Can anybody clear this up?

The IDBF has instituted new "Competitor Restictions." Here's what it says:


"The rulings that follow are to ensure that competitors get enough rest between races and to avoid delays in races or disruptions to the day's race programme caused by competitors suddenly finding themselves in 'back to back' races and then either missing a race or holding up the boat-loading process. The restrictions are:

1. Individual competitors can only compete in one Competition Division (Premier, Senior, or Junior) on any one day. This DOES NOT include those competitiors listed as Reserves on a Crew List in differnent Divisions, for example Premier and Senior.

Competitors may however race within their respective Divisions in both an Open and Mixed Crew or Mixed and Women's Crew on the same day..."


OK, here's my question. 24 paddlers, including four reserves, are allowed to be placed on a Crew List. Since reserves are not included in these restrictions, can a team circumvent the intent of this new rule by listing their top-four Open paddlers who are also over 40 as "reserves"? Then those four paddlers can paddle in every Premier and Senior race -- possibly still causing delays.

Yep, it sure sounds like it. But if you delay the start of an event more than once, you run the risk of being penalized. You don't want to run afoul of the IDBF officials too frequently. They get testy, and could penalize or DQ your team.

Rule doesn't make sense. Will only weaken the competition and throw the advantage to the larger nations. Might be a scheme to make more money for the organizers to force more people to pay participant fee.

The piece you quoted is simply some additional guidance and interpretation to a long standing roster rule, since crews from countries who race only in festival events rather than sport racing events were unsure of how to interpret the international roster rules which were first published more than 10 years ago. (Nothing to do with increasing revenues.)

Background

The tournament is set up a bit differently from a festival tournament and also depends on whether the event is Club Crew Crew Champs or World Champs.

Basically, a male can paddle on (be rostered on) an open or a mixed crew, while a female can paddle on (be rostered on) an open, mixed or women's crew. You must paddle on (be rostered on) only one Division PER DAY of the 4 day event (worlds) or 3 day event (club crew). Junior and Senior aged paddlers can paddle on an Open Squad, but the converse is not necessarily true.

Mixed races are never scheduled on the same day as the Open and the Women events, but Junior, Senior & Premier Divisions are always raced on the same day. Each day features a different distance.

Accordingly, a person who is rostered on the SAME day on two different divisional crews would seriously risk having to race back-to-back, particulary for the finals, and also is required to report to the Crew Marshalls for an identity check at least 20 minutes prior to the scheduled race time (per the long standing rules and regulations.) So it has nothing to do with "testy" officials and everything to do with inconveniencing all of the other crews who adhere to the rules and who would be delayed by a double rostered contestant.

The interpretation had to be developed as a direct result of a Toronto-based paddler who wanted to paddle on two different club crews in Rome (in different divisions), which is not allowed under club crew racing regulations (i.e. being a member of two clubs at the same championship is forbidden for obvious reasons).

Sound fair ?

In the past at the Worlds, an unlimited amount of over-40 paddlers could race in the Senior and Open divisions on the same day. This is a new rule to try to prevent that. But does it prevent it? The rule seems to have a loophole allowing up to four rostered "reserves" to race in both divsions on the same day, defeating the purpose of the rule.

I agree!
List your best 4 open paddlers as subs & your best 4 senior men as subs & you have 8 paddlers to double dip!

Duhhhh

Your "best 4 open" guys cannot race senior division unless they also happen to be over 40. So take your (up to 48) guys and roster the best 24 on youropen crew irrespective of their ages. (not counting the helm here). For your senior list, roster the best 24 from that same list of 48 who have turned 40.

If your open crew list ends up with 5 or more seniors, then you're risking your open entry for sure.

Who cares? The Olympics does not limit high jumpers from running the 100m! If a nation's premier team has 20 seniors, then let them race for both. I have never seen an IDBF event held up to wait for a paddler! If paddlers are required to go through the check point, then make them!

Duhhhhhhh 2

Like that would be a perfect winning strategy ... for the same 20 seniors to race all day in two divisions, and possibly back to back. Pass me some of whatever you're tokin' after the high jumpers through, will ya ?

Neither DBC nor IDBF has made the rules clear. these two organizations are being run by a bunch of monkeys. Noone has any answers yet even though the season has begun in earnest. Pickering had boats with way more than 2pp`s. PP rule, what PP rule? Checking for id`s what does that prove? Bullshit. ZERO integrety. It`s just unacceptable that the rules have not been clearly defined by now. My taem is going to MTL for the lachine knockout. We plan to race with more than 2pp because others are and noone can tell us that they are inforsing this rule. What a joke!!

^^^^
French-Canadian

Who had more than 2pp's? Please enlighten us.

The clown is on Verdun, 100% sure.
Yes, there were crews there with more than 2 PP.
Those crews aren't interested in race-offs, so they can do whatever they want.