WMOC2011 start times

[RanaldMacdonald]

The start times are up at: http://wmoc2011.hu/results/WMOC_Rajtlista.html

Our start times are rather a long way apart:

Sprint qualifier: Ranald 13.40 Viv 15.29

Long qualifier 1: Ranald 13.22 Viv 11.34

Long qualifier 2: Ranald 10.36 Viv 13.15

I've contacted the organisers to see if there's a chance of bringing them a bit closer together ...

Anyone else got similar 'splits'?

[EddieH]

That sort of division of start times is typical of many foreign countries, particularly Scandinavia.

I have often heard foreigners saying that family/ club start blocks is one of the really good thing about coming to Britain.

[DJM]

Having heats at WMOC means that they more or less have to be organised in two consecutive blocks, each one lasting up to 80 x 2 = 160 minutes for the Long Qualification races. Having had a hand in how these were organised in 2008, I can accept that there's no easy alternative to this.

Thus Ranald and Viv appear to be allocated to heats which are in separate blocks - hence the big time gaps.

And Eddie - it's nothing to do with "many foreign countries, particularly Scandinavia" ... it would happen just the same were the WMOC in the UK. What it is to do with is the fact that there are qualification heats in WMOC. Family/club start blocks are only possible where each class is spread over the whole start time period, something as is the case with e.g. the Scottish 6 Day.

[IanD]

And Eddie - it's nothing to do with "many foreign countries, particularly Scandinavia" ... it would happen just the same were the WMOC in the UK. What it is to do with is the fact that there are qualification heats in WMOC. Family/club start blocks are only possible where each class is spread over the whole start time period, something as is the case with e.g. the Scottish 6 Day.

Have to agree with both of you here!

Yes, qualification heats do potentially force separate start times on families - as does seeding if it means fastest starting last. So a UK WMOC would be just the same.
But, in some countries, organisers rarely make any effort to start families together even when they could do so.

[EddieH]

Rubbish DJM, UNLESS the rules have changed dramatically since we organised WMOC and I was the entries guy.

I ensured that people in the same entry group were placed in heat sso that they would be in the same start block. I then allocated starts as near as possible - for small families easy, but large bus groups quite hard.

It was all within the rules and worked really well. And I did write the start allocation software so it was all initially basically random and totally automatic.

Where there's a will there's usually a way.

[Big Jon]

It would be easy if the organisers could be bothered to ensure that family members or those on one entry form/club were allocated to heats which had similar start times. The organisers obviously aren't interested in this.

[JuliannaG]

The organisers in Hungary not only "can't be bothered" with giving families, couples and those who have entered together close start times, they actually stick to a rigid system of blocks in all their events. Never mind WMOC, a normal regional or district type event will have a strict block for each class and it is your hard luck if in your group you are spread out over the whole day. They are especially fussy with those classes who are on the same courses as the belief in these parts is that everybody cheats (could be true!!), so they will never mix up classes on the same course. I often laugh when they start with the men first (say M70 before W60), believing that if they start after my class they would catch me and I would follow them. More often than not the old guys are no faster and often slower than us old girls!!