World-x Men's short race

[26mi235]

The two systems commonly used in international competitions are 6 runners, 4 scorers and 5 runners, 3 scorers. All international championships (WXC, World Student Champs, all continental championships) use one of these two schemes (and sometimes both simultaneously - one for men, the other one for women, or one for seniors and the other one for juniors).

I think that this reduction in the numbers used for scoring reflects a combination of the cost of the international travel and hosting for such an event and the relative "thinness" of many national teams when competiting. It is my guess that the International parameters are a specific deviation from the traditional standard.

By numbers, the 5/7 version probably has the majority of meets using that scoring, since there are probably 100,000 US meets a year (what does Russia use?).

[Powell]

By numbers, the 5/7 version probably has the majority of meets using that scoring, since there are probably 100,000 US meets a year (what does Russia use?).

Most countries don't have a system of XC meets centered around team scoring in the first place. In that sense you're probably right most meets in the world use the scoring you're talking about, but at the same time, the vast majority of the world's runners and fans are not familiar with it.