Who's fastest debate

[geomorph]

Thought this might provoke some new and re-cycled discussion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11400138

My first thought was this is old hat
My second was who cares
my third was could be a bit of fun, but can it/should it be applied to orienteering

Opinions?

[graeme]

Ab esse ad posse it can

All our current guidelines for length ratios are based on this type of analysis (by David May, I believe). They're simply converted from the old "ideal winning times".

[DJM]

my third was could be a bit of fun, but can it/should it be applied to orienteering

Yes it can (almost) - in fact it already is, and has been for some time. As Graeme has pointed out, all course length ratios published by BOF are calculated on the basis of running speed ratios of the different age classes. Ditto courses for WMOC.

I say "almost" as the ratios calculated for, say, an 8km road race are very different from those for 8km in typical orienteering terrain. For example, the tables referred to in the article and published by Alun Jones give an M60 a winning running speed of 0.80 times that of the M20-30 band in a road race. However, data from a large number of events show that M60s run some 10% slower than this in terrain and the lower speed ratio is used for O events.

[geomorph]

So, applying this article's approach, using the aforementioned data from David May?, to a single orienteering course with multiple ages/sexes is creating a handicap race of sorts, but not something that is wanted, I assume?

or is it behind the new rankings?

[DJM]

or is it behind the new rankings?

Not at all! The rankings do not depend on minutes/km data at all but on your time relative to others' times on the same course, modified by how good the others are, i.e. by taking into account their previous rankings points.

The only race data needed are finish times - course lengths are irrelevant!

[CS99er]

This article is essentially about putting every competitor on an equal playing field, taking account of their age and gender. This is used, for example by the parkrun scheme for Saturday morning 5km races (http://www.parkrun.org.uk/)

This is precisely what my article in the June CompassSport sought to do for orienteering - in the context of the national ranking list. In that article I suggested who the top 100 ranked orienteers ought to be on that level playing field. It produced a good mix of ages and genders. However, the profiles used in that article could also be used in the context of a single race. It is ridiculous however, to extend this down to 5 year olds.