Specification for World Ranking Events in 2007

shall be Open Events
shall provide one men's race and one women's race; these are normally of Long, Middle or Sprint length
should not normally be mass start events
should be events which competitors are known to be taking seriously, i.e. not just for training purposes
where a multi-day event is selected, the WRE shall be chosen as one of the days (and not the chasing start day, if there is one)
Each Federation is allowed to stage up the three WREs per calendar year

· Putting on one or more World Cup events does not prevent a Federation from hosting in addition its normal allocation of three WREs

· Regional Championships which rotate on an annual basis between two or more Federations (e.g. Nordic Championships) can be WREs in addition to the host Federation's normal allocation of three WREs

· FROM 2008: In a year where an IOF Region has no Regional Championships the Region as a whole is allowed to stage three extra WREs over and above the normal allocation. Bids for all such extra events should be made by the officially recognised Regional co-ordinating body. There is no restriction on whether the events are staged by different Federations or not.

World Cup and WOC

All World Cup A/B Finals (Sprint, Middle and Long) count for ranking
World Games (WG) individual races count for ranking purposes
WOC Qualifier races and Finals, Sprint, Middle and Long count for ranking
Bonus points are awarded at WOC, World Games and World Cup races (see Points formula section)

Points formula

RP = (MP + SP * (MT- RT)/ST) * IP

(MT - RT)/ST gives number of standard deviations of runner’s time RT above or below race mean time MT (ST is the standard deviation of the ranked runners' times)
Multiplying by SP, the standard deviation of the ranked runners’ points, converts this to points
This difference is added to MP, the average points for the runners in the race and this gives the runner's points RP
IP is usually 1.00, but equals 1.10 for WOC Finals, 1.05 for WOC Qualification races, World Games Finals and World Cup A Finals
a modified formula is used for small events

Example

Suppose X comes 4th in a race in a time of 88 minutes (RT); the average time for the ranked runners in the race is 100 minutes (MT) and the standard deviation of their times is 10 minutes (ST)
Thus (MT - RT)/ST = 12/10, or 1.2 standard deviations above the average time for the ranked runners in the race
Suppose the quality of the runners is high (mean points (MP) = 1100 and standard deviation (SP) = 100)
So X gets more points than the average runner, this given by 1.2 x 100 = 120
Thus final points = 1100 + 120 = 1220

1999 improvements & changes

elimination of a "bug" which could give excessive points in races where there were only high quality runners
clarification of IP values and which events actually count for ranking
increase from 3 to 6 in number of ranked runners needed for a race to qualify for points
initial setup anomalies have now worked themselves through the system
we are confident of a much more valid scheme for 1999 - it has now matured!

2000 improvements & changes

No changes to the rankings calculation method
Allocation of events to Federations now relaxed so that each Federation in North America and Australasia can stage up to three World Ranking Events per year
Hence runners in either continent can, in theory, achieve six sets of points without requiring intercontinental travel

2001 improvements & changes

The best four scores for each runner is added to give their overall total, rather than the best six
This will increase dramatically the number of runners who are competitive on the list and help runners in the geographically distant Federations too
The algorithm used to calculate points for races with small numbers of ranked runners has been improved

2006 improvements & changes

Weightings for events other than WOC Finals are introduced in order to reward performances at the most important events
IP now set to 1.05 for World Cup Finals, World Games Finals and WOC Qualification races
IP increased from 1.05 to 1.10 for all WOC Finals
The IP weighting for any B Finals remains at 1.00

2007 improvements & changes

In order to compensate for the discrepancy in allocated WREs between years when a Regional Championships allows three more WREs per region and alternate years where there is no Regional Championship in a Region
This will take place from 2008

Purpose of Rankings Scheme

to provide a valid way of comparing runners from very different Federations on a common scale
to aid seeding and selection at international events
as motivation for runners, including those outside national squads
as an incentive for Federations to put on high quality elite events
to promote and develop orienteering in all Federations by providing a “stepping stone” between National Events and major IOF Events such as the World Cup and World Championships
the world of sport expects it!

Other uses of the Rankings Scheme

to allocate national quotas for World Cup events
to help establish how many runners per Federation can be accepted for the World Games

Application form to host a WRE

in order to co-ordinate allocation of WREs within each country, Federations must apply on behalf of their organising clubs to host WREs; applications from individual clubs which do not have approval from their Federation cannot be accepted.
every WRE must have an IOF licensed Event Advisor to control the M/W21E races; this Event Advisor may be the same as the overall event controller or may be entirely separate - they may be a member of the same Federation as that hosting the WRE but should not come from the same club as that organising the WRE.
a copy of the application form can be obtained at http://www.orienteering.org/i3/index.php?/iof2006/document_library/forms_for_download/event_applications/foot_orienteering

How WRE results should be submitted

in order to simplify the ranking points calculation routine, results should be sent in the correct format, details of which can be found http://iof.6prog.org/wre_format.htm
a most important aspect of this format is that it must be easy to identify each runner by a unique identifier
organisers will therefore need competitors to supply IOF Ranking ID information on event entry forms

Notes for runners

please supply all information requested by the organisers
if you already have a ranking ID of the form NOR824, please supply this too; a full list of these IDs can be found http://iof.6prog.org/wre_aths.asp
please keep to the same spelling of your name for every WRE you enter
if you change name (e.g. by marrying) or Federation, please inform IOF_WRE@6prog.org of this change