Course Racing World Ranking and Qualification System Future

[Toby]

IKA News:

Course Racing World Ranking and Qualification System for future Major Events

As kiteboard course racing has been selected as an event for the Olympic Sailing Competition 2016, the world ranking system will change with the beginning of the new Olympic quadrennium.

From September 19, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) will manage all ranking system for the Olympic Events, and therefore the IKA ranking system previously used will cease to apply. ISAF will publish a press release on that day with detailed explanations on the new ranking system.

The ranking principle however remains unchanged: every riders best 5 scores from events in the past 12 months are combined into the overall score. Unfortunately, as a new Olympic event, the ranking for kite racing will start with 0 points on September 19, and the first points for the new world ranking can be collected on the following events (points to be finally confirmed by ISAF):

European Championships, La Baule (France), September 26-30: 100 points - Register here
World Championships, Cagliari (Italy), October 2-7: 100 points - Register here
South American Championships, Buzios (Brazil), November 15-18: 50 points - Register here
Sailing World Cup, Melbourne (Australia), December 2-8: 200 points - Register here
Note: for the group assignments at the 2012 European and World Championships, the current IKA world rankings will be used.

The new world ranking system will also be used as qualification system for the 2013 major events, with an event quota as follows:

200 point events (Kite Racing World Championships, Sailing World Cups): 120 men, 120 women
100 point events (Kite Racing Continental Championships): 80 men, 80 women
50 point events (other events): TBC
If the quota for an event is exceeded, selection of riders will be made purely based on the world ranking as of close of registration:

From every country, the best ranked rider as of close of registration
10 local wildcards for regional riders, to be approved by the class
5 "injury wildcards" to be approved by the class
Remaining places strictly by world ranking position as of close of registration
Please note, that points to qualify for upcoming major events can only be collected at ISAF graded events. A complete list will be published soon on the IKA website.

Major events are planned for 2013 in

China
Italy
USA
Oman
Egypt
Thailand
Brazil