National Series - What a shambles

joey100

Depending on your overall finish you may become eligible for Cat1. I believe it is top 20 overall or top 8 in a NS race that will make it mandatory for you to race as a Cat 1 at those events.

If that's true my 21st place is looking pretty good at the moment!

68 lost souls

The criteria is available at http://www.triathlonireland.com/super-series.html

rooneyjm

Do people drop out of Cat 1?

tunney

rooneyjm wrote: »

Do people drop out of Cat 1?

If they want to make sure they and their club wins the club AG prize in a race then yes, yes people drop out of Cat 1.

Is it against the rules - yes.
Is it against the spirit of the competition - yes.
But hey it might be completely in keeping with an "win at all costs" ethos .

Of course this is just a hypothetical response to your hypothetical question.

rooneyjm

And in this hypothetical world, who would this hypothetical person be?

Podge83

Or better still, tell us who its not - it definitely wouldn't be that person, hypothetically or not.

joey100

I can see one or two names who were meant to be in the super series who went on to win some events this year. Some in my age group too.

Podge83

joey100 wrote: »

I can see one or two names who were meant to be in the super series who went on to win some events this year. Some in my age group too.

Being Cat 1 doesn't exclude you from races, only TI national series points (and National champs in AG outside Cat1). AFAIK, you can still compete in any race you like, you just don't get TI NS AG points. I've been wrong before!!

joey100

Sorry I should have said went on to compete and win age group races and build NS points.

Podge83

joey100 wrote: »

Sorry I should have said went on to compete and win age group races and build NS points.

From TI Website: "Cat 1 athletes are not eligable to score points in the Vodafone National Series."

I'd say there could be some updating of the published results yet!! If what you say is correct this would influence everyone's points as the percentages would be altered, particularly at the sharp end.

zico10

joey100 wrote: »

I can see one or two names who were meant to be in the super series who went on to win some events this year. Some in my age group too.

After qualifying, you had to apply to be part of the Super Series. It's possible these guys qualified for, but just didn't apply to take part in the Super Series.

zico10

Podge83 wrote: »

Being Cat 1 doesn't exclude you from races, only TI national series points (and National champs in AG outside Cat1). AFAIK, you can still compete in any race you like, you just don't get TI NS AG points. I've been wrong before!!

That's true for 99% of races, but they only had the option of doing the draft legal race in Dublin. It will also be the case for Pulse's sprint race in Clogherhead in a few weeks.

BTH

Podge83 wrote: »

From TI Website: "Cat 1 athletes are not eligable to score points in the Vodafone National Series."

I'd say there could be some updating of the published results yet!! If what you say is correct this would influence everyone's points as the percentages would be altered, particularly at the sharp end.

There were people who opted out of the Cat 1 series, for various reasons, and take part in the AG series instead. So the results wont be change on account of these people. I would imagine TI only allowed people who were on the edge of qualification to do this but god only knows.

joey100

I thought you could qualify for it alright, based on previous results but TI had a list of people on their site when it was announced who automatically qualified for it without having to apply. No mention of not competing in it either on the page, only says when you are registering for a race to make sure you select super series.

Podge83

zico10 wrote: »

After qualifying, you had to apply to be part of the Super Series. It's possible these guys qualified for, but just didn't apply to take part in the Super Series.

Is this correct? and I seriously bow to you Zico, but are the race standard Cat 1 qualifications not "mandatory" and by application only if you fall outside these? also, hypothetically speaking, if that athlete was on the Cat 1 list are they not Cat 1 and therefore must have applied?

BTH

Podge83 wrote: »

Is this correct? and I seriously bow to you Zico, but are the race standard Cat 1 qualifications not "mandatory" and by application only if you fall outside these? also, hypothetically speaking, if that athlete was on the Cat 1 list are they not Cat 1 and therefore must have applied?

What you need to do is apply a good dose of salt to that word "mandatory"

Podge83

BTH wrote: »

What you need to do is apply a good dose of salt to that word "mandatory"

In all fairness, a reasonable athlete could turn up to a NS race where a "stacked field" was absent, finish 8th, therefore receive "mandatory" qualification and not want it I suppose.

This thread has developed from a "give out at TI" to make interesting reading!!

tunney

What would really ironic would be if the club that these hypothetical people were in then went on and on publicly about how bad it was so few people did the SuperSprint series. Of course not saying that this actually happened of course.

rooneyjm

Podge83 wrote: »

This thread has developed from a "give out at TI" to make interesting reading!!

