Scottish Relay Championships (SRC)

Purpose

The Scottish Relay Championships provides a high level relay competition providing head-to-head racing between large numbers if teams for junior, open and veteran relay teams.

Rules

The SRC will be hosted by each of the three Areas within Scotland : East > North > West in rotation. Each Area Committee will invite offers from their own Clubs to host this Championship, along with the Scottish Relay Championships.

The SRC will normally take place the day after the SOC (e.g. the last Sunday in May.)

The SRC will typically be a level R3 event and form part of the UK relay league.

The area to be used shall be approved by the Competitions Convenor and thereafter the event should be registered with the Fixtures Secretary. The main criterion is the availability of sufficient terrain at a high level of technical difficulty, and an appropriate assembly/changeover area.

Competitive teams will comprise three members of the same club. Non-Scottish clubs are eligible. Teams comprising members of different clubs will normally be non-competitive, subject to rules covering “alliances” of neighbouring clubs. Teams comprising competitors of inappropriate age class, or with runners running more than once, may take

part but will be non-competitive.

Mens and womens open classes shall be offered. In addition, age based courses shall be offered for juniors and age-based handicap courses for veterans.

Guidelines

1. The philosophy is that any combination of sexes and ages is allowed and catered for.

2. Classes are mens and womens open, juniors and a handicap system for veterans.

3. The handicap system is designed to make it easy for everyone to run an appropriate distance in a competitive team, while encouraging head-to-head racing. Juniors and 21s may also compete in the “veteran” handicap as described below.

4. All senior classes start together and the handicap winners will be the first team from any of classes 3-7 to finish.

5. Each team member in the handicap obtains points as follows

Handicap points
M14	6	W14	6
M16	4	W16	5
M18	2	W18	4
M20	1	W20	3
M21	0	W21	2
M35	1	W35	3
M40	2	W40	4
M45	3	W45	5
M50	4	W50	6
M55	5	W55	7
M60	6	W60	8
M65	7	W65	9
M70	8	W70	10

5. The distance (courses) run depend on the total number of points a team has according to the following table.

Courses to be run
1. Men’s Open	A	A	A
2. Women Open	B	B	B
3. Handicap: 6+ point	A	B	C
4. Handicap: 9+ point	B	C	C
5. Handicap: 12+ point	B	D	C
6. Handicap: 15+ point	C	D	C
7. Handicap: 18+ point	D	D	C
8. Junior: Total BOF age 48-	LG	O	LG
9 Junior: Total BOF age 40-	Y	Y	O
Ad hoc entries welcome on all courses

Courses A, B, C and D are TD5 with an estimated winning time of 35mins for good M21, W21, M50 and M65 respectively; LG, O and Y correspond to the colour coded system.

TD5 courses shall be gaffled (forked) to inhibit following, although the final section of the final lap should not be. Junior courses may be gaffled at the planner’s discretion, but care should be taken to minimize the danger of this leading to disqualification.

Teams may choose to run in a longer class if they wish (e.g. 3 M40s may run Men’s open). Weak teams may run in a shorter class, but will be non-competitive.

Pot luck, ad hoc teams and alliances of neighbouring clubs may be accepted at the organisers discretion. The spirit of this is to allow as many people as possible to take part, not to encourage the formation of especially strong teams, and the organiser may decide not to accept a combination team which appears much stronger than their likely competition.

Typically, two neighbouring clubs should be allowed to compete as an “alliance” if they have insufficient competitors at the event to make a full team. This extends the BOF arrangements currently applied to the open classes and may include, e.g. the only one or two juniors in a club with many adults. The concept of “neighbouring” may be interpreted flexibly for particularly far-travelled clubs.

Awards and trophies:

Trophies should be awarded to at least the first competitive clubs in mens, womens 40-, 48- and handicap. Additional prizes may be awarded to other winners of courses 3-7, and other high-placed teams at the organiser’s discretion.