You are in: Disciplines / Tetrathlon / Tetrathlon Phases

Tetrathlon - Running

In Tetrathlon, runners go off at one minute intervals over a carefully measured course and each competitor’s time is measured. A bogey time is set for the course and for each second over or under that time a number of points (say five) are deducted from or added to 1,000 points.

Senior and Junior Girls and Junior Boys run a course over natural country of 1,500 metres (approx. one mile) and Senior Boys 3,000 metres (approx. 2 miles), whilst Minimus Boys and Girls run 1000 metres. The bogey time for Junior Boys and Girls is 5 minutes 40 seconds, for Senior Girls 5 minutes 20 seconds and for Senior Boys 10 minutes 30 seconds. The Minimus bogey time is 4 minutes.

If you have the means of measuring the course and of timing and setting the competitors off at exactly one minute intervals then by all means hold the running phase this way. However, it is possible to have a very much simplified running phase. Make the course the perimeter of the field or fields in which you held the riding phase. Mark the turning points with cones, jerseys, bending poles or whatever comes to hand and do not worry too much about the length.

Timing

If you have two people and two stop watches, digital or otherwise, available, then you can use the following system. Start the watches together and check that they are running synchronously; then one person acts as starter and the other as finisher. Competitor number 1 starts on minute one and number 2 on minute two and so on. The finishing watch takes the time in for each competitor whose actual running time is found by deducting his competitor number from his time in. This method of timing is in standard use for all Tetrathlon running phases.

Scoring

When all are in, then points could be awarded on the following basis if the length of the course is not known. The fastest competitor gets 1,000 points and the others have 5 points a second deducted depending on how many seconds slower than the winner they were.

An even simpler method

You could set off all your competitors together as in a school cross-country race or marathon. You would need a taped funnel for the finish narrowing to allow just one finisher at a time over the finishing line. Prepare beforehand cards numbers 1 - 20 or however many competitors you have. As each competitor finishes he is given the appropriate card. First across the line gets number 1, second gets number 2 and so on.

The competitors then report to the scorer, hand in their finishing number card, tell him their name and he gives points appropriately on the following system:
First 1,000 points
Second 970 points
Third 940 points
Fourth 910 points
Fifth 880 points

.. and so on

Twentieth 400 points

Number of Officals

Starter 1
Finisher 1
Course Judges * 1 or 2
(to see that competitors go the right way)
Total 3 or 4

* The course judges are there to help competitors rather than penalise them