SOL 2009 Scoring System Update-Scottish Orienteering

SOL 2009 Scoring System Update

The scoring system for SOL2009 has been revised. Thanks to everyone who submitted comments on the earlier consultation.

The old SOL scoring system, based on the % of the winner’s time, was simple and easy to follow. It also produced some strange results, and many suggestions for change have been made over the years. The system used for the SoSOL and also for many years for the 6-Day, which is based on a competitors time relative to the average time taken for the course, is fairer and gives greater reward to outstandingly good performances. The 6-Day scoring system is changing this year, but in a way that reflects the much larger numbers of competitors at that event.

Several comments have been received on the proposed change to the scoring system, via the SOA website, e-mails, a Nopesport thread, and conversations. There is a strong preference for a system that is simple and fair. The SoSOL/old 6-Day formula is widely understood, reasonably simple to explain, and is significantly fairer than the old SOL system. It is therefore being adopted for 2009, and for convenience is called the SOL2009 formula. More complex formulae are perhaps even fairer (although all have their drawbacks), but become ever more difficult to understand. The possibility of using different scoring systems for junior and senior classes has been suggested - this has not been implemented for 2009, but remains a possibility for future consideration.

The SOL2009 formula is as follows:

Score = 1000-200*(Time - AverageTime)/StDev

Where: Time = your time taken; AverageTime = average time taken by all competitors on the course; StDev = standard deviation of times taken by all competitors on the course (this is a measure of the spread of times taken).

There are a few points to note:
(1) we will use the average time, and standard deviation, for all competitors on the course but will report results by age class. This gives a larger number of competitors per course, so should smooth-out some anomalies.
(2) competitors may score points where they ‘run up’ to any longer/harder course than their age class. Checking who has run their age class, has run up, or run down will require a little more work at the time of calculating results, but is manageable. With L and S courses as options, there is the potential for some confusion. For example, a W50 could run course 5 as W50L or course 7 as W50S. If a W50 actually runs course 6, I will calculate her points as a W35S (ie W50S running up). For this reason, it will be very helpful if organisers publish age classes in results (for competitors on the competitor database this is not strictly necessary, but will be very helpful to simplify the checking process).
(3) the SOL2009 system will be reviewed at the end of 2009 to ensure that it is working as expected.
(4) it is worth reminding everyone that the SOL series is designed to provide good quality events on nice areas. The scoring system is to provide some fun competition, rather than being designed as a way of accurately calculating the best person in each class. A compromise between simplicity and fairness is needed, and hopefully a sensible balance has been achieved.
(5) points will be automatically calculated for all competitors entering a given race. Non-SOA runners will be included in all published league tables.
(6) for young juniors, participation is encouraged. Competitors who are shadowed on White or Yellow courses may appear in the results and may score points. If the parents/shadowers feel that the junior has gained an unfair advantage by being shadowed, it is their responsibility to identify the junior as non-competitive to the organisers for noting in the results.
(7) the league table will include results for the White course, with the expectation that competitors on this course are beginners, even though no specific age group is mapped onto this course.

Photo of author Posted on 20th Mar 09
by Trevor Hoey - SOL Co-ordinator