Prize for female 100m×4 relay (Closed for comments)
Comments about this discussion:
Started
Isn't a prize for the female of 100MX4 relay needed?
Comment
Relay races are currently not split between male and female. I think this is for a good reason: it allows relay teams to be of mixed gender (an many teams are indeed mixed).
In this situation, I think it would not be fitting to have a special prize for an all-female team (or for all-male, for that matter).
Comment
It would however be an option for any host. The would simply need to specify in their literature and registration information, that the Relay would be gender-specific, and teams must be made up accordingly. Also they could offer a mixed-gender race as well.
So perhaps the Rulebook needs to mention this, or be clear that the "common" way we do it is as a mixed-gender race.
Comment
In my opinion it just makes everything more complicated...
Comment
Yup, nearly every time we add new details to the rules it makes things more complicated indeed. We do best when we can come up with rules to make things less complicated, but that is rarely the result. :-(
Suzuki-san's issue may have been not knowing there wasn't a female-specific relay race. If this isn't made clear by the host, and in their registration information and other literature, riders may arrive with expectations of all-male and all-female teams. Most other sports divide such things by gender. We traditionally haven't because we "grew up" from much smaller amounts of riders at our competitions. The Relay event was usually completed in 2 or 3 heats. If we were to make a rule upgrade, it could be that the host must specify if they will do the 4 x 100 Relay with divided male/female events, or as a mixed-gender event. I wouldn't recommend to offer both, as that would certainly be confusing.
Comment
How many teams (e.g. at the last Unicon) were mixed-gender, and how many were single-gender? Does anyone know?
Especially for non-Western names, it is difficult to see (for me) from the rider names in the Results list.