British Orienteering Ranking List

Results Submission Hints for Event Organisers

Preparing the Results File

If you are preparing the results file by hand or updating an existing results file you will need to bear in mind the following points:

• The results file is formatted according to the BOF results specification except where mentioned below. Generally, it is best not to include extra spaces or blank lines. The results file should look something like the example given following the format specification. Any lines which cannot be recognised may receive a comment from the checking programs but will be simply ignored by the submission program. Note that times of more than 6 hours are assumed to be in error so are rejected.
• Quotation marks are no longer essential for most fields. Thus quotation marks ("") may be omitted provided the enclosed string does not contain a comma.
• A new finish status has been introduced for field 7 on the I record. This field is normally blank or contains one of the codes C,DNS,DNF,DQ. The new option is 'NC' for non-competitive.
• The BOF format specifies the date field to be in the form MM-DD-YYYY (e.g. 01-23-2000) to be compatible with the IOF system. The date may optionally be given in the form DD/MM/YYYY (e.g. 23/01/2000) - note the different order of DD and MM and the different separator. In the event list the date from either format is converted to the more readable form DD-Month-YYYY, eg 23-Jan-2000. The date is also used by the system to order the events correctly, so it is important to get the MM-DD right way round.
• The organising club field is best specified in the form of the club's initials but it is up to you to put something sensible there. Only the first seven characters are used if more are given. If you want to specify two clubs use e.g. '+' to separate them rather than a '/' as the latter upsets the system.

Submitting the Results File

• Time limits have been set for first and subsequent results submissions. A first submission must be made within 3 months of the event and any subsequent submissions within 6 months of the event. These limits may be reduced in future. If you have difficulty in meeting the first submission deadline you may register your intention to submit results at a future date.
• A password is required to protect your results. You set the password on your first submission and use the same password for subsequent submissions. Updates with a different password will not be accepted.
• It is important to specify whether the event is to be included in the Master's Cup competition. Normally this will be BOC, BNC, JK and national events. Some regional (C3) events may have been nominated to be included.
• The submission process follows a series of steps which you will be guided through:
  1. Check the results - if the results contain serious errors they may be rejected at this stage, otherwise you will be asked to
  2. Enter a password and event status; in the case of a resubmission, an event number is also required but the program helps here by checking past events and offering a potential event number
  3. in the case of a resubmission the password is checked and will be rejected if incorrect in which case you may try again with a different password
  4. The score calculation is carried out first for this event, then for any subsequent events whose results are already in. Finally the main ranking calculation is done - this is still fairly slow as it takes all the events over the past year into account. When complete you will be able to seen the detailed results of the calculation for your event.
  If something goes wrong which you cannot fix yourself please e-mail Mike Cumpstey who may be able to advise.

Links

• Ranking List Home Page
• Results Submission Form
• SportIdent Results Submission Form
• Results Registration Form
• Badge Times Calculation