Discussion: O results format

Something has bugged me ever since coming into the sport some 8 years ago now. Why is it that orienteering measures ALL results in the format minutes:seconds. e.g. 89:13 is generally represented rather than 1:29:13 for one hour tweny nine minutes and thirteen seconds?

Does anyone know the origin of this apparent sporting anomally?

Is it just another aspect of our sport designed to confuse newcomers, media and spectators?

or is it just easier to compare with results under 1 hour on the results board when you are in oxygen debt?

Our results always show hours and minutes. Sounds like it's just a feature that varies in different software, or perhaps there is an option selected in the software.

I do it as it is easier to compare those times that are under 1 hr with those times that are over 1 hr

It's not universal, although maybe it's ubiquitous in Oz. I think orienteering is unusual as a sport that commonly has elapsed times that can be either over or under one hour. By using MMM:SS, the times can be sorted alphabetically, which may be what prompted using this format in the first place.

It works well up to 99 minutes, but gets kind of confusing over 100. Is 102 an hour and 2 minutes or an hour and 42 minutes? Best to run faster and avoid this problem.

I always use this time when calculating result times at local meets, but after doing the calculation in "metric?" time i write it down in hour-minute-second format so as not to confuse too many people.

it may well be that this comes about from the awful way that Microsoft Excel handles any time format other than HH:MM:SS AM or PM MM/DD/YY (with 1/1/1900 as datum).

I think it predates Excel.

Beside the point but when I started orienteering in the 70s our club had a peculiar timing device that gave minutes and hundredths of minutes instead of minutes and seconds. When finishing times could be something like 69:69, people got really confused.

Don't know the real answer, but I think it's a little easier to subtract the starting time from the finish time using the MMM:SS format.

I agree it is an easier way of processing results, both in a results software package and when you are there staring at a results board after a run. Subtraction of whole integers is easier then mentally performing 1/60th conversions in your head, but orienteers are a smart lot. I say preserve the idiosyncrasies that make our sport unique!

Actually, ignore what I said about sorting. The ease of sorting is independent of which time format is used. But the subtraction issue is relevant. Off the top of my head, I can't think of many sports that need to do this calculation, i.e. races that use an interval start, with elapsed times in the 1-2 hour range.

Runners generally refer to half marathon times in MM:SS. For distances greater than that, it's more common to use hours. That pretty much lines up with Cristina's point about 100 minutes being the time when some ambiguity is introduced.

Some of the preference might have to do with our rating calculations. It's easier to multiply a winning time by 5/4 to estimate an 80-point run if you express it whole minutes.