Flashes of Panic

There’s a prediction contest here at the meet. It’s open to “credentialed media only,” and the entry process is such that anyone else probably couldn’t enter anyway. One event per day. Guess the winning mark in the designated event (today it was the javelin; I don’t even know the range these guys throw, so I didn’t enter,) and you win a $20 credit at the USATF-ware tent.

This being named the “swag sweepstakes,” I figure I should enter some SWAGs myself (“SWAG” == “Scientific Wild-Ass Guess”) but I’m open to any suggestions. The remaining events are the men’s 100m final (Friday), the women’s 100m hurdles final (Saturday) and the men’s 200m final (Sunday). Make a suggestion; if I like it better than mine (and I get it before entry) I’ll enter it as mine. In the unlikely event that I win, I’ll find a way to share.

The best part of the entry form is the final paragraph:

In addition, any writer using correct corporate entitlements [e.g. “AT&T Men’s 200m Final”—ed.] for all events on the track or in the field in their printed stories—and who gets their editors to retain the entitlements in the final copy—wins anything they want.*

The footnote: “* As long as we stay it’s OK.”