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Post by David Power on Sept 10, 2014 20:40:35 GMT
Triathlon Ireland has held a number of regional sessions asking TI members and clubs to provide feedback to improve the National Series structure in 2015 and beyond. Belpark Committee members met to discuss these draft proposals over the summer and submitted formal feedback as well as attending the Dublin/Leinster session.
TI has taken this feedback on-board and published a 2nd draft for 2015 Events Structure. In advance of the next TI regional meeting on 15-September, we'd like the entire club to contribute to the discussion.
Read more: www.triathlonireland.com/index.php?id=107&nid=1894
2015 Events Structure Proposal Here
Action: all club members are invited to provide feedback, by replying to this post or emailing belpark@gmail.com. Summary of 2015 TI events structure: 1. TI National Super Series & National Championships (new) - smaller elite division 1 athletes competing over 6 races, possibly draft legal. 2. National Series - expanded calendar from 15 to 30 events (2 per weekend). Points scoring unchanged 3. Club League (new) 4. Other Events (relay, duathlon, middle distance, aquathon, cross-tri) The Bid Criteria for events have also been updated - offering Club organised races a prioritisation.
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Post by David Power on Sept 10, 2014 20:54:39 GMT
My feedback: 1. SuperSeries & NCs - I support idea of this, as believe it helps develop competitive end of sport and give top athletes a platform to compete in Ireland instead of having to race abroad. Also challenges top NS athletes to directly compete in more focused set of races. Only change I'd suggest is Div1 athlete eligibility - criteria may need to be relaxed after initial registration period if sufficient numbers don't sign up, but I'm sure TI have that considered. Given criteria to support 750+ competitors, option for race locations is limited: Athy, Athlone, Dublin, Kilkee, etc which may limit moving NCs each year and excludes many great locations for NCs or SuperSeries events. 2. National Series - I support increase in number of events to 30, with regional split, priority for Club races. 3. Club League - sounds good! 4. Race Bid Criteria - should Belpark's goal be to get Aquathon as a NS event in 2015 or 2016? I think it should be longer term goal to have TI NS/NC event. Also, does Belpark have active Technical/Motorbike Official? Should we look to get 2 members qualified for 2015?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2014 20:41:29 GMT
Thanks Dave, anyone who has feedback please post it up before myself and Britta go to the meeting tomorrow evening
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Post by keithmcq on Sept 15, 2014 8:10:31 GMT
Cheers for the helpful summary Dave. What happened to the A2 to A4 categories. I thought they appeared on an earlier version of this document. Have they been scrapped. I though the idea of different divisions within the races with associated promotion as you get better in the sport was a great one. Would really give you something to race for, rather than just trying to beat the time you set last year or something.
1. NS super series won't affect me but seems fine. If they made this draft legal it could make for some good viewing.
2. Increase in NS races is also a good idea. Personally, I think that the requirement of 5 races to complete the NS is too high. Reducing it to 4 would greatly increase its appeal and achievability for me.
3. Meh. Is linking a clubs prestige to its best 5 or 6 athletes really the way they want the sport to go? Many clubs are small with not much talent within them to choose from. Why consign them to the bottom of some league table somewhere? Maybe I misunderstood this particular proposal.
4. Aquathon seemed brilliant from what I saw. Lot of positive feedback on it. I'd love to see it a regular feature on the TI calendar.
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Post by ellenmurphy on Sept 17, 2014 13:06:58 GMT
Thanks to Helen & Britta who attended the Lenister Regional meeting & brought our views to TI. There is still an opportunity to submit a written proposal to TI before structure for 2015 is finalised. Would be great to get some more comments from members. You can write below or email belpark@gmail.com.
1. If the TI stated goal of increasing numbers who complete the NS than agree with Keith that obligation to complete 5 races is rather onerous. I think 4 would work well & that requirement to do 2 sprint, 2 olympic, 1 other should be removed. Therefore newcomers to the sport could participate in 4 sprints, & middle distance athletes could avoid sprints if they wished.
2. The main clamour for this change has come from the 'top-end' age groupers who want more head to head racing - it seems that superseries & Div 1 will address this. However no age-group medals will be given out at National Champs & only age group award available will be based on score in NS races - which given that there will be over 30 races, will be most likely hugely flawed with some races ending up being 'big points' races. Not sure how people feel about this? Will Div 2 age-group athletes become disillusioned with this NS structure in a couple of years and we will be back to square 1?
3. There is no real clarity on the club competitions & how exactly they will be scored. I dont personally like the proposal that only 1 Division athlete per gender will score on a team. As a club we should want to develop as many athletes as possible to make step up 'Div 1' status, but we will then effectively be ruling all but 1 per year out of contributing to club competition!
4. Finally would like to say well done to Triathlon Ireland who are clearly trying to listen and consult with their members, and improve racing structure in Ireland for the benefit of clubs and athletes of all abilities. I think we have some interesting times ahead for 2015 as it wont be possible to please all of the people, all of the time!!!
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Post by robdagg on Sept 18, 2014 19:32:07 GMT
I completely agree with Keith and Ellens points above and it is great to see TI making this much effort to engage the triathlon community this closely.
As regards the club competition which has been proposed, I think TI really need to provide a detailed process of how exactly this is going to work while also being neutral between all clubs. As Ellen mentions, if there is only 1 Super series athlete+2 Div 2 athletes to score in the club competition then this would be to the detriment of large clubs who would have several top athletes in the top division and would also be unfair to smaller clubs, as Keith mentioned, who may not have any athletes in the superseries. Are the latter then ineligible to compete at all in the club competition?
One other option could be to take the top 2 club athletes from each division for balance. But this still doesn't address the situation where a club doesn't have 2 people in each division, and that could be a large number of clubs based on the proposed super series criteria.
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Post by ellenmurphy on Sept 25, 2014 17:36:11 GMT
TI have just announced the new event structure for 2015 which looks very exciting and has addressed a huge number of the concerns which came up at the various athlete consultation/regional meetings etc. www.triathlonireland.com/index.php?id=107&nid=1986 They also have made a sensible decision to temporarily park the club competition scoring/structure rather than rushing out a proposal that wasnt workable. Belpark will be able to feed into the consultation process for this, and no doubt our 2015 Mens & Ladies Captains will develop a strategy to ensure we are competing for top prizes in both the preformance comp & the inclusive comp across age groups. Looking forward to 2015 season already!!
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