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.:)
Where does the rule book provide guidelines for entry times?
I think I have implied several times that there are no official guidelines for submitting seed times and if there is, I am really surprised no one called me on this.
From the 2011 Rule Book (Glossary, p.xiv):
Submitted Times—those filed with an entry as having been previously achieved or reasonably estimated; also known as seed times.
Obviously "reasonably estimated" can be quite subjective. I suppose a meet director might have to exercise a "Justice Potter Stewart" decision to determine whether or not it is an attempted sandbag because if it isn't obvious the meet director should err on the side of the swimmer. Or maybe we should set up a poll on these Forums with all of the data and everybody can vote (just kidding...).
For Nationals the meet director is permitted to change the time but is required to first discuss it with the swimmer. I don't believe there are any such restrictions for meet directors at other meets. But in the case of when I've changed a seed time in a local meet, I used the rulebook definition above as my justification.
Jeff
Where does the rule book provide guidelines for entry times?
I think I have implied several times that there are no official guidelines for submitting seed times and if there is, I am really surprised no one called me on this.
From the 2011 Rule Book (Glossary, p.xiv):
Submitted Times—those filed with an entry as having been previously achieved or reasonably estimated; also known as seed times.
Obviously "reasonably estimated" can be quite subjective. I suppose a meet director might have to exercise a "Justice Potter Stewart" decision to determine whether or not it is an attempted sandbag because if it isn't obvious the meet director should err on the side of the swimmer. Or maybe we should set up a poll on these Forums with all of the data and everybody can vote (just kidding...).
For Nationals the meet director is permitted to change the time but is required to first discuss it with the swimmer. I don't believe there are any such restrictions for meet directors at other meets. But in the case of when I've changed a seed time in a local meet, I used the rulebook definition above as my justification.
Jeff
