Spring Handicap Series: standings after event #4

After a good run round the beautiful Ashridge North woodland, we have the placings after race #4 in the 2016 Spring Series. Andrea Rebora has regained his first place, but it’s very tight at the top with less than ten points separating him from Charlotte Turner, Paul Couldridge, Kwun Him Himmy Lau and Raffaella Marin.

There is now only one event of the five remaining: the CompassSport Cup qualifying heat on Sunday 13 March, at Hollands Wood in the New Forest, just north of Brockenhurst. With the best three results to qualify, it’s still far from clear who will win the trophy this year.

The scoring is a handicap based on both runners’ average performance in 2015 and their variability. The ranking points that they are awarded are normalised to see how far they were above (or below) their expected score. This is similar in concept to the ranking system used by British Orienteering, and allows us to compare results across courses. Competitors points above expectation are then ranked and scored from 100 down, similar to our other competitions. This rewards consistency rather than one-off high-scoring runs.

Many thanks to CHIG, BKO, MVOC and HH for hosting the first four events.