What happened to GP standings?

[Guest]

It appears that the IAAF has completely abandoned the GP scoring system. Has there been any official pronouncement made about it?

[Guest]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

Yes the pronouncement was made whilst you were on vacation on Mars

[Anne Animus]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

There is no longer a Grand Prix system like we knew it. Starting this year, the GP Final will be replaced by what's called the World Athletics Final, for which you qualify based on the IAAF World Rankings. It will now be a two-day event, including all the standard T&F events (rather than just half of them each year). Therefore, there are no longer any GP standings - the athletes just score ranking points on the GP circuit now.

[gh]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

<< the
>athletes just score ranking points on the GP
>circuit now.>>

Just to clarify: athletes score points every time they step on the track. But the system is based on a multiplier of the value of your performance (from the Hungo Tables) multiplied by the "value" of the meet in question. But since they average your 6 best meets in the last year, the only meets that really count (other than something like the World Champs) are things on the GP Circuit, with Golden League meets worth most of all.

There's a very long a detailed explanation of the methodology at
http://www.iaaf.org/worldrankings/index.html

[Anne Animus]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

Just to clarify:
>athletes score points every time they step on the
>track. But the system is based on a multiplier of
>the value of your performance (from the Hungo
>Tables) multiplied by the "value" of the meet
>in question.

Just to clarify further: you don't multiply. You ADD the placing bonus (which depends on the value of the meet) to the value of the performance.

[Guest]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

I was quite aware of all those things, but I never heard that they were just abandoning the season-long GP standings and the idea of an overall GP champion.

[Guest]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

Like i said Bud,this happened while you were up there with those funny little green folks.

[gh]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

The thought of an "overall champion" isn't a bad one, but the way the GP is now structured, how would you do it?

First, let's look at how the old GP was structured: "half" the events were eligible each year. One year would have, say, mHJ, LJ, SP, HT, the next year would have mPV, TJ, DT, JT. Unfortunately, this led to a feast-or-famine situation for a lot of people in these disciplines, becuase if it wasn't a GP event, a big meet simply wouldn't stage it. So now we have a GPF that has all the events, with a significant payday for each event ($30K for winner and on down). So a women's shot putter may not ever get into Zürich ever again, but at least each year she has a shot at one big prize.

So now you have a situation whereby the staging of the GPF will be with people in a half-dozen events (100, 1500, 5K, PV; two sexes) who have had the chance to compete in virtually every big meet on the circuit. And people in most events (all women's throws, for example) who have had zero chance. Means any overall point system cuts out most athletes (even more than before).

You can't use the rankings, becuase the World Champs carries so much weight that it in many cases will outweigh whatever happens the rest of the year. So I don't see how the concept could have stayed alive.

[Guest]

Re: What happened to GP standings?

I know, I know. I used to use GP points as part of a fantasy-league scoring system, so I had a real interest in keeping it alive!