New ISSF Finals Format

[David Levene]

Just spotted the following on the ISSF web site:-

New final format for the Olympic events will be introduced during the 2010 ISSF World Cup Final in Rifle and Pistol events, kicking-off in Munich, today.


The ISSF World Cup Final in Rifle and Pistol events, kicking-off at the 1972 Olympic Shooting Range of Munich today, will probably become a milestone of the shooting sport history.



New rules changes will be introduced during this World Cup Final edition, in order to make the final rounds more appealing for TV broadcasters, as the ISSF leadership announced.



The decision was taken after analysing the TV productions of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The ISSF has developed these major changes to use and test during the 2010 World Cup Final, but the ISSF leadership said to be confident that these are changes that will make the presentation of the shooting sport to spectators and television viewers more exciting and interesting.



The ISSF identified several changes that shooting needs to make to address challenges in the conduct of our finals. Two of these changes will be used and tested during the World Cup Final. If the tests at the World Cup Final are successful, the changes will be presented for approval to the ISSF Administrative Council (in November), and the approval of these changes might lead to a rule change for the 2011 and 2012 ISSF seasons, as well as for the London 2012 Olympic Games.



The rules changes that will be used during the World Cup Final in Munich are:



- Order for Preparation, Sighting Shots and Athletes Presentation:

Current ISSF Rules call for the presentation (introduction) of finalists BEFORE the preparation period, sighting shots and the pause to reset the targets before the first record shot. This causes a certain delay between the shooter’s presentation and the first competition shot, causing some difficulties to TV broadcasters. After analyzing this problem, we decided to reverse the final round procedures so that the athlete presentations will take place AFTER the warm-up activities. After their warm-up, athletes will have to put their rifles and pistols down, and turn their face to the audience to be introduced.



- Rapid Fire Pistol Semi-final and Final Format:

A new 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men (Olympic event) final format was developed and will be used and tested during this ISSF World Cup Final.

A summary of the new format:

1.Three 5-target units will be used. Six finalists are assigned to the targets with two finalists sharing each of the 5-target group. There will be a 1.5m space between the two finalists’ firing points on each 5-target group.

2. 12 competitors will advance from the Qualification to the Semi-Final. There will be no shoot-offs to break ties after the Qualification; inner tens will be used to break ties.

3. All competitors will start at zero in the Semi-Final and again in the Final.

4. Points are scored on the basis of hits and misses. The hit zone at Munich will encompass shots scoring 9.7 or higher.

5. In the Semi-Finals and the Finals the preparation period and sighting series are completed before the presentation of the finalists.

6. Presentation of finalists—this will begin the television production.

7. Immediately after the presentation, all shooters are instructed to take their positions and load.

8. The Range Officer calls the first shooter by name and after 15 seconds announces “ATTENTION”. The red lights come on immediately and change to green after 7 seconds to start the 4-second firing period.

9. Within 10-14 seconds after one shooter has fired his 4-second series, the Range Officer calls the next shooter by name, waits 15 seconds and announces “ATTENTION”. This continues until all six shooters have fired one 5-shot series.

10. In the Semi-Final Round, the two lowest scoring shooters will be eliminated after two series, the next two lowest scoring shooters will be eliminated after the third series and the next two lowest scoring shooters will be eliminated after the fourth series.

11. In the Final, eliminations will start after all shooters have fired four 5-shot series. The 6th place shooter is eliminated after the 4th series, the 5th place shooter is eliminated after 5th series and the 4th place shooter is eliminated after the 6th series.

12. The bronze medallist is eliminated after the 7th series. The 8th series is the gold medal series where the gold and silver medallists are determined.



- ISSF Dress Code:

The new ISSF Dress Code and Statement on Rifle Shooter Clothing that were released earlier in 2010 will be in effect and enforced during the World Cup Final.

[Spencer]

exact www. address?
the link returns '50m Pistol Men – “My best season” Gold medallist Szarenski claimed'

[David Levene]

exact www. address?
the link returns '50m Pistol Men – “My best season” Gold medallist Szarenski claimed'

No idea what they've done Spencer. That link was correct but they've now over-written the article. Lucky I copied it.

[john bickar]

Updated (albeit abbreviated) link: New Competition Rules Introduced at ISSF World Cup Final in Munich

So at a sparsely-attended RF match, someone who enters the final 40 points (or more) behind the leader has the same chance to win? You shoot a world record qualification score and it gives you no advantage over the guy who shot a 555 to finish 12th?

[lastman]

Updated (albeit abbreviated) link: New Competition Rules Introduced at ISSF World Cup Final in Munich

So at a sparsely-attended RF match, someone who enters the final 40 points (or more) behind the leader has the same chance to win? You shoot a world record qualification score and it gives you no advantage over the guy who shot a 555 to finish 12th?

So it's no different that pretty much any other olympic sport. Swimming, Athletics, Gymnastics, Rowing and the rest.

Also if you shoot a world record qualification score you have a far better chance of winning than they guy who shoots 555. But at least the guy who shoots 555 now has a chance of winning.

