Major Topics Page
Single Scale Ranking Scheme
Whole Sport Plan (WSP)
Single Scale Ranking Scheme
Single Scale Ranking Scheme
Introduction
The aim of the British Orienteering Single Scale Ranking Scheme is to rank regular and competent orienteers in order of orienteering ability in the hope that this will spur the spirit of competition, thereby helping to raise both navigational and fitness standards and adding to the satisfaction of participating for regular orienteers.
The significant difference between the old ranking system and the Single Scale Ranking System is that the old ranking list compared competitors within an age class competition and the new compares competitors, male and female across age classes and courses. In the old there were ranking lists for each age class, in the new list there is one list for all competitors and various filtered views of this list can be displayed.
Overview
This version of the Single Scale Ranking Scheme is not intended to be all singing and dancing! The system is functional without some of the additional services proposed during the review that may be added in later versions or once the competition review has determined the place of the rankings in the overall competition structure. If the rankings become a significant part of the competition structure the system will be enhanced.
In brief, the Single Scale Ranking Scheme produces a single ranking list based on the sum of the six highest scores obtained by a competitor in the last 12 months in National (Level 1) and Regional (Level 2) events. Short classes (and M/W18B) are ranked, but are no longer ranked separately. Scores are calculated by comparing the average points of other competitors on the same course in the last 12 month period. The ranking list is continually updated as results are received, but its display is refreshed once a week early on a Thursday morning. For those interested the mathematical algorithm used to calculate the ranking points is available for those interested in Appendix K – Ranking.
The results from all National (Level 1) Events and all Regional (Level 2) Events that are not Night events, Relay, Score and other mass start events will be included in the Single Scale Ranking Scheme. All courses that include eligible competitors are used to allocate ranking points.
All competitors who are members of British Orienteering and aged 18 and above will be eligible to score Ranking points although this lower age limit of eligibility will be reviewed later this year by the relevant groups.
All British Orienteering members who gain points at ranked events will have their points stored in one ranking list. This ranking list will be displayed on the British Orienteering website and may be filtered so that, for example, only the women in the list that belong to a particular club will be shown.
The web system accepts results data from both age based courses (e.g. National Events) and colour coded courses (e.g. Regional Events) and produces valid rankings points. British Orienteering numbers are used to differentiate between competitors and the points earned by each competitor in his or her 6 best events are shown alongside the ranking.
Using the Ranking List
The ranking list is displayed as a single ranking list, but with the option to customise it by selecting from the Club, Age and Gender dropdown menus and clicking "Filter". Using the filters will generate a new view on the ranking list and your position will be re-calculated based on your chosen parameters.
When using the filtered views your overall ranking position, based on the single ranking list, will be shown in brackets and if this position has changed from the previous week, the change will be displayed as a + or – number alongside your ranking position.
You can also see which events your ranking position was generated from by hovering over the Contributing Scores. This will provide the name and date of the event at which the points were accrued.
The easiest way to find your position in the ranking list is log in as a member (via the homepage) and then click on the ‘Find me’ button. From the public area of the website selecting your club and gender and scrolling through the list will probably be quickest. Participants will be able to see which event the 6 highest scores came from by hovering the cursor over an individual score.
For Information
Things you should be aware of:
- The algorithm was created by members of the Ranking Working Group and will, no doubt, generate considerable discussion. As explained later, the system will need some time to settle down therefore it is unlikely that the algorithm will be reviewed or modified in the short term.
- The implementation of the system has been managed by staff, any feedback on the implementation should be provided to feedback@britishorienteering.org.uk. Errors in the implementation will be corrected as quickly as possible but significant modifications to the system are unlikely until the system has settled down and users have become familiar with the system.
- The overall system is complex with many factors affecting it, and the testing has been prolonged and time consuming but there remains the likelihood that some errors may remain in the system.
- The results data for 2009 have been loaded into the system. The data was collected from a variety of sources but predominantly from the results imported into the old ranking system. Results from other national and regional events staged in 2009 may not be entered. The format of some of the results data, particularly from the early part of 2009, is varied in regard to how ‘courses’ were defined. This impacts significantly on the display of these results but does not affect the generation of ranking scores. Errors existed in the results used, those errors identified have been corrected but there may be errors as yet unidentified. Errors identified will be considered and if significant corrected. However correcting a set of results in 2009 means that all ranking scores earned at subsequent events have to be recalculated, a significant issue.
- The Single Scale Ranking Scheme had to be initiated. This process entailed taking a series of significant event results from 2009 and creating a seeding list. For those interested this was based on seconds per corrected kilometre over a few major events, standardised to a mean of 1000 and standard deviation of 200 - to calculate seed points for each individual. The impact of this seeding data will remain in the system although it should reduce as more and more new results are added to the system.
- Competitors aged 18; no competitors of this age will be displayed in the ‘age class’ filtered view until results have been uploaded for 2010. This is because participants younger than 18 in 2009 had no ranking points calculated.
- The single ranking list is not weighted in any way for distances, technical difficulty, gender or level of event. One effect of this is that it does cause the list to look male dominated, for example the top female competitor is currently placed 50th in the list.
