The League Tables Are In
The league tables of both the NI Colour Series League and the NI Urban League are published and are available on Results>2022 Results.
Following NI Colour Series 5 at Tyrella, with officicials, helpers and juniors on the JIRCs team given notional points, most colours are still open to a number of contenders. However James ewart and Aran Power have now won the Light Green and Yellow mens courses. Thanks for Alan Gartside for compiling the league scores.
Graeme Francis complies the new Urban League, with some pretty complex computation. Graeme writes “With 3 races left to go of this year’s Urban League all the prizes are still up for grabs. With 6 races to count there is still plenty of time to jump up the leader-board.
In the Junior Section: On the Short Course the current leaders are Ruby Gardiner and James Ewart, whilst on the Middle Course Anastasia continues to show us what the benefits of regular training can deliver. For the lads it’s currently a clean sweep of the placings for our southern visitors. We’re not going to allow this to happen are we? It’s an NI urban league. So if you wish to change it, you’d better get out there and rack up some points.
With the Seniors, our aging demographic is producing some close competition on the Middle Course in both the Men’s and Ladies competitions. Barbara Foley-Fisher currently has a slender lead over Helen Baxter with both having completed 5 events to date so it’s likely to come down to who can drop what, although Teresa Finlay could upset the apple cart. In the Men’s competition its families reversed with Philip Baxter holding a slender lead over Nigel Foley-Fisher, with Raymond Finlay coming up along the rails, and don’t discount Wilbert either.
In the Open class, whilst current leaders Michael Burton and Olivia Baxter may have one hand on the top prizes they can both still be overtaken. Olivia is looking good to retain her title. She currently has a comfortable lead in the Ladies Open but she’s reached her compliment of 6 scores to count. Heather Cairns is currently scoring in 5 events so can improve, and then we have Steph and Aine and even Moire who could make a late charge and pip Olivia at the post.
In the Men’s event Michael Burton has a very slender lead over yours truly: a case of ability over consistency more than anything else but as I’m involved in all three of the remaining events I already know my final score. Can anyone else push us close. There are several who can but mis-punching and swearing probably won’t help. 3 good runs are going to be needed from here on in.
Intrigued as to how it all works? Well firstly the results are age corrected, and then your times are compared to how quick two of the world’s best elites would do. In the Ladies case it’s Charlotte Ward; in the men’s it Kris Jones. Points are awarded out of 1000 as a percentage of how close your time would be to theirs. Then we have the Bonus points: These are awarded for being the quickest over a particular leg on your course ( 50 points ), and also for being in the top ten finishers on your course ( 50, 36, 30, 24, 20, 16, 12, 8, 4, 2 points respectively ). Add these up and that produces your score. As you can see, it rewards ability. You can’t just turn up – you have to run consistently to score highly.
As for the figures in green – these are the Volunteer’s scores – those awarded to the Planners / Organisers / Controllers who’ve staged the events that you’ve enjoyed who couldn’t run themselves. These are equal to the best score that they have achieved elsewhere as a reward for Volunteering.
Next up – it’s me again with some more fun in the Craigavon area on October 30th. I heard your hearts sink from here! Watch out for further details shortly.”