11 Person relay rules and guidelines-Scottish Orienteering

11 Person relay rules and guidelines

Purpose

The eleven person relay is intended to provide a low-key, mass participation relay competition between Scottish clubs during the summer months (April-September).
Ideally the winning time should be around 2hrs 30minutes.

Rules

The eleven-person relay will be hosted by each Scottish open club according to a rota. In the event of a club being unable to stage the event, the Competitions Convenor must be alerted at the earliest possible stage

The rules of orienteering apply to relay events in the same way as they do to individual events, except that there is no explicit prohibition on following.

The 11-person relay takes the form of a relay at R4 level.
A Club may enter as many teams as they wish. To be competitive the team must comprise 11 different members of the same SOA club. Non SOA Clubs, teams comprising members of more than one club and teams with runners doing more than one leg are welcome, but not eligible for prizes. There are no age group constraints.
The area to be used shall be approved by the Competitions Convenor and thereafter the event should be registered with the Fixtures Secretary. Suitability for all technical levels and an appropriate assembly/changeover area are the key criteria.
First Aid cover shall be available.
Forms for preentry shall be distributed to Scottish clubs, including universities, and shall be made available to non-Scottish clubs. Teams, but not individuals, must be preentered.
The event consists of 5 separate “legs” as shown below

Leg 1	Leg 2	Leg 3	Leg 4	Leg 5
1 runner	3 runners	3 runners	3 runners	1 runner
	TD3 20>25	TD3 20>25	TD3 20>25
TD5 20>25	TD4 25>30	TD4 25>30	TD4 25>30	TD5 20>25
	TD5 30>35	TD5 30>35	TD5 30>35

TD = Technical Difficulty.

The times above are shown in minutes and indicate the range of the estimated leading time when the course is run by an appropriate competitor as outlined below.

Change Over Rules

There is a Mass Start of all 1st Leg runners.

Leg 1 runner tags ALL 3 Leg 2 runners simultaneously.

Leg 2 runners on their return tag a Leg 3 runner of their choice

Leg 3 runners on their return tag a Leg 4 runner of their choice

Leg 4 runners must ALL return before the Leg 5 runner may start.

The winning team is the first team to complete ALL their courses correctly and the Leg 5 runner cross the finishing line.

Guidelines

The planner shall plan in accordance with the assumptions given below. Although each Club is left to decide how to deploy their members, it should be made clear that certain courses are more for Juniors / Novices rather than Elite. It is hoped that Clubs will enter into the spirit of the event by attempting to follow this directive.

TD5 Courses – Estimated Leading Time for top M35>45s & W21Es of 20 > 25minutes – 1st & 5th Legs;

Estimated Leading Time top M35>45s & W21Es of 30 >35 minutes – 2nd, 3rd & 4th legs.

Plan for M21Es beating this time but the achieving the range.

TD4 Courses - Estimated Leading Time of 25 >30 minutes – 2nd, 3rd & 4th legs.

Plan for competitors who normally run Blue / Green at Colour Coded Events

TD3 Courses - Estimated Leading Time of 20 > 25 minutes -2nd, 3rd & 4th legs

Plan for competent juniors & those who normally run Green / Light Green at Colour Coded Events

If a Club decides e.g. to run an M/W21E on the TD3/4 course the time returned may be well below the ELT range. The planner shall NOT plan for this possibility.

The various TD5 and TD4 courses shall be gaffled (forked) to inhibit following. The TD3 course may also be gaffled, at the planners’ discretion.

Competitors may run more than once, for the same or different teams, although in doing so they render their second and subsequent teams non-competitive. In such cases, they should be reminded of the need to use different electronic punchcards if necessary.

A handicap class may be offered at the organisers’ discretion, by allowing variation in leg length to reflect the runner’s ability. Alternately, a prize may be awarded to the first team of a particular composition, such as 50 points in the Scottish Relay Handicap system. In either case, this should be stated in event publicity prior to accepting entries.

Photo of author Posted on 18th Jun 06
by Phil Smith - Competitions Co-ordinator

Filed under: Fixtures/Events •

Scottish Orienteering