Do we need "fun" races in the Rulebook? (Closed for comments)
Comments about this discussion:
Started
There are some not-so-serious track race categories in the Rulebook, that in my view can better be eliminated. Reasons:
1. If they are in the Rulebook, host must follow these exact same rules if they offer them. But I think variations should be allowed.
2. If they are in the Rulebook, they are automatically recognised as official World Record categories, if a proposal to this effect in the World Record Committee will pass. The reason for this is that the WRC wants a stronger connection between the Rulebook and the official IUF World Records.
3. Officially regulating such fun categories contributes negatively to the image of unicycling as a serious sport.
Categories that (in my view) are candidates to remove from the Rulebook:
3B.6.6 Slow Giraffe Race
3B.6.10 Juggling Unicycle Race
3B.6.11 Ultimate Wheel Race
3B.6.12 50m Fast Backward
3B.6.13 Medley
I would agree that these may be viable events, but rather in an informal way, perhaps like a workshop, as opposed to official competitions.
Comment
I am in favor of removing these events.
Comment
I don't think they need to be in the rulebook.
Comment
Note: if we remove the Ultimate Wheel Race, we have an orphan, i.e. the definition of Ultimate Wheel in 1D.1.
That should then be removed as well.
Comment
I also think that we do not need the disciplines mentioned in the rulebook. On the one hand they are very rarely or hardly offered and on the other hand I would agree with Klaas and say that they do not really fit into the image of a competitive /"serious" sport. And I would regard our official rules as something that should describes unicycling as a competitive sport.
Comment
I agree that these should be removed.
Klaas - please make a proposal.
Comment
Those were in there because some used to be "regular" races; namely the deadly 50m Backward, and some were held at several Unicons; Juggling and Ultimate Wheel (I think). We left them in back in the day, just so people could see these were other things people had done.
But I'm 1000% happy to remove the Backward race, and the way Unicon schedules have grown over the years, the rest of them can go as well. I'm still of the belief that, now that we have faster unicycles, track racing on 24's is archaic. The best thing about 24" racing is that you can generally run out of dismounts, even at your highest speed. This greatly cuts down on injuries!
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Oh, and since I'm not a voting member in this group, it can't be said that I voted to take the "fun" out of the Track rules... :-P
Comment
This has been taken care of in proposal 77.
Will try to close this discussion now, although in a few other discussions I noticed that I can't, somehow.