Scottish Relay Championships (SRC), rules and guidelines-Scottish Orienteering

Scottish Relay Championships (SRC), rules and guidelines

The Scottish Relay Championships provides a high level relay competition providing head-to-head racing between large numbers if teams for junior, open and veteran relay teams.
Updated again 28th Sept following the discussion here…

Rules

The SRC will be hosted by each of the three Areas within Scotland : East > North > West in rotation. Each Area Committee will invite offers from their own Clubs to host this Championship, along with the Scottish Individual Championships.

The SRC will normally take place the day after the SOC (e.g. the last Sunday in May.)

The SRC will typically be a level C relay event and form part of the UK relay league.

The area to be used shall be approved by the Competitions Convenor and thereafter the event should be registered with the Fixtures Secretary. The main criterion is the availability of sufficient terrain at a high level of technical difficulty, and an appropriate assembly/changeover area.

The shall be six Scottish Relay Champions: M/W36- M/W44- Junior, Men’s Open, Women’s Open and Age-Class.

Any team shall be competitive in any class, however to be eligible to be Scottish Champions, teams shall comprise three members of the same Scottish club or a neighbouring club “alliance” of neighbouring clubs. Teams comprising competitors of inappropriate age or gender shall not be eligible to become Scottish Champions. Other course winners should be acknowledged, but will not be designated Scottish Champions.

Competitors may run more than once, however only the team of the first run can be eligible to be Scottish Champion.

Teams eligible for Men’s Open, Womens Open or Junior Competitions are not also eligible for the Age-Class Competition.

Technical courses of appropriate length for all ages shall be offered. In addition, low technical difficulty courses shall be available for less experienced competitors, such as juniors.

Guidelines

The philosophy is that any combination of sexes and ages is allowed and catered for.

The system is designed to make it easy for everyone to run an appropriate distance in a competitive team, while encouraging head-to-head racing.

All senior classes start together and the Scottish Age-class Champions will be the first eligible team from any of course combinations 2-6 to finish.

Each team member obtains age-class points as follows:

	Handicap points
M14	6	W14	7
M16	4	W16	6
M18	2	W18	5
M20	1	W20	4
M21	0	W21	3
M35	1	W35	4
M40	2	W40	5
M45	3	W45	6
M50	4	W50	7
M55	5	W55	8
M60	6	W60	9
M65	7	W65	10
M70	9	W70	12
M75	11	W75	14

The following course combinations, and the eligibility requirement for becoming Scottish Champions, are given in the following table.

	Courses to be run
1. Men’s Open	A	A	A
2. age-class: 8+ point	A	B	C
3. age-class: 11+ point / Women Open	B	C	C
4. age-class: 14+ point	B	D	C
5. age-class: 17+ point	C	D	C
6. age-class: 20+ point	D	D	C
7. Junior: Total BOF age 44-	LG	O	LG
8 Junior: Total BOF age 36-	Y	Y	O

Courses A, B, C and D are TD5 with an estimated winning time of 35mins for good M21, W21, M60 and W60 respectively; LG, O and Y correspond to the colour coded system.

TD5 courses shall be gaffled (forked) to inhibit following, although the final section of the final lap should not be. Junior courses may be gaffled at the planner’s discretion, but care should be taken to minimize the danger of this leading to disqualification.

Team captains are encouraged to ensure club members run appropriate length courses, even of this means they are not able to become Scottish Champions.

Alliances of neighbouring clubs may enter teams at the competition convenor’s discretion. The spirit of this is to allow as many people as possible to take part, not to encourage the formation of especially strong teams. Any combination team which appears much stronger than their likely competition should not be accepted.

Typically, two neighbouring clubs should be allowed to compete as an “alliance” if one or both have insufficient competitors at the event to make a full team. This extends the BOF arrangements currently applied to the open classes and may include, e.g. only one or two juniors in a club with many adults. The concept of “neighbouring” may be interpreted flexibly for particularly far-travelled clubs.

A string course relay should be considered for very young competitors.

The system is designed to make it easy for everyone to run an appropriate distance in a competitive team, while encouraging head-to-head racing.

To maintain head-to head races, mini mass starts for legs 2 and 3 should be held. Teams participating in mass starts are fully competitive, and may be placed ahead of non-mini mass starters with final positions determined by total running time of team. It is desirable that the Scottish Champions should not be caught by the mini mass start, so it should be at least 20 minutes after the leading teams have gone through. Generally a single mass start will suffice, but if some Championship class is particularly slow, more than one mini-mass start may be required.

Awards and trophies

Trophies should be awarded to at least the first competitive clubs in mens, womens 36-, 44-, junior and age-class. Additional prizes may be awarded to other winners of courses 2-6, and other highly-placed teams at the organiser’s discretion.