Congrats to YDL team - calling all 15 -17 year olds and marvel at the scoring system

U15 YDL match

Heathside's U15 track and field team achieved a fine turn out for the first match of the season, with more than 20 taking part. For details of performances see this fuller report. The U15s train at the Finsbury Park Track on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. See youtube videos of U13 and U15 boys 1500m races 

15 - 20 Year Olds

Given the current arrangements for Youth Development League meetings it is club policy to provide opportunities for match competition for 15 - 20 year olds in the Southern Athletics League. This group was represented by 4 young men and 1 young woman at the Braintree meeting. Given the opportunity these matches provide for competition we encourage participation. Indeed the scoring system I am about to describe is specifically aimed at boosting the results of younger (and older) athletes and rewarding the participation of those who take part as "non-scorers". Everyone scores using the Heathside method.

The Heathside Method for scoring at a Track and Field Match

36 Athletes competed for Heathside at Braintree in our first league match, an utterly splendid turn out, thank you everyone. As a reward for performances in track and field we have promised to hold an end of season bash and make some awards, so I have devised a scoring system which *(massively favours M60s)/(is scrupulously fair) in calculating points per event for all competitors . *Read On and come back here to delete as you then think appropriate.

In order to encourage strength in depth, the scores apply to those who score match points and to those who don't.

In order to encourage athletes from all eligible age groups weightings are applied to allow for both youth and experience.

One thing I did propose, but so far have not done, is to allow more points for less well supported events - given the turnout at Braintree I have not, so far done this.

I will now explain the system. Or you can just skip to the tables at the end and take my word for it. Until we've tested this a bit in practice I think all the scores should be regarded as provisional.

The SAL awards Man and Woman of the Match based on a pints scoring system. In the first round of matches the high scorers were David Ragan (1003 points in the steeplechase), and Shannan Hylton (1005 in the 200m).  Mick Bromilow has taken a lot of trouble to ensure that all events provide a comparable spread of scores, so that a competitor in any event might be the winner. Bromilow writes:

"The scoring system used in these tables is based on the formula 

Score = A * (P - B)c

where P is the performance (in seconds or metres), B is the base performance below which no points are scored and A and C are parameters calculated for each event."

Values for A, B and C can be found in the "Declarations" tab of every scoring spreadsheet used in the SAL, for example that used at Braintree, starting in 296K.

Using these values I have calculated each athlete's score in each event, scoring and non-scoring, and added them together for each athlete. This gives the scores in the left two columns below, headed "Sum of Points".

However the problem I see with this is, that it assumes that all the athletes are in the prime of their careers, which is not always true. Younger athletes are still improving, whilst older athletes are not. So I have introduced into the calculations age weighting factors. The source of these factors is a spreadsheet called wavacalc10.xls which you can download and examine.

The way the age weighting works is that for each event for each age there is a factor to be applied to a performance to give a theoretical performance as though the athlete were a senior athlete. For running races the factor is a number below 1, so that the theoretical time is lower than the actual time, while for jumps and throws the factor is greater is greater than 1, so the jump or throw is improved. This gives a new value for P in the formula to which the same A, B and C are applied. Check this out in the LH scoring system.xls spreadsheet, on the results tab.

Now, I like this system ,because it improves my points total for the day from 792 to 2,223. Someone should double check it.

I have taken this scoring system and applied it to the LH competitors at Braintree, and the results are displayed in the table below.

Sum of points			Sum of age factor points
Name	Total		Name	Total
Nathan Cyrus	2,888		Nathan Cyrus	2,888
Anne Christine Scherer	2,642		Anne Christine Scherer	2,642
Noelle O'Regan	2,164		Ivan Ross	2,350
Ivan Ross	2,031		Adrian Essex	2,223
Jeff Rice	1,903		Noelle O'Regan	2,164
Adam Kirk Smith	1,767		Darnell Plummer	2,101
Izaiah Turner	1,661		Joseph Galea	1,933
Joseph Galea	1,547		Jeff Rice	1,903
Darnell Plummer	1,427		Molly Harrison	1,825
Mark Lawrence	1,395		Adam Kirk Smith	1,767
Richard Macaulay	1,352		Izaiah Turner	1,661
Alishia Abodunde	1,341		Mark Lawrence	1,619
Molly Harrison	1,325		Sid Ourida	1,581
Andrew Brooker	1,127		Richard Macaulay	1,352
Debbie Melvin	1,118		Alishia Abodunde	1,341
Sid Ourida	1,012		Helene Kehoe	1,326
Filmon Russom	997		Debbie Melvin	1,256
Ed Garrett	915		Majid Noori	1,199
Sebouh Tokvorion	821		Ed Garrett	1,199
Majid Noori	809		Filmon Russom	1,133
Adrian Essex	792		Andrew Brooker	1,127
Emmanuel Nwabodo	752		Joanna Brown	1,082
Damian Mendez	674		Sebouh Tokvorion	821
Joanna Brown	608		Damian Mendez	801
Helene Kehoe	594		Emmanuel Nwabodo	752
Adam Ibrahim	516		John Flahive	699
Leigh James	442		Tony Killilea	666
Raylin Suffran	419		Bergit Pfleger	528
John Flahive	413		Adam Ibrahim	516
Johnathan Litchfield	387		Paul Lemmon	502
Tony Killilea	339		Leigh James	442
Alex Macaulay	328		Raylin Suffran	419
Jessica Vinluan	327		Johnathan Litchfield	387
Gianni Ciolli	318		Gianni Ciolli	373
Raylin Suffron	309		Alex Macaulay	328
Bergit Pfleger	230		Jessica Vinluan	327
Paul Lemmon	218		Raylin Suffron	309
Grand Total	37,907		Grand Total	45,542

There are a couple of other anomalies to mention. 

Hurdles age factors have occasional hikes to relfect the fact that hurdles get lower for older competitors. The hurdles don't get any lower at the SAL so I have evened these factors out.  Any age factors which I have had to adjust are highlighted in the spreadsheet in red.

Each runner in the relays has been awarded the points calculated for the team as a whole. Age factors are not provided for relays so I have used the 100m and 400m factors instead.