Anonymous wrote:...and if you are, for example, a 16 year old running M/WJ3 or 4 then you often know that there are 12/14 year olds beating you and some clubs even publish year of births on the start lists. This is no different than running a B and knowing it's the same course as the A on the year below.
Stick to one thing we understand - AGE CLASSES.
The thing is Guest, you're missing quite a number of points. Perhaps the biggest one is that you may understand the age classes, but most juniors coming in to regional events don't. They have come in through the colour coded system, and often don't understand the age class system at all. Actually, what we found after the scheme was piloted for 2 years in the north was that many youngster running regional events hadn't got a clue what age class they were in or how the age class structure worked, but were quite comfortable with the skill level they were running at. Stick to something we understand?!