No Short Courses for night champs- does it affect entries?

[graeme]

if you get more than (I think) 15 competitors:

... which has never happened on any short course in the entire history of the event.

Most likely is you'll be the only competitor, and you'll get your average score (thanks AR!) points. If there is someone else worse than you, then you rate to score heavily as the assumed standard deviation (20%) is way smaller than is reasonable for a night event in a technical area.

Either way, it should be one of the best night races you'll do this year. Which is the main point
(isn't it?)

[Adventure Racer]

If you're the only runner, don't you actually get your average score? You would expect this might improve your ranking if you have less than 10 results.

[awk]

If you're the only runner, don't you actually get your average score? You would expect this might improve your ranking if you have less than 10 results.

That'll definitely make the trip worthwhile

.. which has never happened on any short course in the entire history of the event.

Exactly!

[AndyO]

Hi, all, just caught up on this thread. As planner for the Scottish Nights this year the short but simple explanation for no short classes is that I am following the SOA guideline, as Graeme alluded to earlier.

Apologies to those who might have preferred to have a shorter course for their class, but the suggestion of running down 2 courses from the long course for your age is hopefully a good compromise. If anyone who has already entered wishes to change their course to a shorter course, they may do so at registration, subject to map availability. We have planned for extra copies of shorter course maps to cater for this.

I hope everyone enjoys the experience, whatever their course.

[grubby]

Generally, at multi-day events, I've got one or other offspring in tow. This means that, although they will orienteer, I have to concern myself with their well-being before and after the event. If I'm going to go up against the better M45 bods I want only to be concerned with my needs, with no distractions. Whilst I'm sure many in similar circumstances commendably do run Long, I prefer not to. When I've finished I'm fresh enough to enjoy whatever we're going to do.
I actually do very little day orienteering. I much prefer Mountain Marathons and Night O.
Think I've done 2 M45L and 7 M45S individual days this year. Might be wrong.

Awk - you've really put the cat amongst the pigeons ! I didn't know anything about this 'small class fudge factor' Sometimes I've had a flying run and not got many points - usually in a class with fewer than ten entrants. Might stop doing shorts altogether now, except at the 'Scottish 6 days'
You're not telling porkies. . . are you ??

I've been to several Regional Night Champs where there has been less than 15 in the Long class. Would the 'small class fudge factor' apply here, too ? I guess so.

[awk]

Not telling porkies grubby - I promise. From the BOF site (see Members>Rankings>Small Class Scores)

"However, the standard deviation (the spread) needs at least 10 and preferably more than 20 ranked runners to be reliable. Therefore, when there are few ranked runners in a class in a competition, an alternative formula is used which assumes that the standard deviation is a fixed percentage of the mean. "

I know what you mean by wanting to be fresh enough to do something else. I suspect that's the reason why the M45S numbers (and others) get rather swollen at multi-days compared to single day events, and understandably too!