I organized a swim recently and we had non-wetsuit and wetsuit categories. I'm fine with accommodating wetsuits for open water swimming. However, the challenge comes up in the awards portion. Should wetsuit swimmers be entitled to the exact same type of awards as non-wetsuit swimmers? The problem this poses as an organizer is that suddenly you need to purchase twice the number of awards to accommodate a separate division (wetsuit), even though everyone's swimming the same race.
What might be fair for next time (learning as I go) is to award the top 3 male/female non-wetsuit swimmers for each event, but just the #1 male and female in the wetsuit category for each event. They at least get acknowledged for their efforts.
Curious if anyone else has thoughts on this.
Parents
Former Member
I think if you award for naked you have to award for suited if you offer it as a second category (well, you don't HAVE to do anything), and I can see how that would get unwieldy and/or more expensive.
Does everyone start together? If so, it would not be uncommon to have a rule that says wetsuit wearers not eligible for awards. If that's the rule going in, then everyone knows. If you just do #1 for suits and 1-3 for nakeds, people that are 2-3 suits may wonder why they aren't getting awards. I know that also would be a rule going in, but people get weird at races about awards and such.
Last race I did someone posted on active that they came in third in AG (out of 6 :^) , they had never heard of awards for first place only (as the athlete's guide clearly stated), and wanted the organizers to mail them an award.....
I think if you award for naked you have to award for suited if you offer it as a second category (well, you don't HAVE to do anything), and I can see how that would get unwieldy and/or more expensive.
Does everyone start together? If so, it would not be uncommon to have a rule that says wetsuit wearers not eligible for awards. If that's the rule going in, then everyone knows. If you just do #1 for suits and 1-3 for nakeds, people that are 2-3 suits may wonder why they aren't getting awards. I know that also would be a rule going in, but people get weird at races about awards and such.
Last race I did someone posted on active that they came in third in AG (out of 6 :^) , they had never heard of awards for first place only (as the athlete's guide clearly stated), and wanted the organizers to mail them an award.....
