OCF 2016-2017 Youth Climbing Series Rules

     Open Climbers

The 2016-17 season sees some changes for Open climbers in that they may compete at all OCF competitions (Bouldering and Difficulty with the exception of Youth Bouldering Provincials), and the OCF will track provincial points for Open climbers in order to enable us to award series awards for Open competitors. Note that the provincial points will be tracked separately from the National Series event points that are tracked by the CEC. See those points here. National CEC points are only tracked for athletes who have purchased a CEC National Adult License through the OCF which can be purchased here. See the page titled Competition Schedule, Results and Point Standings for comp dates. **Note: Open athletes do NOT have to attend one local to attend Provincials.*

1. The Series
   The 2016-2017 Youth and Open Series will consist of two (2) local bouldering competitions, two (2) local difficulty competitions, and a separate Provincial Championship in each of those disciplines. (6 competitions in total.) Note: For Open athletes, the bouldering Provincial Championship will be the OCF National Series event.*
2. Membership
   To compete in any OCF event, competitors must purchase an OCF competitive membership. As of the start of the 2016/2017 series, recreational day (individual event) passes are no longer being sold by the OCF.*
3. Proof of Birthdate/Citizenship
   (a) All competitors will be required to provide proof of their birthdate once. Proof may include any appropriate government issued identification. Proof can be provided to any member of the OCF Board. Any competitor who has not provided appropriate proof will not be included in the results for that competition, will not be eligible to win any type of ribbon, medal, or award, and will not be eligible to earn any Series points for that competition.
   (b) All competitors will be required to provide proof of their citizenship once. Proof may include any appropriate government issued citizenship document. Proof can be provided to any member of the OCF Board. Any competitor who has not provided appropriate proof will not be included in the results for any Provincial or National level competition, will not be eligible to win any type of ribbon, medal, or award at those level competitions, and will not be eligible to earn any Series points for that competition.

4. Residency
   Athletes must be an Ontario resident to win any Ontario Cup.
5. Series Points
   (a) Series points will be allocated only to OCF members, but that allocation will be based upon every competitor’s actual placement in their respective category, including the placement of non-members.
   (b) In cases of unbreakable ties at a competition, series points shall be awarded equally to the tied competitors taking into account the placements held by the competitors involved (i.e. – if two athletes tie for third place, they will be awarded the point value equal to the sum of points awarded to third place and fourth place divided by two.).*

7. Series Rankings
   Series members will be ranked in their age/gender category based on their top four (4) results from any Series competition, but their final rankings must include no more than two (2) results from each discipline of Bouldering & Difficulty.*
8. Difficulty Formats
   Youth D (born 2006 or later) and Youth C (born 2004 and 2005) categories will only Top Rope and Youth B (2002 and 2003), Youth A (2000 and 2001), and Junior (born 1998 and 1999) and Open (2001 and before) categories will only Lead Climb at all Series events.
9. Tie-Breaker(s)
   (a) At onsight bouldering and flash format/onsight difficulty competitions ties will be broken using CEC/IFSC rules. (i.e. Countback and Super Boulders for bouldering and countback and time for difficulty.)
   (b) For the purposes of Series Awards, a competitor’s fifth, or further best final result at any Series competition will be used to break any tie in a particular category for all Series awards. In the event that a tie for first place in the Series cannot be broken using the count back method, then the tie will be broken by comparing the sum total of each tied competitor’s actual category ranking at all of their competitions that season.*

10. Age Categories
    The OCF Series will use the CEC/IFSC age categories at all of its events. Series members collect Series points only when they compete in their own actual age/gender categories.

• Youth D – born 2006 or later
• Youth C – born 2004 and 2005
• Youth B – born 2002 and 2003
• Youth A – born 2000 and 2001
• Junior – born 1998 and 1999
• Open – born 2001 and before

11. Provincial Championships – Eligibility
    (a) Open competitors are not required to have competed in a local series event prior to participating in a Provincial/National Series event.*
    (b) For Youth competitors, the top 20 ranked eligible competitors in each category will qualify to compete at each OCF Provincial competition. Rankings for invitations to Provincials will be based on the results of the athletes’ single best result at a local in that discipline.*
    (c) Athletes who do not reside in Ontario are exempt from the preceding rules regarding eligibility as long as they have a current competitive climbing membership from either their home province PSO, the CEC or a National Federation that belongs to the IFSC. (The purpose of this exemption is to allow athletes from provinces without a PSO or Foreign Nationals an opportunity to qualify for Youth Nationals via their placement in a PSO organized Provincial Championship, as well as to allow athletes from other PSOs to compete in OCF local competitions.)*

12. Series Point System
    Series points will be allocated as follows:*

14. Rankings
    Series rankings will be posted on our web site on a regular basis (approximately 7 days after each competition).

Notes:
1. Items marked with a (*) indicate that a change has been made from last season.
2. The OCF Board retains the sole authority to apply/interpret any Series rules as required.
3. All OCF Series competitions will follow the current IFSC/CEC rules whenever possible. These can be found at the CEC web site: http://www.climbingcanada.ca/ on the Rules page.