- ‘Age Class’ is used in various ways in orienteering; as the ‘natural’ age class of the competitor based on year of birth; as an age class competition that competitors enter; and as the name of a course. The ‘Age’ filter available in the ranking list uses the natural age class of the competitor on the date the filter is used. If a competitor has recently moved up an Age Class, they will be shown in their current Age Class filter but their ranking points will have been generated whilst competing in their previous Age Class. Therefore a person who has just become an M/W40 will still be counting points they accrued whilst competing on M/W35 courses. Their ranking position will continue to be calculated using points accrued from events run the previous year until they have accrued 6 new ranking scores. Age class has no influence on the number of ranking points scored.
- ‘Course’ is also a term used in a variety of ways. Event officials entering results into the system will be encouraged to use the physical course as the course descriptor. This is starting to happen with Regional (Level 2) events with the use of the colour coded course system but is not happening at National (Level 1) events where age class is often used as a course with several age classes running on the same physical course. To enable the ranking system to determine who has run on the same physical course, all course information is tested to decide if the sum of the distance, climb and number of controls is the same. If it is the same the ‘courses’ are treated as one course for the calculation of ranking points.
- The user interface both as a member and as an event official has been designed to be easy to use. At times decisions have been taken to prioritise this ease of use above functionality. An example of this is the wish to include only TD4/5 courses; technically this was feasible in a variety of ways but the impact on the user friendliness was significant therefore the decision to include all courses in the ranking scheme was taken. This decision will be reviewed as users become familiar with the system.
- The ‘Age’ filter has both age categories and Age Class indicated, this is to make the filter obvious to both experienced and less experienced participants.
- Uploading of results: The event official responsible only has to upload the results once and this will populate the display of the event results and the rankings scheme. A user guide is available which provides instructions and details of the data required.
Queries and Feedback
There will undoubtedly be queries from users about the results system and the Single Scale Ranking Scheme. In order to deal effectively and efficiently with these the following process will be used:
- All queries should be directed to feedback@britishorienteering.org.uk with ‘ranking’ in the subject line of the email.
- An automated acknowledgement will be sent.
- Each Friday a set of responses will be published on the website as FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions); this will be a cumulative series of FAQs which should in time provide the answers that most people are seeking.
Supporting Documents
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Whole Sport Plan (2009-2013)
A great deal of information regarding the Whole Sport Plan (WSP) has already been provided to members via Focus magazine in a summarised and hopefully, readable form – almost every publication for the last 2 years has contained an update on progress!
Previous editions of Focus magazine can be downloaded from the members only section which you can access by logging in to the British Orienteering website. If you have forgotten you username/password please email the National Office.
Articles about the WSP have appeared in Autumn 2007 (p26/27), Winter 2007 (p4), Spring 2008 (p20/21), Summer 2008 (p6/7), Autumn 2008 (p24), Winter 2008 (p24/25), Spring 2009 (p3). Mike Hamilton has also provided updates in his Chief Executive report.
Additionally the detailed papers have been provided to some committees and those Associations that have requested copies.
The Board has discussed the WSP and Sport England submission at Board meetings since the inauguration of the Board and there has been considerable discussion regarding how the WSP could be communicated to members in a style and structure that would encourage it to be read. Obviously we would like to encourage members to understand it and do their part in helping to implement it.
Board members have recognised that the Sport England submission, and to a lesser extent the WSP, are written in a language, style and structure that is required when communicating with funding partners and being large, is unlikely to be read by many members. The submission and associated documents do not use especially ‘orienteering friendly’ language and consequently the concepts and underpinning principles have been communicated to members through Focus rather than by publishing the original documents.
The Board advocate transparency and therefore have previously made the documents available when requested. In addition, some time ago the Board asked staff to develop an ‘orienteering friendly’ version of the WSP that will be suitable for clubs and members to use. A project to provide such an interpretation of the WSP that will be easily usable by clubs and members is currently under development and will be piloted with some clubs and their members with a view to publishing it by early 2010.
British Orienteering has recently been informed by one of our funding partners, Sport England, that a request has been made to them under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the Orienteering WSP. To assist Sport England in responding to the request more easily, the majority of the significant information regarding the WSP is now being published on the British Orienteering website. Consequently articles have been added to the Major Topics page that provides the background and links to the relevant documents.
The background to the development of the WSP and the Sport England funding submission is:
The submission for funding from Sport England was made in October 2008 and an agreement in principle reached in January 2009. Funding commenced in June 2009 although there remain several documents outstanding that will be completed shortly.
The last two documents cannot be released without authorisation from Sport England which has been sought.
In reality the above list of documents is only a small percentage of the total documents; there were many meetings and email discussions between members, staff, Board members, and Sport England staff about the above. The list does however provide an insight into the work that has been done in delivering both a reasonable draft of a Whole Sport Plan for Orienteering and the Sport England Funding Submission.
Similar work, based on the Orienteering WSP and national needs has already taken place in Northern Ireland and is commencing in Wales. Additionally Scotland has a yearly process to gain funding.
Mike Hamilton, Chief Executive
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