Bad Time for the Clock to Stop

[Camron Rust]

I'm not using my count to make the change or a fraction of a second in either direction. Accuracy across 5 or 10 seconds is just not high enough to correct such small differences.

If after starting a count at 5.3, someone gets to 5 and the clock still shows 1.6, one of a few things happened: the count was fast, the official observed the wrong time, the clock started late, or the clock stopped early. If the clock was already running, it can't be that the clock started late. It is very unlikely that clock stopped early. It happens but 99% of the clock errors deal with the starting of the clock or not stopping it in time.

So, that leaves us with two most probable options that are both mistakes by the official.

Regardless of the difference in the count vs what came off the clocks, if you don't know that it was not running at a time when it should have been, I don't think you can say that it is an obvious timing mistake when the difference is on the order of 1 second.