british sprint ranking points

[EddieH]

I notice that ranking points have been awarded separately for the two individual sprint races, unlike the surely much more sensible single set of points for the combined result (the only one that matters) which was used last year.

Surely someone that is having a great day on a favourite area should not get his points twice over.

[IanD]

I beg to differ. Two separate courses were run, producing two separate results, and IMO that should be two sets of ranking points. The fact that the two separate results were aggregated together to decide a championship is irrelevant to the ranking system.

If the two events had been on consecutive days, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Why should the fact that they were on the same day have any relevance?

[DavidJ]

Surely someone that is having a great day on a favourite area should not get his points twice over.

My two races are in my top 6 so it looks good to me I had been hoping that the combination would also have been ranked so that would almost certainly have given me 3 in my top 6

[awk]

If you add the results together, the combined result is not for a sprint race. By keeping them separate, they are, at least, being treated as sprints.

[Marco Polo]

From the arguments put so far, you could push for ranking points for the elite sprint heats or the prologue of the Sheffield Urban. I don't think I'd agree with that and it would be worth seeing a clear definition of what is in and what is not.

[EddieH]

Well I definitely think that no qualification heat should ever be used - those that feel sure to qualify are trying to do just that, not race.

[Zokko!]

From the arguments put so far, you could push for ranking points for the elite sprint heats

2.1.4 The results of all races (Heats and Finals) should be submitted to the BOF
Ranking Scheme. See Appendix K (The Ranking Scheme) for details of how to
do this. The future of the Ranking scheme is still to be determined, but the
outcome will be inserted here before the 2010 event takes place.

The above quote is from the Event Rules currently available from the BOF website. Needless to say there was no change made before the event, held in April. At the time I could only upload one set of results because of the way the event was registered. It would have had to be registered as two separate events (heats and finals) for the ranking points upload to work on both. I queried this at the time with the BOF Event Manager but no changes were made. Presumably someone in BOF decided that ranking points should only be earned in the finals. Funny how the Age Class Sprints have been dealt with differently.

[NeilC]

For the age class sprints some sort of dummy events had to be set up in the system to allow the individual races to be uploaded and ranked as well as for the overall results to be uploaded (but not ranked).

The same problem occurred with the JOK chasing sprint whereby the prologue (but not the final) could be ranked but there was only one event registered which was used to upload the combined results. This was never sorted though.

I don't know whether the developers were unaware of the fact that some events consisted of mutiple races or just decided that it was too much hassle/cost to implement something to deal with this.

Perhaps it's not too late to try and get the heats ranked - I believe that BAOC went directly through Mike Hamilton to get the age class sprints sorted.

[Marco Polo]

Neil, Zokko,

Thanks- interesting to see that ranking had been considered for these kinds of races. That is a nod to consistency at least. Would be good to have clear guidance.

[IanD]

Funny how the Age Class Sprints have been dealt with differently.

Well I definitely think that no qualification heat should ever be used - those that feel sure to qualify are trying to do just that, not race.

The two Elite Sprint races were a Qualifier and a Final, championship title decided on the final race only. The two Age-Class Sprint races were equal, aggregate time across both to decide the title.

I don't know whether Eddie's view that Qualifiers should not count for ranking points will eventually prevail, but whether by accident or design, that is the current situation with the two Sprint Champs this year.

[andypat]

I think Eddie's right on that point in principle. If some events such as night, score etc are not being ranked on the basis that there could be anomalies, then the same may apply to qualifiers for the reasons given by Eddie.

[NeilC]

Except that in any given "race" there will be people not trying their hardest because of injury or treating it as a training exercise etc etc. I suspect that for the recent elite sprints there were very few people who could go into cruise mode certain of qualifying. May be different next year mind you.

[EddieH]

Quote "I suspect that for the recent elite sprints there were very few people who could go into cruise mode certain of qualifying. May be different next year mind you."

Precisely - the age group sprint qualifiers with 50% qualifying will be a very different matter. Not too many top guys are likely to be sprinting too hard in them.

If by some insanse misjudgement qualifiers are included, then I would recommend anyone that cares deeply about their ranking to pick any event with a qualifier and really leg it round that.

[NeilC]

Ah, but making the A final (even when so many qualify) is not always as simple as one might imagine
http://www.wmoc2008.fpo.pt/results/sf_m55.html

[EddieH]