 Michael
|
Posted: 12 June 2003, 1:41 PM
Thanks for the contributions. I'll be considering them soon, but in the meantime I am trying to get responses from the larger proportion of Superseries participants who do not inhabit this forum. You could help by encouraging your colleagues to email me. The address is on the superseries website, if anyone doesn't know it.
|
|
fraser
|
Posted: 21 August 2003, 4:16 AM
Is there any new developments for the 2004 Super Series after the NZOF meeting last weekend?
|
|
maskofsomething
|
Posted: 27 August 2003, 9:33 AM
I know it has been said before but who wants a ss part to the series. if we are going to put in elites at the ssnats why not put ss students in with the big boys, if starting in spring area coordinators can use the past ss series results to put in teams with the final race for students being at nats (ss) the point to this is that we can extend the nats by one day to accomadate the short o while top 6 from each region run in morning as a feature race and short in alvo or we could have to short races like that in tekapo. perhaps we should start a new thread for the ss series. it will only push oing people to perform infront of their fellow students and it will also help for selection for trips away ie aussie.
|
|
Michael
|
Posted: 28 August 2003, 7:33 AM
Agreement was reached yesterday between NZOF and MAPsport for the latter to manage the 2003/04 Superseries. I have already been considering the shape of the next series and trying to extract blood from stones, er I mean trying to get details of suitable events through to next QB. Michael
|
|
Michael
|
Posted: 2 September 2003, 4:23 AM
I have put a draft description of the 2003/04 Superseries onto my website at www.mapsport.co.nz/ss0304.html for comment. Note that this is not the main Superseries website as this is a discussion document only. Here is a
Link to it.
Not everyone uses this forum, and I would be pleased if readers could spread the word to other potential superseries participants to invite them to comment. I have of course asked the squad to send it to its members. I look forward to further lively discussion.
|
|
fraser
|
Posted: 2 September 2003, 9:37 AM
The proposed schedule looks good but it seems a shame to not include the Auckland Champs when they are on such quality maps, will be using Sport Ident timing and it sounds like the majority of elites will be attending anyway.
The events in June should be dropped especially as they are not even confirmed. Adding the Auckland champs and dropping the final two events would also shorten the series by one month, making it six months long.
This would make the final round at the nationals. Michael says "we want the series to finish after Easter rather than fighting with the national champs for glamour" but I don't see this as being a problem. Making the changes would mean that the nationals are at the end of the (Super Series) season, just like a normal sport! A number of people have commented that June is too late to be finishing.
What is the rational behind not counting all the events? The proposed series of events is made up of 5 sets of events. Surely if people are going to be serious about the Super Series attendance at every event is not too much to ask. Dropping 2 events sounds like a cop out to me.
|
|
Jenni
|
Posted: 2 September 2003, 10:28 AM
As someone who had to drop one event last time, because I was the planner of it, I think there should be a possibility of dropping some events.
We had a discussion on this at the squad training camp earlier this year where the majority opinion was that you could drop some events but it should not be too many. Of course the opinions of people outside the squad should also be considered.
IIn my opinion i's a good idea to be able to drop events because it makes it more likely that the people that everyone considers are the best orienteers in NZ will also be the Superseries winners. I do agree that you should show a commitment to the series to be the winner of it as well. I guess the classic example is Tan, who, no offence to Rach I think most of us would regard as the best female orienteer in NZ however she hasn't won the superseries yet because she doesn't compete in enough events (because she has other commitments in her life which make it hard for her to travel to all the events etc). I think that's fair enough because at least in the most recent series Tan didn't compete out of Auckland. However if she had gone to Queen's Birthday she would have had a good chance at winning even though she had missed the first one and I think that's how it should be.
I also think that if you're injured at some stage of the season then you should still have a chance of achieving a result in the superseries which tells the story of the rest of your season.
So in my opinion 10 out of 12 seems to give quite a lot of weight to the commitment component, 12 out of 12 seems to favour "just turning up to them all" too much.
|
|
Natalie
|
Posted: 3 September 2003, 4:31 AM
I agree with Fraser's logic about including Auckland Champs and finishing at the Nationals. I can see Michael's point about the presence of Aussies in October affecting the results, but if we really wanted to 'purify' the results couldn't we just treat their placings as unofficial and take the SS points from there??
I don't think that by finishing at Easter the SS will be "fighting the Nationals for glory", on the contrary I think that the glory of both events would be compounded into one big glorious occasion, where the prestige for both have the potential to be even higher than if they were held separately.
I also agree with Jenni's point about being able to miss just one round (/2 events) to give a fair indication of the best orienteers in the country. Sure, in an ideal world everyone would attend every event and never set any and never be injured, so then by counting every event "The Best" would be found. But in this imperfect world of other committments, injuries and other unforseen circumstances, there should be an allowance for that within the season, to allow the competition to be as fair as possible while still rewarding dedication to the Series and of course skill.
Edited by - Natalie on 9/3/2003 12:33:31 PM
Edited by - Natalie on 9/3/2003 12:34:18 PM
|
|
Andrew M
|
Posted: 3 September 2003, 5:15 AM
Thanks for you work Michael.
