Trauma wrote:
Desert Tortoise wrote:
I don't work for USAT, so I'm not sure about this, but it seems there are two reasons for the use of chip times over gun times.
The first is the issue with ageing-up. If someone is 34 and in the 30--34 age ground, they'll be aged-up to the 35--39 age group. You cannot use place to determine their position in the new age group.
The second is safety at the start line. Allowing athletes to start at the back with no penalty makes it less stressful for everyone.
That first point doesn't make sense... You're still racing the people around you, aging up or not. When I've been racing for qualifying spots, I'm making sure that I try to pass/catch anyone I can see that is in the age group beneath me, just in case (or the one above me, if I am in an age up year...)...
I get the safety at the line point, but have rarely seen a duathlon where it took more than 5seconds for everyone to cross the line on a mass start (usually if it gets beyond that, they split the field into a few waves, as they do at ITU worlds).
The first point makes perfect sense. You're just have a hard time thinking it through. And you've goofed up my second point.
Allow me to help. Again...
Nationals are not just about determining a US champion who crosses the finish line first. They are also a qualifying event for World's. In fact, that's exactly what the vast majority of competitors are there for. The age-ing up issue requires that you either have everyone on the starting line at the same time, or you use time for everyone. You need one ruler. For everyone.
Because the venues usually have space issues, they've gone with time, applied it across all races and have informed all competitors of this. That means Nationals are less about racing head-to-head and more about time trialing.
And everyone knows this before the race starts.
(Your strategy of racing against other competitors is probably not a great approach since you and everyone else is racing against the clock. They told you that before the race stated.)
If you are coming to the finish line, you'd better not ease up for any reason because you are still competing against people you might not be able to see. If you are in the lead and racing for the title, then you need to do your best to the line since the guy behind you may have started 10 seconds after you. And if you are racing for a spot on the National team, you'd better do the same since the aging up process could knock you down eight places. (That happened to me in 2015. Sucked.)
If you think the safety issues just involve getting across the start line within five seconds, then you seem to not recall Nationals in Bend. The first and last 1/2 mile was run on a thin path made of boards placed on top of wet grass with two directions of traffic. I waited 10 seconds before starting and still had trouble. This was a safety issue brought on by the configurations of the venue, and the USAT folks did the best they could.
So the USAT folks went with time for perfectly good reasons.
And told everyone before the race started. They could go with your approach, but it would add another layer of complexity to an already complex situation. I'm not against your suggestion to treat Nationals as two distinct races (National Championship and World Qualifier) held at the same time but under different rules, but I wouldn't want to be the one explaining it to everyone.
Does that help?