting to swim next to a big giant who makes a lot of waves. Guess what - I don't either! Because Clay is 1.5x my size should it be ok for me to sandbag so I don't have to swim next to him at the Albatross? Maybe we should ask for height and weight on the entry form so we can seed heats by size.
The fact remains that you end up being placed next to somebody else who has a much slower time than you. In your mind this is fair because now you don't have to swim in an end lane or next to a "fast guy." So why is this not unfair to that swimmer who is next to you now who gets to see you blow their doors off?
If people sandbag get a kick out of crushing a heat, that it rather odd. As for the other point, I have already admitted sandbagging in mixed gender meets where the fast women get the outside lanes and the fast men are in the center lanes. I don't think that is very sportsmanlike either.
In your mind you don't think it is unsportsmanlike to sandbag when it benefits you (mixed gender meet, avoid outside lanes, etc.). I also understand your concern about not wanting to swim next to a big giant who makes a lot of waves. Guess what - I don't either! Because Clay is 1.5x my size should it be ok for me to sandbag so I don't have to swim next to him at the Albatross? Maybe we should ask for height and weight on the entry form so we can seed heats by size.
The fact remains that you end up being placed next to somebody else who has a much slower time than you. In your mind this is fair because now you don't have to swim in an end lane or next to a "fast guy." So why is this not unfair to that swimmer who is next to you now who gets to see you blow their doors off?
