With more and more people swimming in open water events, what is the best way to separate the heats: by gender? by speed? by age? by swimwear (wetsuit vs. non-wetsuit)? by swimmer's choice?
The need to maintain safety and segregate the swimmers into separate heats becomes more evident. But this raises many issues - none of which are easy to resolve.
If the heats are separated by speed, how do the race organizers best separate the swimmers? Is it by their best times in a pool event? If so, what pool event: the 400-meter free, the 800-meter free, the 1500-meter free? If it is by the open water races, is it by their performance in last year's event? At a different open water event? If so, what are the parameters of the open water qualification swim?
If the heats are separated by gender, and the women's heats go behind the men, is that fair to the elite women? If the heats are separated by age, what are the optimal age breaks?
An online poll at The Daily News of Open Water Swimming is showing some interesting poll results after the first few days.
The Big Shoulders this past year sent off a fast wave first. This fast wave was based on established open water times and was reserved for those who truly hoped to compete for a top finishing spot. I can't remember if it included women or not, but it should have if it didn't.
According to the psych sheet (thanks Gmail archive!), 10 of the 50 "elite wave" swimmers were women. The same ratio (2) placed in the top 10 overall. One of them is a current open-water national team member, and other is a former 5K world champion.
Needless to say, the first couple hundred meters was a huge cluster****.
In my country (NED - The Netherlands) all stats in swims that can be bisexual are regulated in the swimming rules:
distances over 5km do not have segregation (of sexes) if the organizer chooses so.
young swimmers (under 12) can always swim together if the organizer chooses so.
when the male and female starts have a combined total of less than 30 swimmers if the organizer chooses so.
The programmes are usually extensive. seprarate distances for all age groups and for Masters. An ordinary swimming day (in open water) has about 20 starts. OK we do separate breastsroke too.
We, as a standard, do not use wet suits (conform FINA). Of course the Blue70 suits were treated with suspicion. But we follow FINA and we allowed them. That was a mistake. FINA corrected that and they were banned duly. A bit of protest there!
In my country it was a non-issue until Edith van Dijk wished to swim with the men for competition sake. She would not win any prizes with the women, even if she had the best time (of course she would have). The federation did not permit it on besis of the rules. The basics are that women and men compete in seperate heats (in the pool). So that should apply in open water too.
The TOWC has made it possible to (sometimes) swim together on organisatorical argumentations. But not as a rule.
In the most cases we are fine with the rules. I do not know what will happen if we have over 150 participant at the starting line. We have regulated the wave start, but no organization nor judges have dared to go for this novel method.
Sweden's largest OW event is Vansbro in July. it became a race in 1956. there are several races during the weekend. this year a 10km and 1500m on friday. a 5km and 1km on saturday and the main 3km on sunday.
temps are around 15-19C in a river. the most popular race is the 3km on sunday. It's roughly 2km down stream in one river, and the turn up stream in another.
Last year there were nearly 6,000 who started the race. for years it was anyone who wanted to "race" was in the first start group up to 300 people. then a new group of up to 300 every 15 minutes. last year they finally realized they needed several groups for those that wanted to race, and not just swim it as an "amatuer" class. not sure how to translate the nonracing group. either way.
there is no seeding or heats based on gender or age. in the racing start group men have one color cap and women another color. then every start group after has a different color. it's pretty cool to watch the last few heats swim by because you can see if someone is more than 15 minutes ahead or behind based on the color of the caps.
but last year they started seeding the first 5 heats by time. in order to swim in the first start group you have to have swam the race under 40:00 or be able to show that your 1500m pool time is fast enough that you should be under 40:00, it's basically up to the race officials to decide your placement in the first heat. the second heat is under 50:00 and then 55, 60 and 60 and in the second group of 60 they throw in all those who have swam more than 7 times previously as a benefit to being loyal to the race. then there are up to 15 heats.
for reference the winning time is usually around 31. and top 100 for men has been around 40-45 depending on water conditions and for women top 100 is around 45-48.
The only race that is not seeded is the short 1km it's also the only beach start. the other races are floating starts.
