Grandtully Section Judges

[DavidDickson]

Thanks for all your comments - we will definitelty take them all on board for next year's race.

[davebrads]

I must just point out that it is the jury who have the responability of approving the course, not the organiser.

Except it seems the section judges are allowed to overrule the jury.

[Kazz]

but that cant be right dave the jury are a group which consist of judges organisers ans paddlers who make descisions together based on the evidence they have from section judges and gate judges or a least that was what i thought are you just having a go at the section judges ??? ??? i dont think they are perfect but then who is ??? must admit i have done quite a bit of gate judging during the season and due to terrible weather have been happy when my stint came to an end but the section judges were not so lucky and seemed to spend a long time in their positions ??? lets not knock those who are willing to give up their time for the benefit of the sport :;):

[Canadian Paddler]

As a section judge I have never overridden the jury (to my knowledge). I do have a responsibility to

The section Judge is responsable for the correct judgement made and penaties givern,(rule 9.5) this includes making sure their section of the course is judgable and reporting deficences through control.

and as such have asked for poles to be adjusted, especially if the water changes significantly.
But if the Jury had ever come down and said 'Nope it's OK, you are wrong, then that is the rule for the event.

I will admit to taking the jury's decision above the organisers at least once, and assisting in the requested movement of a gate despite the organiser insisting it was not needed and would delay the event. (The gate was repositioned before the debate reached the shaking one another warmly by the throat stage, and without delaying the start of the event.)

(ps if anyone thinks I have overridden jury PLEASE pm me so that I can be embarassed and make sure it does not happen again )

[CeeBee]

One of the problems is that you cannot adjust the gates during a category and that as paddlers sometimes go out of order, you end up leaving the gates 'as is'.

The starter in control and on the river bank needs to be conscious that one class is about to finish and get resources ready to adjust gates as necessary. This can sometimes result in a 5-10 minute delay between classes which then needs to be factored in on the start list.

If the event is running late, adjusting gates can get missed.

When Section judges are judging, they often remind the organiser that the gates need adjusted. Unfortunately, there are no Section Judges at the August Tully. This event was well run this year and very popular but unlike other Div 1s, had to contend with getting enough judges.

It would be good to send a reminder out to all events so they are conscious that this needs to be done.

[GlennRoberts]

One of the problems is that you cannot adjust the gates during a category and that as paddlers sometimes go out of order, you end up leaving the gates 'as is'.

This was not the cause of the problem at this year's August event; the gates were too high at the beginning of the day. For reasons unknown to me the gate height was not considered a priority by the organisers AND jury.

I am aware from personal experience that when organising an event there are multiple pressures, and sometimes it is a choice of which ball to drop. In these circumstances the lack of confident / awkward people insisting on the correction of judging problems is an issue.

I hope that greater awareness of this weakness will help future events, which is the only reason for mentioning it - criticising the organisers is not the intention; Grandtully events are great, and all competitors should be grateful for the effort put in to organise them.