A number of people have asked the question, "What happened last night that caused the delay to the start of the meet?"

Bottom-line, it was the starting system/console equipment. This equipment records the start and finish timing details for each swimmer in the heat.  Prior to warm-up in the competition pool, the console was extensively tested and everything worked perfectly.  

When the meet was about to start, there was another test of the system.  During this test, it appeared as though there was a problem with a cable connection.  Initially, it was thought that during warm-up, a cable was kicked and disconnected. After investigating and trying a few possible solutions, it was determine that the problem was not with the cable connection but with the console itself.  The console was replaced with a backup console, all cables reconnected, the console was reload with the meet details and all the equipment checked out again.  Everything finally worked and the meet started.