Discussion: Sprint Series Finals

After due consultation with my Assistant Commissioners, including recently named and totally worthy Assistant Commissioner Sandy Fillebrown, and in strict accordance with with Sprint Series rule #6 ("Rules may be added, changed, or deleted at any time by the Commissioner."), I am announcing a change in procedure for the Sprint Finals --

1. All heats, from Championship on down) will now have 16 sprinters, not 8 as originally planned. This will allow more qualifiers to make the top heats. 12 will qualify for each heat based on the results of the Sprint Series; the other 4 "wild cards" will be chosen by the Commissioner and his staff.

2. We will still use three rounds of head-to-head sprinting to determine the results. But starts will be in groups of 4. In round one, the best two will advance, the other two go into consolation. Ditto for round 2. Round 3, the finals, again starting in groups of 4, determines the placings. Note that everyone, win or lose, runs three times.

More details.

Who will make the Sweet Sixteen? The Elite Eight? The Final Four? We will see....

The latest standings are also posted.

Looks like I'm ranked ahead of Vadim, with one less point. The bribes are working... uh, wait, is this a public forum... ackspace> ackspace> how do I <-<- go^b^b^b back... ;-)

how do you think I got my 3rd spot? its all about connections (you know who I mean)...

I don't know what and where i messed up, but i'll try to fix it tonight. Blame it on Waddington.

Why did Wadd pay for Wyatt to move up a place? Is he frightened of Vadim?

Some cool spectating for the Final Four is also in the works. Come one, come all, to the second greatest show on earth!

Clearly, Hammer (Waddington) paid to be moved up to M65 so that he'd be leading his age group. Or he's been lying about his age for years to avoid crushing our egos.

This is gonna be a BLAST!!!

Wyatt's talk about "donations" to the Great Commish turned out to be all talk and no action, so he's now back where he belongs in tenth and Vadim has been restored to his well-earned ninth place.

By the way, ties will be settled by who has the individual race with the highest points (and then, if tied there, who has the second best race with the highest points, and so on).

Interesting that this new rule comes when the commissioner moves down to 12th place ;)

This is definitely a good move though, considering the huge level of participation. We're up to 385 participants. This has to be a record of some kind for US Orienteering.

Wadd looks young for 65, but his ankles are showing their age I think.

Best NA team that can beat any other combination (including sprints!):
Mike Waddington
Ted de St. Croix
Mikkel Platt
Mark Adams

Average age 40+ :) Experience counts!

Yes, the ankles feel like 65 but the legs feel like 22 except on stinking hot days like today!

No bribes have occurred yet but I'm sitting in 29th place with 160 points and had only planned to race two more sprints worth a max of 70 points before the finals. Top 12 cut-off is curerntly 249 so do the math! So bribes may have to occur soon or I'll have to do some travelling or get local clubs to host more sprints. PG, do you like Canadian beer?

> We're up to 385 participants. This has to be a record of some kind for US Orienteering.
Ahem, some Canucks (and Canuck races) in there too JF and don't forget there are over 170 women.

I disagree with Sergey's claim for three reasons.

1) The younger guys have already shown they can sprint very well. Kenny Walker Jr, Boris and John F. have won a combined 16 sprints. Leif A. has won 2. The 4 people you list above have won a total of 3.

2) Contrary to increasingly popular belief, I'm not over 40! I am a mere few months younger than the last time the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.

3) While I agree that experience counts look at the results of the WC race in the UK - early 20's are winning.

Apparently Hammer is only a few months short of his 1967th birthday! I think Methuselah also used to use 'Hammer' as his Attackpoint user name way back when, so he is in good company.

Sprinting is definitely for younger legs. Long distance races are a different kettle of bananas.

Have the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup?
:)

Who are the Maple Leafs? And who is Stanley, and why does everyone want his cup? That's gross.

This was spotted in Vasteras, Sweden last summer! Lord Stanley has a nice cup. Its HUGE! Lots of grown men with no teef cry when they kiss it.

Nice photo. The idea of wearing the Mats Sundin sweater was to try to get on the front cover of Skogssport like Team Canada did the last time WOC was in Sweden in 1989. Can you name the team members? click here

Looks like Oyvind, Ted, Ross (behind Ted), a young Hammer, some coach (can't remember his name), and Magali.

Oyvind looks very happy! And why not? After all, he's just told a very funny joke, the sun is shining, and he's in Sweden! How could he possibly suspect that in a mere few days his team will have suffered a stunning--and exeptionally rare--defeat at the hand of an American team who, even though the terrain was sand but contained no cactus or shindaggers, ran hard and gave it their best shot. No doubt the Americans were buoyed by the knowledge that they were about to deploy a new, top secret weapon: the Swedish trained Spike!

Yes - stunning and rare.

Hopefully not too rare - watch out at the North Americans in 2006. The Young Americans are coming. (Right, John, Leif, Swampfox?)

Especially young Swampfox :)

I am pleased to announce the appointment of two additional Assistant Commissioners for the Sprint Series -- John Fredrickson (aka "jfredrickson") and John DeWolf (aka "JDW"). They join a distinguished group of AC's (Mike Waddington, William Hawkins, Boris Granovskiy, Nevin French, Randy Hall, Sandy Fillebrown).

JF will take over the number crucnching for the Sprint Series when Boris departs for foreign shores in a month. JDW is our likk to world champions and other international stars, plus a sprint (and team) supporter in DVOA land.

As the force of the Sprint spreads throughout the land, and as the Great Commish slowly loses his marbles under the pressure of it all (plius the lightning strike, there must be a message there -- though as Eddie says, the hamsters in the garage door openers were only stunned, not killed, so maybe there is still hope...), we can be grateful to have such a talented group of AC's.

There is no truth to the rumor that the Championship final will consist entirely of Assistant Commissioners, together with the Great Commish as a wildcard.

check's in the mail