NZ Orienteering SuperSeries 2003/04 |
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DRAFT DESCRIPTION
Updates
1 Sep 03 Initial version
5 Sep 03 Added ref to IOF article on planning styles,
reason for junior section to be after Christmas, Sprint at Easter firmed up
10 Sep 03 Added possible relay format, added Naseby alternatives
10 Sep 03 Added provision for changing clubs at New Year
Background
After the initial running of the NZ Orienteering Superseries in 2002
MAPsport Services was contracted by NZOF to review it.
Among the key decisions to move to a spring-through-autumn competition.
An interim series was run in early 2003, and it is now time to fine-tune
the details and set the events for 2003/04.
Visit the Superseries
website where you can find the rules as they are at present.
The rest of this document will just concern the proposed changes.
Send your feedback to
Michael Wood of MAPsport Services who has been contracted again to run
the 2003/04 series or use the existing thread on the
Maptalk Forum,, its under "Technical".
This discussion document is on the internet at www.mapsport.co.nz/ss0304.html
and may be updated up to the point where I ask the National Squad Manager to sign it off;
after that I will update the Superseries website.
Events 2003/04
Just to restate the situation, NZ orienteering resources are fully committed, so the series must be built
on existing events of high quality. These should cover a variety of
event formats including sprint, middle, long, and maybe extra-long.
(Aside: This means that events with capable planners and controllers on small areas
of challenging terrain may be suitable for inclusion; it is not essential
that each event provide a 105-minute M21E course.
The relay discipline or other team events should be considered in the future. However
this will require additional events beyond those run at present.)
From now on I'll use the new IOF event terminology:
- Sprint (winning time around 15min)
- Middle (winning time around 30min, we used to call this "short")
- Long (winning time 105min men, 75min women, we used to call this "classic")
- There are some suitable event formats these do not cover, so until there is a better plan I
will also use these terms:
- Classic (winning time roughly 60-90min men, 45-65min women, ie what is provided
for the majority of regional and multi-day events in NZ)
- Extra-long (winning time around 150min men, 120min women)
The 2003/04 series will be as follows. (Remember this whole document is a draft and some
of the desired events do not exist yet.)
- Wellington Long-distance Champs, Smedley (Hawkes Bay), 8 Nov.
Mixture of farmland and native forest, rolling terrain with some gorges.
Major map extension.
- Wellington Middle-distance Champs, Smedley (Hawkes Bay), 9 Nov
- South Island Long-distance Champs, Cuttance Block (Otago) 22 Nov.
Pine forest moderate to steep, some farmland for the men, all forest for the women.
New map.
- SI Challenge event, classic distance (see my new definition above),
Mt Ross (Otago) 23 Nov.
Fast gentle farmland with millions of rocks. Major map extension.
- Southern Six-Day Day 2 classic distance (new definition), Naseby (Otago), 4 Jan. Super-detailed mining terrain
mostly very low visibility, map under revision now.
- Looking for something of middle or sprint length during the Southern 6-day, no chance of
the former but maybe the latter?
- Alternatives for the two events above: Day 1 long distance Naseby, Day 2 run say course
4/5 as a middle. OR Day 1 run say courses 4/5 as a middle, Day 2 classic (new definition) distance.
- Southern 6-day Day 5 (Long), Waikaia (Southland), 10 Jan. Trackless beech forest,
moderate to steep, very Scandinavian in character. Southerners may have familiarity
but this is NZ's best-kept orienteering secret.
- Sprint-distance event, Manawatu, 9 Apr. May not be NZ Championship but preliminary
details suggest it could be suitable.
- NZ Long-distance Champs, Waitarere (Manawatu) 10 Apr. Forest on coastal sand dunes,
new map (or at least the area won't have been used for years).
- NZ Middle-distance Champs, Koitiata (Manawatu) 12 Apr. Forest on coastal sand dunes,
quite well used since WMOC2000 but good.
- Sprint or Middle, 5 June. I hope that this will be in the Auckland area
- Long or Extra-long, 6 June. I hope that this will be in the Auckland area.
Factors behind my choices:
- The number of events is 12 because that (or thereabouts) was the feedback from
discussions with the national squad.
- The series doesn't start until after Labour weekend because feedback from
the national squad called for a substantial gap following the world championships,
we want the series to finish after Easter rather than fighting with the national
champs for glamour, and an overly long series will lose momentum.
- The Auckland Champs 2003 has not been included because of the above, because the
presence of substantial numbers of Australians could depress the scores for
competitors out of the top bracket, and because we shouldn't try to share
the limelight between the test-match and the series.
- The Central Districts Champs 2003 has not been included because of the above,
and because Taupo has been pessimistic about its club resources;
while it will probably turn out fine the omens are not great.
- I have bypassed the long-distance event on Naseby (day 1) because the intensity of
detail of the Naseby
terrain is not in my view appropriate for the long-distance discipline -
see the article on the IOF website.
Naseby would in fact be ideally suited for the middle and sprint distances, but the
programme has been fixed. Unless you all agree to run say courses 4-5 on Day 1 as a middle?
- It would be good to have something between the Southern 6-day and Easter, or to
have the final a bit sooner after Easter. But remember we cannot require clubs to
put events on, we must work with what we've got. We haven't yet got confirmation of
an event at QB although I made the first suggestions to the AOA council member last QB.
- I haven't included a Superseries race at the NZ SS Champs to promote O to students.
