Scott wrote:the IOF has changed its mind about how the new Long course lengths are going to be defined
Not quite ... for a start, it's new times rather than lengths which are being defined.
It's correct that there was some mind changing however, and this related to a proposal that "target times", i.e. the average of the first three finishers, should replace winning times in the Rules.
There was a good deal of opposition to this and we have now gone back to publishing winning times as before.