There appears to be a preponderance of evidence, which includes quotes from the winner herself, that the officiating of the open water races was pretty much nonexistent. Apparently the Germans got hammered the most. From the article at Playfuls.com:
- [Britta] Kamrau-Corestein; [pictured above], said that she had wanted to stop swimming. "I just wanted to get out of the water. I just wanted to leave. Nothing went well. I didn't find anything positive about the race. I couldn't focus on the swimming because I was always pulled back and hit by other swimmers.
- "Everyone was just beating each other up. I have never experienced such a race before. It was horrible," said [Angela] Maurer. [Link]
I talked to Nancy at workout last night and she told me at the La Jolla open water swim last year she put Vaseline on her legs in case someone tried to grab her. Well, she said a couple of girls tried and their hands luckily just slipped away. If I do the
Pier to Pier swim this year, I may try it.
4 comments:
The idea of such blatant cheating at these World's is profoundly disturbing. I do think a major cause is the mass start - perhaps they should reconsider the need for a staggered start or actual heats and so reduce the congestion. Overhead monitoring would also target possible cheaters by noting the rapid deceleration of a swimmer and then tagging the offending swimmer behind with a laser. Referees then could go in and pull the offender aside for a few seconds as a penalty. Of course this requires the use of pretty sophisticated military technology but something needs to be done.
If you do the Pier 2 Pier? That may be my 1st open water swim ever. The vaseline idea sounds great I wonder if I can do that in water polo?
Pier to Pier is a mass start of 900 swimmers. The moral equal of an Ironman start. (If you do Pier to Pier, we should introduce ourselves.) P2P is a 2 mile race.
Also note, you have to demonstrate to a city lifeguard that you can swim a day or more in advance. I will do it the Sunday before. Once you do so you are gold for future events.
I recommend The La Jolla rough water swim. The name is an oxymoron. The water is still and warm. (No wetsuits allowed.) Men race together. As do the women. (I hear the women wrestle a bit.)
Distances are 250 yards, 1 mile and 3 mile. I think the starts are staggered. Here is a link: http://www.ljrws.com/ I am leaning towards doing that too.
Scott, I don't think there was any monkey business in the men's races. It may sound sexist; (Well, actually it is sexist), I think men know how irrational a man can get when punched or grabbed and the ramifications therein of a mutually assured destructive exchange sort of outweigh the temptation.
For instance, look at this water polo video from you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBwsw_b8_4A
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