Proximity of start and finish, and elevation difference, in road races
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Started
In the World Record committee we are discussing the subject with above title. We are leaning towards copying the rules from the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) for the recognition of world records in street races. That is:
IAAF Compeition Rules 2018-2019: RULE 260 21.(b) and (c):
"(b) The start and finish points of a course, measured along a theoretical straight line between them, shall not be further apart than 50% of the race distance.
(c) The overall decrease in elevation between the start and finish shall not exceed 1:1000, i.e. 1m per km (0.1%).".
The main point of (b) is to prevent "too much" tailwind advantage.
The point of (c) is obvious: to prevent getting an advantage from anything but the slightest downhill.
These rules would not be required for a competition. However, if one or both rules are not satisfied in a competition, the results would not be OK for recognising IUF World Records.
Currently, the rules for proximity of start and finish, and elevation difference, are slightly different, as stated in the current World Record Guidelines (version 2011). These rules are not mentioned in the Rulebook. And I think they don't need to be in the Rulebook (since they are not required for a competition), but riders need to be made aware before the race if any results are not amenable for records.
Bottom line: I'm not posting this to initiate a change to the Rulebook, but to raise awareness... Or does anyone think that this somehow must be reflected in the Rulebook text?
Comment
I don't think it needs to be in the rulebook. In my opinion it is enough when it is in the World Record Guidelines. Any rider who wants to break a record will read through the Guidelines. And as it is said somewhere in the rulebook that at least for Unicon it must be made sure that World Records can be achieved I guess it should also be clear for organizers to read through the Guidelines in advance.
Comment
I think that it could be helpful to a short sentence to the organizer section noting (b) and (c), and that Unicon organizers should refer to the WR guidelines.
Comment
I agree with 3 of you. Not rewriting every WR requirement in IUF Rulebook, but clearly mentioning that these requirements exists and are described in the WR guidelines.
Comment
Mirjam is right that the Rulebook states (in 1A.5) that the host should ensure that competitions are conducted according to IUF World Record standards. So it is already covered. The wording here, by the way, is not optimal and I will start another discussion about this.
I would be against copying specific information (like the maximum of 50% apart) into the Rulebook. Firstly because the WR Committee doesn't have a final position yet. Also, if the IUF World Record Guidelines change at some point in the future, we run the risk of requirements getting out of sync between Rulebook and WR Guidelines. Referring to a single source prevents this.
Comment
Agreeing with Scott that it's important to notify hosts that there are caveats to breaking world records on non-standard courses if they don't meet with IUF World Record Guidelines, followed by a link to where those can be found.
Also, in 1A.5 it should be clear that world record guidelines may or may not be applicable to some courses, based on the limitations of Unicon to find optimum courses within a reasonable geographic area (or similar).
As Klaas stated in his previous comment, we should always avoid any duplication of information from other documents, or other sections of this document, because they can lead to bad/inconsistent data.
On comment on Klass' first post the IAAF guidelines include this:
(c) The overall decrease in elevation between the start and finish shall not exceed 1:1000, i.e. 1m per km (0.1%)."
But what if this is equal to, or exceeded by increases in elevation? Perhaps this is included in that statement by the word "overall", but otherwise it seems a bit limiting.
Comment
Even for official competitions it is not required that IUF World Record Guidelines are followed. If they aren't followed, the results are simply not valid for world records, but that does not invalidate that competition per se. However, since the IUF Rulebook is used at Unicons and other large conventions, where there certainly is a possibility to break world records, it should still be recommended in the Rulebook that World Record Guidelines are followed, if possible.
About your last comment: I read "overall" in the IAAF rule as: the finish of the race shall not be lower in elevation than the start by x meters, where x is the total race length in kilometers. This is not really limiting severely: anything going up is OK; any race course that loops back to the starting spot (or often: to the start area) is OK, and even slightly down (42 m for a marathon) is OK.
But hey, if this can be misread, we must make sure to phrase it better in our own WR Guidelines. Thanks for the tip. :)
Comment
I agree with Scott (and others) that a short sentence should be included in the Event Organizer section.