Who would have thought it could be more shambolic than first imagined. If all this is true then it is loosing any remaining credibility very quickly.

zico10

Podge83 wrote: »

Is this correct? and I seriously bow to you Zico, but are the race standard Cat 1 qualifications not "mandatory" and by application only if you fall outside these? also, hypothetically speaking, if that athlete was on the Cat 1 list are they not Cat 1 and therefore must have applied?

I don't remember the exact procedure, but I think I at least had to inform TI of my willingness to take part in Category 1 racing. The initial contact from them was in the form of an invitation, which would imply taking part wasn't compulsory.

It might be against the spirit of the competition, but I think if a qualified athlete didn't want to take part in the Super Series, to instead concentrate on winning the National Series, then I think that is their right. Provided there's no financial gain to such a decision, I wouldn't have any issue with it.

Podge83

zico10 wrote: »

I don't remember the exact procedure, but I think I at least had to inform TI of my willingness to take part in Category 1 racing. The initial contact from them was in the form of an invitation, which would imply taking part wasn't compulsory.

It might be against the spirit of the competition, but I think if a qualified athlete didn't want to take part in the Super Series, to instead concentrate on winning the National Series, then I think that is their right. Provided there's no financial gain to such a decision, I wouldn't have any issue with it.

Thanks for that.

As a matter of interest, do you, as a participant, think that the Super series is a success?

zico10

Podge83 wrote: »

Thanks for that.

As a matter of interest, do you, as a participant, think that the Super series is a success?

I only did two races and I won't be doing anymore. So it's a bit of a stretch to say I participated in the series. I'd be pretty sure the vast majority of other Category 1 athletes participated in less than half the races. Ironman was my goal and I never even for one second considered making the Super Series my primary goal. Again I'd say most of the other qualified athletes' primary goals were something other than the Super Series. If they couldn't sell the series to the majority of the athletes, then from that point of view I don't see how TI could dress it up as being a success.

That being said, I don't for one second think the Super Series was created for the likes of me. The development of junior triathletes and the proper elite end of the sport was why the series was created. I think one of TI's stated goals in setting up the series was that it would attract athletes from abroad to Irish races. I'm only aware of one British junior athlete who came. I know it was only year one and it will probably take a few years to grow, but the series wasn't successful on that front either.

Another hope was that it would give our top juniors the chance to race against the best triathletes in the country, but quite frankly what good is it to them racing against people they are beating out of the water by so much, the race is practically over before the cycle begins? I didn't spectate at the Dublin City Tri. Seemingly it was a good race for the top three though, but probably no different to a typical training day with TI for them.

Having said all that, I enjoyed lining up and starting with other Category 1 athletes in the two races I did (Athy and Kilkee). There was a lot wrong with Athy after the start, but Kilkee this year was one of the most enjoyable races I ever did.

Look it, I got what I wanted from the series. I'm happy to see it continuing, but I'll treat it the exact same way next year. This is all just my opinion and I don't feel like I am in a position to judge whether it was a success or not.

68 lost souls

Results have been updated up as far as Port Beach which means it should be the final list? Can any one verify if I am correct?

results.triathlonireland.com

Podge83

68 lost souls wrote: »

Results have been updated up as far as Port Beach which means it should be the final list? Can any one verify if I am correct?

results.triathlonireland.com

That must be it so 68 - Bronzy bling coming this way - woohoo!! They'll hardly DQ me for drafting now, will they??

hamstervision

68 lost souls wrote: »

Results have been updated up as far as Port Beach which means it should be the final list? Can any one verify if I am correct?

results.triathlonireland.com

Mine seem correct. Pity the club filter isn't working any more...

Happy with the results though, aimed for over 100 points on each race and managed to do that.

68 lost souls

hamstervision wrote: »

Mine seem correct. Pity the club filter isn't working any more...

Happy with the results though, aimed for over 100 points on each race and managed to do that.

Instead f national series select club competition then find your club and click it. That gets the club filter going in a way.

I aimed to not come last in my AG Una rebuilding year and thanks to people only doing 3 races and me doing 5 that happened :pac:

Gives me confidence for next year though. Hopefully a strong winter of training with a good running base for next year I will patch my weaknesses and be in more contention next year.

Kurt_Godel

Podge83 wrote: »

That must be it so 68 - Bronzy bling coming this way - woohoo!! They'll hardly DQ me for drafting now, will they??

They'll probably promote you if anything!

Well done podge, some solid racing from you this year.

cart man

I thought there were extra points going for the super series national sprint championships? if so it looks like they didn't apply them!

viperlogic

The new website which we have been promised and waiting years for has finally landed http://www.triathlonireland.com/

hamstervision

...tried the Series Rankings page but the results aren't up-to-date, only have my results for Athy in there.

Curiously, the results are still correct on the results page they published earlier so they must be using entirely different data. Very odd.