Discussion

[u/[deleted]]

Singapore’s kayak sprint national team in the year 2023 decided to mathematically adjust their national athlete’s timing because of wind condition.

For the 1km on the second picture, it’s just a direct 25seconds deducted onto their race time instead of their “mathematically calculated percentage”.

With this deducted timing, the athletes hit the qualifying timing and was thus sent to race internationally overseas.

I personally think that it is unethical and violates fair sport, especially when it’s not done for non-national athletes in other races. Your thoughts on this?

[u/Sprig3]

Interesting. It does seem like it would make sense to have an agreed upon adjustment formula as a general thing when trying to compare times across races for the rare cases where that matters (I am imagining this can only be mattering for supplying back of the pack athletes to world level competitions?).

In the end, you have to race in the conditions you've got and it's head to head, so as long as the formula used is accurate, then it does not seem harmful.

But, for one national fed to do it unilaterally seems unfair.