I agree that the Auckland Champs in Oct should be included in the 2003/2004 Superseries and the series should end in Easter at the end of the National Champs. I think that this would be the best chance to maximise our exposure to the media.
I also believe that funding should be granted to the participants of the Superseries and not purely to the members of the National Squad. Is it feasible to allocate the travel grants post event?
Bless Chris Forne with his perserverence to attend virtually all of the superseries out of his own student back pocket and acheive a good placing. I am sure that there are other students who where handicapped by being boarderline National Squad and hence had to pay for travel themselves.
Regards Andrew.
|
|
Jamie
|
Posted: 3 September 2003, 8:40 AM
(note, I have recently resigned from the National Squad)
I think funding should be confined to the National Squad members and to D Squad members running up for the purposes of the Super Series.
Funding is an incentive to train. The National Squad standard is very achievable.
There is no such thing as a free lunch (or trip to Australia)
If funding is limited priority should be given to any individuals second inter-island trip in a year, one's commitment should be such to fund the earlier one.
|
|
Natalie
|
Posted: 4 September 2003, 1:51 AM
But with the new grade-shuffle proposals there shouldn't be any need for D-Squadders to run up, according to a previous thread...
|
|
Jenni
|
Posted: 4 September 2003, 2:22 AM
Buggar, Jamie, I thought I could get you to organize the night navigation series next year while Carsten and I are overseas!
I agree with Jamie that funding should be limited to National Squad which as Jamie points out is basically for all elites who show a commitment to training. Also, at least some of us in the squad put quite a lot of time into fund-raising activities for the squad and I know this money wouldn't be used for funding others but I think it should be recognised when giving out any funding. This is off the subject of the SuperSeries but I thought it might be good to let people know the kind of effort that we, in the squad, do put into fundraising. We are currently running our fourth annual Night Navigation series in Chistchurch (a series of 3 night score events) which last year raised over $2000 for the squad and I expect about the same this year. Another plus about the events is we get a lot of people who have never tried orienteering before who mostly seem very enthusiastic when they get back! And it is good public relations between the elites and PAPO as the series fills out the event calendar. It is quite a lot of work although mostly it gets spread among all the squad members in Christchurch and I definitely think it's worth it for the money.
Bless Chris once again who has now definitely earned the funding he got this year (Australian trip, WOC entry fee etc) after spending a good two days with OCAD 8 making sure the maps looked very beautiful and that all the new mountain bike tracks were on the maps. (Carsten and I have spent a long time mapping a new area and on other organisation jobs, Lara has distributed posters and made reflector controls, Mike's liaised with Bivouac our sponsors, Al has done more publicity and printed controls cards and we have all put out controls and helped on the night and right now La and Carsten are out picking up controls.) If $2000 was raised in all the main centres by squad members each year it would cover a trip to Australia. Also from what I've heard it helps with applying for funding from Community Trust if you can demonstrate that you are willing to put some effort into fundraising rather than just looking for hand-outs.
On the subject of Auckland Champs I'm not sure saying Australians will be there is a good reason for not including it, as presumably (hopefully) there will be non-NZ residents at the South Island 6 day as well and I think that's just part of the deal.
|
|
Michael
|
Posted: 4 September 2003, 4:31 AM
While this discussion is rolling I'll just confine myself to matters of fact.
After the WOC team was announced I checked with the selectors and they said Chris and Claire were now members of the national squad. So Chris got travel money and Claire would have if there had been any rounds further from her home. I guess Andreas is now a member of the squad too.
There is going to be a sprint at Easter.
Keep up the discussion, Michael
Edited by - michael on 9/4/2003 12:33:50 PM
|
|
James
|
Posted: 4 September 2003, 6:26 AM
with regards to the funding...............
I think that at the begining of each SS, each region should perhaps select their teams.
for instance 6 males 3 females??? and then every team member gets funding, along with others that are in the national squad. and hopefully by announcing a team, we could utilise the team competition a bit more. I think that the idea of team relays and the like sound awesome! and would help create an awesome SS atmosphere! Also it would be something more to train for (to say that you are in the Auckland Rep team!)plus much more potential for publicity to regional Newspapers, even TV!
|
|
Greg
|
Posted: 4 September 2003, 6:15 PM
National Squad members sould be the only people getting funding, and as the case is at the moment anyone that basicly entered an Elite race last year got put in the squad. I feel funding should be on a results basis, we want top quality fields at events, funding the top runners gets them there plus should give more motivation to the others to train to perform. We should go back to the different levels in the National Squad and funding goes by which level you are in.
The Auckland Champs should be included, the best maps out of any races in the series and SI, bloody hell.
The southern six day should not be included at all, espically with what events you are including in the SS Michael, anyone who is serious will not run hard on the Saturdays, killing the Elite competition for the 6days, and if there are international runners there what a joke it will look like to them. Plus I believe your view on Naseby not being a suitible classic area is so far off its not funny, I couldn't think of a better area, at least it wouldn't be a running race like most long events nowdays.
My view on how program should look, Auck Champs 2 events, CD champs 3 events, Well Champs 2 events, SI Champs 2 events and finishing with 1st day at Naseby in 6 days and the sprint there if it ever happens, thats 3 months long, 11 events, 2 sprints 3 longs 5 classics and 1 middle,
|
|
© Ruffneck Productions