Australian Speed Championships

Hi all,

posted this in another thread already:

in fact ISWC (the follow up to ISA as ISAF international class) has the rights for worlds, continentals and national championships. The ISA/ISWC never focussed on a specific timing method, but we need WSSRC approved timing equipment for world and continental championships, as the participants expect that if they break a record it will be ratified. So, as soon as the WSSRC accepts other timing methods, we are on !

We are already sanctioning several national championships run with GPS, e.g. in Germany, and we would be more than happy to see another national championship in the southern hemisphere. There are no costs involved at all, all we ask for is putting a logo on the event website, displaying a flag - and sending us the results.

In doing so, your event becomes part of the speed world tour, all entrants go to the world ranking (which is used for seeding mainly), and allows to send more sailors to the world championship events.

So, if anybody is interested in setting this up in Australia, New Zealand... just contact me at isa@speedsurfing.org

Cheers,
Markus

beware the thin edge of the wedge.....

Hi all,

as I do not know anything about your structures, would be best that you all discuss this how to handel the best way and then we continue from that point on (if there is interest from your side :) )

As mentioned before, from our side there are no limitations, except the event shall be held at one site in a specified period...

I am happy about any help I can give to bring this forward !

Cheers,
Markus

A month could be a specified period or even two weeks, why is that any different to the time period Al's fortnight runs in or the week Speedweek runs. They always seem to get some wind. How about Matt's month of speed? Great initiative by Markus and the ISA/ISWC to support National Championships using GPS.

Well why don't we make it happen then.

Dec 27the 08 to jan 6th 09 The Australian NM Speed championships, Novara, Mandurah WA??

Any takers, lets make it happen!!!!!!

Hi all,

the idea behind "one strip, one period" ist that the chances for anybody taking part in a national championship shall be the same. If you run it on an open format, the people that have free time on that specific day with the big storm will be on top of the list, while guys that have to work on that day have no chance to become national champion, even if they might be the better sailors...

Cheers,
Markus

btw: nautical mile is a recognised course, so no prob...

I seem to remember laying in a hospital on the Friday of the last week of Al's October event when a bunch of people jumped over me and into the 2007 top ten with some world class speeds in the high 40's!

The first two weeks of October is an excellent time for an event like a National championship for divisions up to 500m. I would certainly include the 5 x 10 sec event though and would favor ranking the Championship on that division. All the other divisions can be ranked as well of course.

I guess the main question is.....Why?

There has to be a compelling reason to actually run an event and a compelling reason for people to enter it. Since there would be little extra cost to include ISWA status, that is not really a disincentive, but what are the advantages?

Some possible ones that come to mind:

- Sailors can gain ISWA seeding and that may help some gain entry into other ISWA events.
Is this incentive? Probably not for many, given the enormous cost of travel to actually go to those other events. There are probably only two or three guys at most who may take advantage of this and one or two of them may not need any more credentials for entry anyhow.

- The sailor who wins the event can call them self the 'Australian Speed Champion'. Not a lot of incentive for many of us, especially given that we already have a ranking in GPS-SS and it is pretty obvious who the "champion" is.

- To enable sailors to sail in an event that gives them an official world ranking in ISWA.
Nope, this is not an incentive either because unless we use a WSSRC approved timing system (and observer) I would imagine there can be no inclusion in the world rankings (and of course no 'official' national records set).

Let me stress that I am not against the concept at all. I am just trying to find some reasons to make the extra effort to run a ISWA sanctioned event.

For me, the big incentive may come when we can have a practical and inexpensive GPS timing system that satisfies the WSSRC requirements and may also attract some of the top international stars to make the journey with a chance at setting National, or even world records and improving their world rankings.

Any other ideas?

"- of course for national records the WSSRC rules still apply"
This is the reason most of us don,t bother with ISWC races and enjoy the freedom that the GPS systems offer. As to the statement "giving more credibility" to an event,how much more cred do we want when all our times/tracks and results are up there for all to see.Lets keep the comps fun and accessable to all We do know who the best are.