Pistol and rifle shooting a boring to watch. We recently had the Commonwealth Games on. I knew a lot of shooters in each of the finals and even then I was still bored.

It's about time that ISSF did something to make the finals more interesting, but I think the Rapid Fire will be a flop. It's too long of a process.

[Richard H]

The best thing I've seen yet was that Top Gun final for Pistol at the European Championships, I'm sure it would have been just as good for the rifle if they let them wear their gear.

[j-team]

I got confused reading the RF final proceedure and my head exploded.

Nice for those with Olympic quality ranges and electronic targets!

I know, why don't they just shoot at a bank of 6 steel plates, maybe from the holster... Oh, that's right, someone else has already got those rules.

[Richard H]

It's basically a sudden death type of finals, very similar to the Top Gun format. The only thing I don't like is they score only hit/miss. This is suppose to be a precision sport with speed so score the targets. Well it should be interesting to watch I guess we'll have to wait and see how it's received.

[David Levene]

Interesting.

The new link given by John Bickar does not seem to include the new RF finals format/scoring.

Possibly someone "jumping the gun"?

[David Levene]

The new link given by John Bickar does not seem to include the new RF finals format/scoring.

I've just noticed that, although it still refers to the dress code, reference to the "Statement on Rifle Shooter Clothing" has also been removed.

This new version is likely to upset far fewer people than the original.

[Rank]

In my opinion the worst thing to do is to change the sport rules for the TV broadcasters ! This will be just the begining... The Issf needs to think in the athlets, in the sports technic. I understand that this thing can turn the sport more atractive... But think about: you are concetrated have already done your preparation, and because of the tv you will leave your place, be introduced to tv and turn again to your firing point... They will say is all the same for the shooter, but it is not ! This represents a major interruption between the preparation and the final.

[David Levene]

Watching a recording of the Prone final on ISSF-TV, the procedure seemed to be:-

Sighters.
Stand and face the audience to be introduced.
2 minutes to get back into position.
3(?) warming shots in 2(?) minutes with the targets set to sighters.
First competition shot.

[JamesH]

In my opinion the worst thing to do is to change the sport rules for the TV broadcasters ! This will be just the begining... The Issf needs to think in the athlets, in the sports technic. I understand that this thing can turn the sport more atractive... But think about: you are concetrated have already done your preparation, and because of the tv you will leave your place, be introduced to tv and turn again to your firing point... They will say is all the same for the shooter, but it is not ! This represents a major interruption between the preparation and the final.

I can't say I like it much, but on the other hand it might mean the sport continues and gets some funding.

[Mike M. (as guest)]

Videotape. That's the answer. Videotape.

The shooters enter. Introduce them. Tape the introductions. Then go to preparation and sighters. Don't broadcast that. Broadcast the taped introductions, cut live to the first scoring session.

And yes, you're going to need autoscore targets for this. Done with a good color commentary, you might have something.

[gn303]

The influence from the ‘media’ on any sport has become very important, especially since the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It is quite obvious that the ISSF wants to attract the media interest. And the finals were a good initiative. What they are trying now doesn’t seem to help a lot. When I started shooting, 40 years ago (!), the range was open to all public. People were not watching 50 m rifle, or free pistol, but kept looking at the rapid fire shooters because there was something too see: the shooter got ready, gave the 'go' command, targets faced, arm rose and the shots went off in an appropriate rhythm. At the last shot the targets turned away. The judge called the hits.
The spectators, even if they didn’t know the rules, easily grasped what it was all about.
Even more obvious is the clay shooting.
In our shooting disciplines ‘precision’ is the key word. I don’t think this latest changes have brought anything extra to the sport or to the public.
But ISSF rules...

[JamesH]

What is an introduction exactly?

In the track events don't they just call out the name and country, competitor waves, thats it?

[Richard H]

That's exactly what the introduction is. It goes like this In fourth position with a score of 580 , Sam Smith from th Republic of Slobovia. That's it.

[JamesH]

So hardly a big deal, its not as if you have to recount your life story.

I heard about free pistol finals, as soon as the shot is fired the score is flashed up and the Scandinavians start cheering.
Doesn't sound like much fun really if you're slow.

[David Levene]

They did actually run the new format hit/miss Rapid Fire semi-finals and finals (waiting to see the video to see exactly what they did).

4th in the qualifier became 1st in the final
7th became 2nd
1st became 3rd
3rd became 4th
5th stayed at 5th
2nd became 6th


Hmmmm

[john bickar]

They did actually run the new format hit/miss Rapid Fire semi-finals and finals (waiting to see the video to see exactly what they did).

4th in the qualifier became 1st in the final
7th became 2nd
1st became 3rd
3rd became 4th
5th stayed at 5th
2nd became 6th


Hmmmm

And 575 beats 588. Hmm indeed.

What's to stop a shooter from shooting the finals at a 6-second series pace and knocking off 4 (relatively) easy "hits"?

There's a fundamental difference between a 4-second series with 4 shots of 9.7 or better and a miss vs. a 4-second series with five 9.6s.