Junior entries to White Rose Weekend

[frog]

Can't get M12A accepted online. Hope they aren't using the BOF junior system which I hate and don't understand. If they are what's the M12A equivalent? The on line entry explanations give no clues as to the age classes available. The BOF website gives no guidance that I can find as to what the junior classes mean in colour coded terms.
Really wish the just had colour coded and M12 etc and missed out the meaningless initials subgroups.

[Scott]

M12A = JM3 = Orange
As you say, it doesn't seem to be clearly stated anywhere on the British Orienteering website - I found that that by comparing Guidelines B and C.

[MarkM]

I can confirm that from experience, I ran JM3 as an M12 6 years ago and they are the same course.

[Scott]

And from the White Rose website:

Junior courses will be planned in accordance with non-age class arrangements with courses as follows JM1, JW1, JM2, JW2, JM3, JW3, JM4, JW4, JM5L, JM5M, JM5S, JW5L, JW5S.

[frog]

Thanks. Didn't spot that bit on white rose website, went from home to entries.
Why don't BOF just stick to colour coded courses for kids if they don't want them to be age competitive like adults?
I don't see an advantage of "JM3" over "orange".
My son likes to see the ages of the other kids on his course even if doing colour coded though.

[Scott]

If my interpretation of the current state of the Events Structure Review is right, we should have seen the back of JM3 from 2009/10 - it'll be M12A at national events, and orange elsewhere - as you say, a little easier for everyone to get to grips with.

But it's quite probable that I'm wrong: I know some alterations where made to the original proposals, but can't remember what the final conclusions were...

[graeme]

Currently the difference is

M12A is only open to the under 12s
JM3 is only open to juniors
Orange is open to anyone

Under the new proposals it's not that prescriptive. All courses are open to everyone (except at Championship events), but organisers can give awards to, e.g., the first junior and/or first M12 on the orange course.

Graeme

[awk]

Why don't BOF just stick to colour coded courses for kids if they don't want them to be age competitive like adults?
I don't see an advantage of "JM3" over "orange".
My son likes to see the ages of the other kids on his course even if doing colour coded though.

The reason that JM3 and JW3 are used is because:

(a) there are two separate classes, male and female. Orange is for all.
(b) when the scheme was originally proposed, the titles 'boys orange' and 'girls orange' were suggested: the feedback from the juniors was that they didn't want this - there was a fear that planners/organisers would treat the junior classes as inferior to the seniors as they were 'just' colour courses. So the new labels were adopted purely in response to this.

It's not that BOF doesn't want juniors to be age competitive: if that was the case, they would have been binned at national events too. The aim was to provide appropriate competition at the appropriate level, and at regional level enabling juniors to compete against others of a similar technical level and providing a step on from colour codeds was felt to be the main priority.

Guidelines are that age classes should be shown.

Just to confirm: JM3 is equivalent to M12A, JM2 to M12B.