Regional Events - Have we got it right

[LostOldTimer]

From the latest CompassSport magazine...
Following the Survey from the Scottish 6 days, it seems 88% preferred the original format of Age classes for Regional events (What a suprise!)
Lyn West, on behalf of British Orienteering responded:
"...there will be widespread consultation with the membership to obtain a clear understanding of what different orienteers actually want."
It is a pity there wasn't widespread consultation before this decision / change was made.
Oh, and didnt I/we say we shouldn't do away with Age classes?

[Gnitworp]

I like age-class competition in any event in which a decent number of M60s will take part on the same course. Before the 'change' I got this in 'Regional' Events. Since the 'change' in 'Regional Equivalent' events I seem to have got exactly the same thing, except that any other classes that run the same course are put in the same results list. As this highlights all the M55s (and M16s, W35s etc ), hopefully to their embarrassment , that I've beaten, I think I prefer this way of presenting the results. Very few people seem to be running 'down' below the 'suggested' course for their class , which suggests that people like an age-class structure, which to all intents and purposes they still seem to have.

BTW making the few people running 'down' 'competitive' rather than 'non-competitive' is a fairly academic exercise since in both cases their times are published, and to me 'competitive' or 'non-competitive' is simply how I choose to regard them.

[SeanC]

Jim, IMHO no embarrassment to be beaten by you, but you make a good target for W35's and M55's who don't have enough competition in their age class.

Looking at the CHIG results for Sunday you're right, there are few people running down, but this is not surprising as participants are mostly experienced orienteers. However these people might be few in number but it's important to make them welcome. These could be new orienteers, possibly not ready for courses like "M21S" and maybe won't stay on short courses for long. Personally I find being made "non -competitive" unwelcoming, even if I am uncompetitive, though I might be unusual.

Reading the CompassSport article I sense that a compromise that would make most people happy would be to make it a requirement that regional events display results both by course and by age, at least where the course is an A class for that age category. Not sure how practical this is.

[Gnitworp]

Reading the CompassSport article I sense that a compromise that would make most people happy would be to make it a requirement that regional events display results both by course and by age, at least where the course is an A class for that age category. Not sure how practical this is.

This has been done for several events so far, e.g., November Classic

[andypat]

These are good points and i think a lot depends on whether particpant numbers increase or decrease. As a reasonably competent but not too fit orienteer I'm happier to see myself mid way down a blue course of 100 or so than 3rd out of 4 M40s competitors. How that is managed is neither here nor there to me.

[andypat]

And on a slightly different note - if the Scottish Score Championships has to be listed as a local event then, No, I dont think we have got it right. How is it that the JOK chasing sprint is a "regional" event but the Scottish score isnt? Confused....

[keever]

if the Scottish Score Championships has to be listed as a local event then, No, I dont think we have got it right.

Does that really matter? It should be obvious enough from the name what it is. It isn't exactly prestigious anyway.

[Mrs H]

I was wondering LOT when you had not been able to run an age class when you had wanted/expected to?

The situation as is seems almost perfect to me - age class people get to run together, I get to run a green course - which is between my long and short course and nutters like Lumpy Lycra get to run black and we can all feel ourselves to be competitive.

Ironically next year I go up an age class and green will probably be my designated L course which I intend to run on all but multi-day events - I wonder if I would have made that move if the course was called W55L instead of green - I'm not sure I would have felt so comfortable doing it as having been told all my orienteering life that short courses were for second class orienteers - I'd probably have stayed there recognising myself to be one.

[graeme]

From the latest CompassSport magazine...

Well that's not what CompassSport said, and its not what the questionnaire asked, and its not even what the proposers asked for.

What has always been clear is that many experienced orienteers like to compare themselves with other in the traditional 5 year age classes in some events. Nothing stops this happening now. All that has changed is that relatively inexperienced younger competitors can run competitively on courses of appropriate length (and get beaten by gnitworp). About a third of people at SOLs in practice choose to run out of age class, (and for the others, it may well be that BOF did a good job of assigning their age group to the distance they wanted to run anyway). This just shows how absurd this gerrymandered 88% number is.

andypat asks why the JOK Chasing Sprint is "regional". It's a long established high quality event for which people travel long distances, it takes competition seriously and recognises its winners both with trophies and kudos (Here's the 15 year role of honour - http://www.jok.org.uk/chasing_sprint ... can other regional events provide that information, or indeed that quality of champions?). 5 year age classes would make little sense*, you need reasonable numbers for an exciting head-to-head. It would be absurd to call an event staged by a SCOA club in Edinburgh "local" just because we don't split the race into five year brackets.

Compare with the Scottish Score, where only 3 classes had more than 8 people in them. An improvement on last year, and all good fun, but still not really much of a competition.

* Though it might be time to introduce a supervet class.

[Mrs H]

* Though it might be time to introduce a supervet class.

Yes - Can you do that before next year please?

[LostOldTimer]

from Mrs H

I was wondering LOT when you had not been able to run an age class when you had wanted/expected to?

I have deliberately 'missed' several events that have either been re-classified or did not offer age-classes. Had they still been the old 'Badge' events, the I most likely would have competed.

[Gnitworp]

I think you've missed some good events.

[Mrs H]

But the age class template is laid out in Event Guideline B - you just have to look for yourself to see what they are if the organiser hasn't told you. It's simples!

[distracted]

I have deliberately 'missed' several events that have either been re-classified or did not offer age-classes. Had they still been the old 'Badge' events, the I most likely would have competed.

Just because the organisers don't display the results in a particular format (and you're clearly too lazy to work it out for yourself)? How petty...

[andy]

As I said in another thread long long ago

"I just want to go orienteering"

Who cares what the classification of an event is? Who cares if it has age classes? If you want to run against your peers, ask them what course they are running and run that one. Make a decision on whether to go to an event based on the quality of the terrain, distance to travel, quality of the competition(as in the other people running), availability etc, not the classification of the event which in most cases is probably set to what it is to avoid doing some BO(F) paperwork*

*this might not actually be true, I have no idea as I don't organise events.