carleton

Just a random thought:

We are open to change, right?

The sport is evolving. The Flying 200M is becoming more of an event unto itself and less of an accurate tournament seeding tool (its intended purpose). At the World level qualifying times are increasingly close. This year, positions 1-10 were separated by 0.114s (0.867kph). This is less than the penalty from swerving up to (not over) the red line once. One can only imagine that this will shrink even more going forward.

Further, the gearing (huge) and equipment (aero helmets) are different between qualifying and racing. This is like a race car driver qualifying using one car and racing another.

Is the flying 200M the best way to seed a sprint tournament now?

Some ideas: (not to be implemented all together. Pick and choose.)
- Require mass start helmets in the qualifying?
- Require the rider to use the same gear from qualifying in the 1st round? (controversial, I know)
- Separate the F200 into it's own medaling Time Trial event?
- Have the riders ride 2 flying 200s and throw out their worst time?
- Figure out a different way to seed the tournament? (also controversial)
- Get rid of bye rounds? This grants an advantage to those who qualify fastest. Carlin rode 9.715s for 5th only 0.041 off the leader and had to race in the 1st round.
- 1st 2 rounds are 1-ride round-robin and the results seed the rest of the tournament?


I know that a lot of effort is done to keep the top 2 riders from meeting early on and eliminating each other. But, the top Match Sprinter could easily be eliminated in qualifying now...which is worse. Levy qualified 17th (9.923s) and fought through and finished 4th at this year's Worlds. That 17th place could have simply been the result of a "speed wobble". And if the field were smaller, only the top 16 would have qualified sending Levy to the showers.

Just some thoughts.