World of O News
Do you think the IOF-rules should be changed so that base station must be checked if written protest? There have been fierce discussion about the topic after the World Cup and EOC in Ski-Orienteering in Bulgaria/Romania.
A team was disqualified from a Gold medal in the mixed relay, but the competitor was 100% sure that he had received visual/audio signal at the SportIdent control. A protest was delivered, and the base station was checked for registration. The registration was found in the base station, and the team was reinstated on the result list. This is actually against the IOF rules (depending on how you interpret the rules). The problem with having to check the base station is of course that it may take an extra hour or more before the winner is certain in a competition.
Three years ago, in a Portuguese Military Championship, an athlete (A) punched the SI (he punched immediately after another runner (B) who confirms the fact. Nobody else was near the control).
In the end he had no registry in the SI and was disqualified.
As team manager, I asked for a base check and there was no registry.
The curious thing was that the registry immediately after the athlete B, belonged to a competitor (C) that wasn’t yet in the area (analysing his splits, he could never be there at that time).
I figured that the athlete’s registry was incomplete and next competitor passing in the control “took the time” of the athlete A’s SI!!!
It was a minor competition and nobody cared about, but is a good example of the loss o liability of the system, specially with older equipments…