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.
You can do whatever you want, just make it very clear on the entry form. Google "Big Shoulder's" entry form. They make it clear that there will be multiple awards in age groups for naked 5K swimmers. All other races (2.5K, and wetsuits in 2.5K and 5K) will recognize the over-all winner only. No one can complain if it is all spelled out on the entry form!
You can do whatever you want, just make it very clear on the entry form. Google "Big Shoulder's" entry form. They make it clear that there will be multiple awards in age groups for naked 5K swimmers. All other races (2.5K, and wetsuits in 2.5K and 5K) will recognize the over-all winner only. No one can complain if it is all spelled out on the entry form!