A good idea but this event is after we want the series to finish, and it wouldn't be
a great use of travel funds to get
you all together for a single event. Notice all the other events are in groups?
- I haven't scheduled any teams events. I would really like to have one or more
team events which didn't count for the individual SS score but DID count for the
regional competition - either a relay or team event like at QB.
But we are not asking clubs to do extra work at present. (There
aren't any definite events we can use for sprints in the draft series,
the priority would be to get those happening first.)
Scoring System
In principle competitors will count their best 80% of results. The actual number will
be chosen from year to year, and for the 2003/04 series competitors will drop
the worst 2 out of the 12 results. The points scale will be as last time.
The only additional provision I foresee is what to do if one or more of the events
is declared invalid by the normal event complaint/protest system. I propose to invoke
the 80% principle to determine how many of the reduced number of events would count; for all
likely scenarios this still means the worst two would be dropped.
Eligibility
As before for elites.
With the series running over two calendar years we need to cover the greater possibility
of changes in club membership, which could affect the regional competition. This is a
rare but tricky one, and one option is to say that you are regarded as in the same club
for the whole series. On the other hand I think club and regional spirit is better
fostered by following reality, but you have to advise the superseries manager of that reality.
So the draft rule is that the region that gets your
points in the team competition is governed by the club you belong to on the day of your
first event in the current series; but if you change to a club in a different region at any time
(and particularly at the start of the calendar year) you can declare that in writing or
email to the Superseries Manager up to 7 days before the event, and be recognised
thereafter in your new region. No advice, and you are deemed to be in your old region.
(Fine print: if you belong to more than one club, one of them is your "primary" club
which counts you for NZOF purposes, and you must enter under that club unless you
have a release, just like the NZ Relay Champs.)
Junior Section
MAPsport's contract doesn't include extension to a junior section
but I am prepared to look at this in my own time. Comments are invited
for a junior competition using M/W18 classes on the events after Christmas.
Why not M/W20? Because they are thinner classes further depleted by running up. Why after
Christmas? To avoid complications with age change. And to make it easier to attend,
because there would (at least initially) be no travel support for the juniors.
And to avoid exam times.
Travel Assistance
As before, there may be travel assistance for National Orienteering Squad members
who need to fly or use the inter-island ferry to reach events. There may be
travel assistance for NOS members who travel intercity by car.
Acceptance may be subject to agreeing to reasonable sponsorship obligations, and
is certainly subject to providing the required documentation in a timely way.
Even though we had sufficient funds last time, continuation is by no means assured,
and what we obtain may have to be rationed on some basis that will not necessarily
appear to be fair!
What do you think about making travel funding available to participants who are not
squad members? There does have to be a defined list, what would the criteria be.
You might like to think of three scenarios: that we obtain plenty of funding,
only enough funding to cover squad members, and thirdly only enough to partially cover
squad members.
Relay
IF (and its a big if) we could find someone prepared to plan a relay on the
last day at QB it could work like this. Would not count for the individual
superseries which would be finished; would count for regional competition only.
Teams of three (two men one woman). Scoring to give similar (or maybe greater) weight
to regional total. Could be by counting best two teams/region with treble score
(45-36-30-27...) or by lower points scale but more teams counting.
Intention to raise interest in the regional competition by enabling the relay to
influence the result. Race timed so that most non-elite competitors will have finished
their courses in time to see the second changeover and last leg.
Interestingly Jim Barr's team event at QB2003 would have been very suitable
if it had not followed an extra-long race the day before. That opens up the possibility
of alternative forms of team orienteering. Something that could be based on controls
already set out for individual non-elite courses would have a big attraction.
Suggestions Received and Comment
Other points raised on the MAPtalk Forum last June. I particularly want to hear from
other participants who don't inhabit the forum.
A (short) prizegiving/award ceremony for each race , straight after each race.
This requires prizes, while desirable obtaining these would be lower priority
than working on travel assistance.
Club O suits mandatory. Certainly we need to strengthen club support for their
superseries competitors. A related goal is to strengthen support for the regional teams,
and one region is exploring a superseries o-suit. The region quite rightly expects
the elites in its region to choose the suit, otherwise it won't get worn. The SS
manager's role is to ENCOURAGE this, not to arrange it directly.
Decent team names. Well done South Island. North Island elites, get off your backsides!
Race numbers to be worn. Is this for image or related to
the needs of a race commentator? (We can't REQUIRE the organisers to provide a
commentary, and a good commentator like Mick Finn has costs.
Should we use any old commentator or go for quality?)
Delays in distributing travel funds. The Superseries Manager must work through the squad,
the Squad Manager is a volunteer who does this in his spare time.
Grizzles about the fair use of travel funds. A matter which should be sorted out by discussion
in the squad. It isn't appropriate to DEMAND that participants take time off work to drive
long distances, that's why we sought funding for air travel. We got enough last time,
we may or may not next time, we rely on you to use the assistance sensibly.
Elites start last in middle and sprint events. Don't see why not if logistically possible.
But I note that middles and sprints are not exactly springing up all over!
Embargoing areas. NZOF Rules apply to A level events and to B level events with stated
exceptions. They say that the terrain shall be embargoed as soon as it is decided.
Do we have to remind organisers to spell out the areas affected or do we have
intelligent and honourable competitors who can work it out for themselves?
Comments to Michael Wood
Ph (04) 566 2645.
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