Discussion: 2007 Sprint Series

Now that the election is over and we can get on to more important things, it's time to start thinking about the 2007 Sprint Series.

I've posted the new rules for 2007, subject to change of course. The main thing new for 2007 is in the format of the finals, changing from three head-to-head sprints to two sanctioned sprints with interval starts. We will still have a final head-to-head for Johnny, Samantha, and the other top guns, so they can have a chance to show their stuff (and earn some "big checks").

Scoring will now be based on the best 6 sprints for the regular season (up to the week before the finals), plus the points for the 2 sprints in the finals.

More details are posted here.

It's as easy as ever to add a sprint (or two or three) to the schedule, just e-mail the details at pg@crocker.com.

Sounds great Peter. I'm glad to see the schedule is up already even if it is still a bit sparse. Watching new sprints come in is one of my favorite past times :)

There is one thing about the rules though. I am pretty sure there won't be a sprint qualifier at JWOC so you need to come up with a different way of giving JWOC team members bonus points. I think top half worked nicely last year.

You have an exciting life my friend :)

2 sprints interval starts in the final, PLUS a head to head for top guns ?anyway should be "exciting".

what about reviving the City Cup relay ( eventually with the potentially US relay , results will be easy to extract, however the old format from couple of years ago was "exciting"

I'm sure the new format will be fine, but head to head was pretty fun for us back of the pack folks, too.

Charlie, I suppose we could also have a special match race for old-timers. Don't they have those at baseball games and such, bring these guys back for a day who are half dead? I think they have quite a lot of fan appeal. Would you guys be willing to chat up the sponsors, pose for lots of pictures, and sign autographs?

I want a signed wheaties box!

Another thought... The bonus points make a pretty big difference if they count in addition to your best 6 races. This hasn't really been a big problem since the standings have only determined the seedings for the Finals in the past, but now that every point counts towards determining the actual final placings perhaps it is a bit unfair. Maybe it would be best to simply count them as one of your best 6 races. It would be pretty hard to make up a 50 point difference in the Finals, even if there were large point disparities between the top placements in the last two races.

It isn't necessarily a problem since it only reflects who can get to the big races (and even do well in some cases, although not with the PWT case) which is really exactly what the entire point system does anyway. Encouraging people to do more sprints and take sprint racing more seriously was the original goal of the series, so these bonus points are certainly serving that goal, but we do need to maintain some kind of fairness so that more people will have a chance and thus be susceptible to the incentives provided by the series as a whole. If we end up alienating people who are not able to take part in chasing these bonus points and they end up taking the Sprint Series less seriously we will end up lowering the level of competition and hurting the esteem of the Series.

It may not be serious enough to require all of that preceding rambling, but it is probably worth thinking about...

Once again, Johnny for president!
I think you've got a good point there. Now the question is: how many points should be alloted? Is making a WOC final more difficult than winning a 50 pointer in NA? Appearently not for the women as 3 of them got in last year, but none of the men... so maybe 50 is still a reasonable amount of points if they became part of the points and not a bonus?

I always loved head-to-head competitions and I will miss having last years format with 3 head-to-head competitions. Not so often you get a chance to run head-to-head with such a strong field we had in last years finals. No need to change the format for 2007 finals on my account but I’d love to see more head-to-head racing in general.

Gil, Head-to-head racing all winter long in southern Ontario in the 6 race THOMASS series and then the 3 head-to-head sprint races (part of the 2007 sprint series) in late March at the Eliminator.

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/gho/thomass2007n.pdf

All races generally have a good field with many top adventure racers and orienteers taking part.

Well done, my highly esteemed commissioner. I like the interval starts in the finals, this gives me a way to survive. I am clearly doing better when everyone has to navigate. And as you say, the rocket runners can do their rocket running in the final round.

I wonder if we find good areas for city sprints. We don't have the mediaeval towns or the old mountain villages like Zermatt, but maybe some other areas. The Six Flag Sprints maybe a West Point Academy sprint.

Spike and Mary putting on a fine looking campus sprint at KU the beginning of December. Looks to be worth the trip. If we get a strong field, perhaps we can bribe the Commish for 07 points ...

St Louis Zoo would be a fun place for a sprint. Interesting route choices. Around the lion's cage or . . . ?

For a $250,000 donation they closed the zoo ffor a day for an Anheuser Busch party - you had to be an employee, not just an imbiber. That was incredibly unpopular, so I doubt we could do that even if we upped the ante.

Seriously, an after hours Sprint there might be a possibility and would be fun and challenging.

I considered trying to get the zoo as a venue for our A-meet two years ago. Since the zoo closes at 5PM on Fridays, you'd have enough daylight for a sprint after closing. I didn't pursue it when we decided to run the short and relay both on Saturday.

There are two problems with using the zoo. First, it would need to be mapped. The existing mapping is very rough since I didn't expect it to be used. Second, the area is mighty small. You'd probably need to set a course that used areas both inside and outside the zoo. The problem with that is that the portion of the park nearest the zoo isn't very interesting.