Guarantee junior category at UNICON
Comments about this discussion:
Started
"9D.4 Categories
Male and female competitions should be offered in each of the following categories: Junior
Expert (0-14), and Expert (15+). The Advanced category is optional however it is not
allowed at Unicon. If there are less than 3 Junior Expert competitors, they may choose
whether to compete in Expert or Advanced. If there are less than three females or less
than three males overall, the male and female categories may be merged."
Suggested to be deleted
Let's ensure that there is always a Junior category at UNICON even if there is less than 3 riders. Juniors deserve their own category and a chance to win even if there is not a minimum of 3. It's unlikely to happen with rising numbers of riders, but I believe it should still be in the rulebook to guarantee fairness.
Equally, I would also advocate for a removal of merging male and female categories for less than 3 competitors - for the same reason. Female riders deserve to have their own category due to physiological differences. Obviously, the decisions of the gender committee will have an influence here too, but it's unlikely these changes will happen in this round of the rulebook. So I would like to propose the above change here until the gender committee adds new rules.
Comment
I can understand the proposal very well, but I don't actually see such a regulation as a useful discipline-specific regulation, but as something that should be recommended uniformly for all disciplines. In particular, the implementation at Unicon should be uniform for all disciplines and not differ from discipline to discipline.
I would therefore suggest discussing at this point what would make sense from the Flatland Committee's point of view - I would pass this recommendation on to the Main Committee and the Age Group Committee.
I think it would make the most sense if the categories (both in terms of gender and in terms of junior/senior/whatever) were standardized and centrally regulated for all disciplines. There should also be a common basis for age categories (“basic age categories”). In my opinion, the discipline-specific rules should then only regulate in which form an age group rankings can be carried out and which of the “basic age groups” are used for this.