Discussion: Sprints

Actually, the US ranking system is biased against sprints for top-half runners because a bad sprint run is not nearly as bad as a bad middle or long run, so the ranking system concludes that a good sprint run isn't as good as a good middle or long run. A person purely interested in maximizing their ranking performance would not run any sprints.

Like me! Though I don't really care about ranking, but racing good.

That is the weekend of the WCOC Summer picnic on the Saturday. So you guys should come there. I think it's usually in the afternoon.

Ah, yes; I have reasoned and read of the sprint scoring anomaly. I suppose I didn't expect it to manifest in my scores, since I'm slower orienteering conventionally than the top guys. A cursory glance at the top ranked blue runners indicates that the deviation of my scores on sprints from my average is somewhat less than theirs, which is what I would expect.

I am strongly considering removing all sprints from my ranking for the year leading up to team trials (while still racing them, of course). It feels disingenuous, but maximizing my probability of making the team is my highest priority.

It would be disingenuous. You are better than that.