http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13666

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13797

Gerolf Heinrichs <<email>> writes:

The official scores of the Canungra Classic 2008 for day-1, http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2008/open_day_1.htm  show Jonny Durand Jnr and three more pilots scoring 0 pts for the day - while other pilots earning 153 pts for “minimum distance”.

According to various comments on the matter (including Johnny’s own blog), Johnny was in no flying condition that day and did not fly the task at all. Therefore scoring him with 0 pts is the RIGHT ruling. You, Davis, quote the CIVL rule book and the HGFA-rule book (which actually mostly matters in this case). Both come to the same inevitable conclusion: a pilot can only score minimum distance, if he has taken off within the boundaries of the take off window (and also actually handed in a flight/landing report later on). A pilot who doesn’t fly on the day (for whatever personal reasons actually) will get a DNF and score a zero for the day.

If a significant portion of the pilots present at take off do not take off at all, the task will get devaluated by the GAP-formula. For that very reason the number of pilots at take off and the number of pilots actually taking off for the task has to be known to the scorer by the end of the day. The number of competitors in the meet is not relevant for this calculation. There is no such thing as a “show up at take off bonus”, or a score for intending to fly on the task without ever doing so. You have to fly to score points – there is no way around that, and the official day-1 result seems to reflect that understanding.

However, in the overall score sheet, http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2008/comp_result.htm, we find Johnny Durand with a score of 153pts for day-1 again – apparently a major mistake by the scorer. How this could stay unnoticed and unfixed throughout the entire competition remains a miracle to me, given the fact that Johnny and Attila were battling for win and were finally only a few points apart in the overall score.

There is no nice way to break it:

It’s a capital scoring error, one that needs to be corrected as soon as possible: With 153 pts less on the cumulative score Johnny despite winning several tasks afterwards, will end up in a respectful second place. But the rightful winner of the Canungra Classic 2008 can only be Attila Bertok. Trophies and price money (if there is any) need to be swapped and, I suppose, a decent apology to Attila will be in order.

The corrected results will then have to go to CIVL accompanied by an explanation on the matter – this seems the only way the Canungra Classic 2008 can keep its status and the results can be included into the CIVL Permanent International Ranking System (PIRS).

If the results are submitted the way they stand right now, the results and possibly the competition will have to be declared invalid!

It would be good to get an official comment from the meet organizers on the matter before addressing CIVL. At this point I am still willing to imagine the situation just being a result of a terrible mistake in conducting the scores on the final day. If, however, it turns out the comp organizers at the Canungra Hang and Paragliding Club would back the current result and support the idea of sticking with Johnny Durand as the rightful winner of their event, we would certainly have to consider sanctions.

Attila's very extensive comments can be found on the Oz Report forum.