The Canada Cup Challenge |
1. The Canada Cup Challenge
Earlier this year that COF announced that A meets would be changing to "Canada Cups". We have had a good response and expect to have at least 13 Canada Cup races in 2011! This is great news as one of our intentions with the re-naming was to see an increase in the number of A meets/Canada Cups across the country.
We also announced the Canada Cup Elite Series, a scoring system designed specifically for the elite categories which is aligned with the goals of the High Performance Program in regards to helping to develop Canada’s current and future national team members.
Now we are ironing out the details for the Canada Cup Challenge - a scoring system for ALL the age categories that would apply to Canada Cup (A meet) races. Our goal is to create an easy to implement scoring system that provide motivation to all levels of orienteers in all age categories.
Our plan is to use a version the gold/silver/bronze program that is currently used by the British Orienteering Association. The idea is that Gold/Silver/Bronze standards are set in each category at each event and runners strive to reach these standards. This system provides incentive and motivation for a wide range of participants - more so than those just at the top of the results list.
The Gold/Silver/Bronze qualifying times are calculated from the winning times for the course. Gold is 125%, Silver is 150% and Bronze is 200% of a base time which is the average of the top three places. If there were only 11 to 20 starters then the base time is the average of the first two places; if there are 10 or fewer starters then the base time is the winner’s time. It may make sense to decrease the standard for sprint events.
You can see the Gold/Silver/Bronze qualifying times from the recent Canada Cup races at Sage Stomp in Kamloops in May. Go to http://tinyurl.com/6zptmdd and select the results, you can find the results for the 3 races.
At the end of the season, an orienteer who achieves certain criteria (eg 3 events at bronze level in a particular age category) can order a “reward”. The British Orienteering Association offers badges, but we would likely offer something different. The orienteer would pay a small fee to cover the cost of the reward and the shipping and handling, so the “reward” program would pay for itself.
Canada Cup organizers would be asked to submit their results in a specific format and we’ll run the results through a software program to quickly get the standards and individual achievement. The results would be available through the COF website.
The Canada Cup Challenge would apply to all the “A” categories, but not to any open or recreational categories.
P.S. To date, sanctioning for Canada Cups in 2011 has been given to:
Sage Stomp, Kamloops: Sprint, Middle, Long - May
Western Canadian Orienteering Championships, Whitehorse: Sprint, Middle, Long - July
Canadian Orienteering Championships, Whitehorse: Sprint, Middle, Long - July
Ontario Championships, Ottawa: Sprint, Middle, Long - October
And we are expecting a Canada Cup sanctioning request from one of the Barebones events in September
All of these events would make up the Canada Cup Challenge
We also announced the Canada Cup Elite Series, a scoring system designed specifically for the elite categories which is aligned with the goals of the High Performance Program in regards to helping to develop Canada’s current and future national team members.
Now we are ironing out the details for the Canada Cup Challenge - a scoring system for ALL the age categories that would apply to Canada Cup (A meet) races. Our goal is to create an easy to implement scoring system that provide motivation to all levels of orienteers in all age categories.
Our plan is to use a version the gold/silver/bronze program that is currently used by the British Orienteering Association. The idea is that Gold/Silver/Bronze standards are set in each category at each event and runners strive to reach these standards. This system provides incentive and motivation for a wide range of participants - more so than those just at the top of the results list.
The Gold/Silver/Bronze qualifying times are calculated from the winning times for the course. Gold is 125%, Silver is 150% and Bronze is 200% of a base time which is the average of the top three places. If there were only 11 to 20 starters then the base time is the average of the first two places; if there are 10 or fewer starters then the base time is the winner’s time. It may make sense to decrease the standard for sprint events.
You can see the Gold/Silver/Bronze qualifying times from the recent Canada Cup races at Sage Stomp in Kamloops in May. Go to http://tinyurl.com/6zptmdd and select the results, you can find the results for the 3 races.
At the end of the season, an orienteer who achieves certain criteria (eg 3 events at bronze level in a particular age category) can order a “reward”. The British Orienteering Association offers badges, but we would likely offer something different. The orienteer would pay a small fee to cover the cost of the reward and the shipping and handling, so the “reward” program would pay for itself.
Canada Cup organizers would be asked to submit their results in a specific format and we’ll run the results through a software program to quickly get the standards and individual achievement. The results would be available through the COF website.
The Canada Cup Challenge would apply to all the “A” categories, but not to any open or recreational categories.
P.S. To date, sanctioning for Canada Cups in 2011 has been given to:
Sage Stomp, Kamloops: Sprint, Middle, Long - May
Western Canadian Orienteering Championships, Whitehorse: Sprint, Middle, Long - July
Canadian Orienteering Championships, Whitehorse: Sprint, Middle, Long - July
Ontario Championships, Ottawa: Sprint, Middle, Long - October
And we are expecting a Canada Cup sanctioning request from one of the Barebones events in September
All of these events would make up the Canada Cup Challenge