Concept2 Forum

Anyone have any information on handicaps given in races where there are all ages and women and men competing together? The races are 1000m.
- Daryl

I'm guessing that you are serious about leveling the playing field based on relative inabilities of the competitors, so I can suggest something that has little basis in any sort of scientific evidence, but could work out fairly well based on experience.

Total Time to complete the distance will be the final result, the distance will be altered for the individual based on their variables.

Men start with a base distance of 1000m
Women start with a base distance of 900m
This is based on the differences between male and female athletes (100/90) that has been observed in relative trials.

These are just for fun:
For each year over 35: subtract 1 meter.
For each pound under 180 (men), 150 (women): Subtract 1 meter.
For each inch of height over 6'(men), 5'10" (Women): Add 10m (no adjustment for being undertall, use heights from Picture ID).

Seem fair enough?


Note: Everything except the 1000m Vs 900m is being made up off the top of my head, so no guarantee of applicability should be assumed and would be purely coincidental anyway.
(There is no "equal", that is what sports competition is all about. If you want everyone to get an award, just give them one for showing up and competing.)

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not interested in making the results equal, just in leveling the playing field when people of mixed ages and genders are competing in teams. Weight and size are other variable that may come into consideration later.

If I understand your 1000/900m suggestion, you are saying that their is some basis in research for assuming men's times to be 9/10 of womens times, all other things being equal. Correct?
- Daryl

dsturdy wrote:Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not interested in making the results equal, just in leveling the playing field when people of mixed ages and genders are competing in teams. Weight and size are other variable that may come into consideration later.

If I understand your 1000/900m suggestion, you are saying that their is some basis in research for assuming men's times to be 9/10 of womens times, all other things being equal. Correct?
- Daryl

Not the Times, the distance covered. It works out differently for times.

For example: 2k Erg
Men's WR = 5:37, 1:24.25 Avg, 585watts
Womens known best time = 6:25, 1:36.25, 392 watts (but for a longer duration)

1800m in 5:37, 1:33.6 Avg, 426.7watts (72.9% power) for 90% of distance.

C2 prduced a table titled "Handicapping Everyone For Everything, Age, Weight and Gender."

It deals with 2500m times so would have to be adjusted a bit, but perhaps if I can get the time I can get it into a format that can be presented on the Web. Currently it's in an old booklet, and since it was for the 2500m distance (assuming the PM1 and it's built in discrepancies with the current PM's), it's not as easy a task as translating to 500m split adjustments.

How soon is your event? Perhaps I could mail you a copy of the table and you can use it as you see fit.