RElay Challenge Rules

Summary of 2025 Changes:

Update to the Overall Awards and Best Performing Club

1.  MISSION STATEMENT

The goal of this event is to allow skaters of all ages to compete in a variety of relays.  The intent is to:

1. Provide an opportunity for all skaters to develop relay skills in a competitive environment.

2. To give skaters a chance to prepare and compete as a team.

The exact details are subject to change based on registration numbers at the meet Coordinator, Chief Referee, and Chief Recorder discretion.

 2.  RELAY TEAM MAKE-UP

All relay team shall consist of four members.  Teams of three will be allowed to enter.  However, if the team has a scratch or a member is absent for any reason, that team will be disqualified; as teams of two are not allowed.

Teams will compete in the group of the oldest skater on that team. Teams are encouraged to keep all members within the same age group.

The age groups shall be:

• Group 3 skaters (6-10 year old)
• Group 2 skaters (11-13 year old)
• Group 1 (14-29 year old)
• Masters (30+ year old)

Skaters from different clubs can combine to create a team.  However, each team must declare a single club affiliation for the purposes of the overall club award.

Once a team has been entered there are no substitutions for any reason.  If a team is short a skater prior to (i.e. scratch), or during the event (i.e. injury), they shall skate as a team of three.

Teams may optionally name a fifth member as an alternate who would skate in case of a team member absence.  Alternates must be declared  prior to the start of racing.  Alternates can be from another team that is registered to compete.  Teams of five can determine which four of the five skaters will race a given event at their discretion. 

Teams may be of single or mixed gender.

 3.  SKATER ELIGIBILITY

Skaters with a valid  Speed Skating Ontario Club Membership are eligible to register.

We recommend that Teams only include one Elite Circuit skater on their team.  The ice surface in Milton is NHL size  (not Olympic size). The reason for the recommendation is to ensure team speeds will be safe given the size of the rink.  Please keep this in mind when preparing your teams.

 4.  REGISTRATION INFORMATION

A maximum of 36 relay teams will be accept to this event.

Priority will be given to teams from clubs who participated in the previous year’s event.

Other teams will be accepted at the organizers discretion in order to provide meaningful racing in each are group.  The event may balloon beyond 36 teams as long as it does not affect the overall number of races.

Clubs can register as many relay teams as they wish.

Each team registration must include individual team member’s 200M, 400m or 500m times, individual skater names and ages.

Primarily intended as an event for SSO affiliated clubs; teams from clubs from outside the province will be accepted at the organizers discretion up to the maximum number of relay teams permitted (no ballooning of the number of teams), providing those teams are from clubs in good standing with their respective speed skating associations.

Relay team helmet covers will be provided by the clerk of the course and must be returned after each race.

Teams of three may register.  At the time of registration a team of three may indicate if they would like to add a four member from the pool of individual skaters looking for a team who may have also registered.  The meet coordinator will provide the name and details to the team of three.  Every effort will be made to ensure the suggested fourth member is of the same age group and speed as the rest of the team. the final decision on accepting the fourth skater will be made by the three member team.

5.  RACING DISTANCES

Racing distances will be established by the Meet Coordinator, Chief Referee, and Chief Recorder based on number of entries.

The goal is to provide at least one heat and one final in 2 relay distances, as well as team pursuit and/or a team sprint.

If time permits we would also like to attempt a relay where skaters from various teams are mixed.  This race would not count toward the team or club point award.

If the event includes an ISU Mixed Relay style event it will be run as a 2000m super final.

Additional relays and formats will be added at the organizers discretion if time permits.

Here is a sample of a race schedule from a previous year: 2024Team Relay Challenge Schedule

6.  RACING FORMAT

This is an all-day event (typically 8 am warm-up, racing at 9 am and ending around 3-4 pm).

Teams race together in all the various relay formats.  Depending on the number of teams we will determine the exact set of relays that will be run – with traditional relays taking priority and we will add the more creative relays as time allows.

Relays shall be run using an all points ability format.

All Points: Format in which all teams advance to finals and therefore accumulate points.

Ability: Competition in which seeding is primarily on ability. Seed times prevail for seeding purposes, over sex and age within the distinctive groups outlined above.

Seed time for each team will be determined by adding the 4 relay team members’ times (if a 5th member/alternate is declared, the top 4 times will be used for the team’s seed time).

At all Ability competitions, category names will be standardized by using the alphabetic call designations as follows: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. The top ability grouping must be designated as Alpha and then proceed down.

The groups may be skated in the opposite order starting with the lowest group and finishing with the top group, the Alphas, at the discretion of the Meet Coordinator and the Chief Referee.

The Chief Referee and Chief Recorder shall establish, to the extent possible, racing divisions of 8 relay teams. In any case, the maximum size of a division shall be 16 teams.

Team Pursuits may be run as round robin, single or double elimination as time and numbers permit.

The ISU Mixed Relay style event will be run as a super final

 7.  SEEDING FOR RACES

Group 3 – Skaters aged 6-10: Sum of 400m on 100m track of all team members

Group 2 – Skaters aged 11-13: SUM of 400m on 100m track of all team members.

Group 1 – Skaters aged 14+: SUM of 500m on 111m track of all team members

Masters:  Skaters aged 29+: SUM of 500m on 111.12m track of all team members

Relay teams with a mix of Group 1,2 and/or 3 skaters shall race in the group of the oldest member of that relay team.

Skaters who do not have a time in the specific distance/track size combination above are asked to submit a seed time or an official time from another distance/track combination (i.e. 200m on 100m track).  Conversions on submitted times within a group, may occur so that all teams are measured using the same track combinations.

 8.  AWARDS

Awards will be provided to the top 3 relay teams in each division based on points earned during the finals.

Points are awarded to each relay team following Appendix B of the SSO technical Bulletin

 9.  OVERALL CLUB AWARD

There will be two awards for the top clubs.

This is sample data will to help explain how these awards are calculated:

DIVISION: ALPHA

DIVISION: BRAVO

DIVISION: CHARLIE

DIVISION: DELTA

Overall Winner (aka the “winningest club”)

Updated for 2025 to align with ISU Team Crystal Globe format

The award is presented to the CLUB with the highest score using the following formula:

• Total Points scored by all TEAMS are combined
• Each CLUB earns point per DIVISION by finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (100, 80, and 70 points, respectively).

For Example:

Toronto has 4 teams but only 3 teams RANK 1st , 2nd or 3rd in their respective divisions. Specifically: 2nd Place in Alpha, 1st and 2nd in Bravo.  The 4th place team in  Bravo is awarded 0 points.

Toronto’s total is therefore: 80+100+80 = 260 overall points

Best Performing Club Award

This is based on a Group Ranking Method which is the average CLUB RANK in the DIVISION as a factor of the DIVISION size.

The award is presented to the CLUB with the highest score using the following formula:

• The Sum of the CLUB RANK in each DIVISION divided by the total number of TEAMS in that group.  This is divided by the number of TEAMS from that CLUB.

For Example:

 10.   RULES

Normal ISU, SSC and SSO Short Track rules apply including non-traditional relays with the exceptions noted in  https://www.miltonspeedskating.com/short-track-relays .

 11. COACHING

Coaches should be certified Level I coaches.

Clubs may have one coach on ice, in the center during the group 3 races