The Ethics of "Saving Oneself"

Jamie Posted: 23 December 2001, 1:54 AM   It gets a bit predictable in the NZ elite orienteering scene at times, always racing the same old people on the same old maps, with quite often the same results... Darren Ashmore, smooth through low viz (1st) , Karl Dravitski, good run but one medium sized mistake (2nd), Rob Jessop, primo run but one massive mistake (3rd), Phil (the rock) Wood (4th), PC (remember Auckland Champs) Edwards (5th)......Greg Flynn, rolled ankle, lost contact lense, stung by killer bee's, trapped in quicksand (-30minutes), David Stewart, %#*$#@ & #{@/*#! (-60 minutes), Jamie Stewart, DNF.... So isn't it lucky that this summer we have some awesome competition from Australia, one of the premier orienteering countries in the world. Surely we want to make the most of their presence and compete against them all we can! To this end the rest of the New Zealand Elite orienteering scene are indebted to NOS Management and a lobbying group (led by Darren Ashmore) who have pressed for more and more races, ie 99 Gullies, 99 Hills, Gordon Kear....These will be fine occasions. However, I hear with increasing alarm talk of top elites "skipping" one race in the Carnival (the Taranaki Turkey Traverse). Some I believe are prefering to attend "The Big Day Out", but of more concern is those that are saving themselves for the International Park Race, which provides valuable cash prizes. It is not surprising that the money will prove tempting for some New Zealand elites who are by and large financially strained. Skipping the Traverse with its two hour plus winning time will give them a huge leg speed advantage. But what happens if more elites decide to do this? If 40 elites decide to skip the Traverse and run the Park race? Two things happen. The Traverse is reduced as a race and a spectacle, and the organisers of the race lose income (approx $1200). Considering there are the same organisers for both days, chances are some of this money actually goes towards the 2nd days prizes? So considering the situation it is surely unethical for top elites to skip the Traverse and run the Park race. We lose competition, and they lose money.People who do it should be ostracised and more importantly made unofficial for the Park Race. I call for the organisers to step in and retrospectively make this rule for the fairness and financial viability of their competition.   darren Posted: 24 December 2001, 9:33 AM   You really should become a politician Jamie, a great piece of spin. I think you should announce to the world the names of all these top elite scoundrels and publicly shame them into competing in the Turkey Traverse. Personally I have only entered the Park race and not the Traverse, not in order to save myself, but to do something a bit different, run around Mt Taranaki. I've done the Traverse before and really enjoyed it, having a head to head race with the then World Champion Petter Thoresen and Tore Sandvik a couple of years ago was awesome. This year I didn't think it was worth spending $36 to run on the same maps again. As what I will be doing will take 6-8 hours and will mean expending considerably more energy than those doing the Traverse, do you think the organisers will take time off my Park race. I'll leave it up to you to come up with a formula which caters for everyones choices, whereby the number of minutes you run for on Traverse day count for a pre determined number of seconds taken off your park race time. Surely this will satisfy all competing in the Park race, which is after all the National Champs Park Race.   darren Posted: 24 December 2001, 9:46 AM   Actually Jamie, Ive just re-read what I wrote and it sounds almost as tossy as your spin. Why should it concern us what the top elites do the day before a National Champs Park race. They are not scoundrels as I suggested, they're professionals! I'm almost certain the organisers would have predicted this anyway. Why else would they schedule a National Park Champs the day after a 2hr+ race, when they could have had it the other way round or the Park race on the Friday evening.   Jamie Posted: 24 December 2001, 11:05 AM   oh are you one of them darren?   Jamie Posted: 24 December 2001, 11:09 AM   sorry, but are you suggesting the Park Race is been held on the Sunday so the Elites won't compete in the traverse? seems odd