Automated Seeding¶
Seeding is one of the most laborious things that an official or race director has to do. Data collection alone can take a lot of time, and then sorting athletes into heats can be a manual and time consuming task.
For open meetings, it can be difficult to fully prepare in advance, making fast seeding a necessity. OpenTrack's system means this process takes only seconds and is fully automated. For tricky races that require manual tweaking, this is still possible! If you have multiple rounds, check out our round progression guide.
Finding an Event¶
For any event you wish to seed, navigate to the Start Lists, and click on the row containing that event.
You will be taken straight to the event page, where you can seed the event. You can review or add seeding data in the Competitors tab.
Seeding Data¶
Types¶
There are three different types of seeding data:
- PB — Personal Best, the best performance an athlete has ever achieved
- SB — Season's Best, the best performance an athlete has achieved this season (year)
- QP — Qualifying Performance, a free field used to store a representative performance for the athlete
Note
When collecting seeding data from external sources, OpenTrack will use an athlete's best performance in the last three years as their QP.
Statistics Integrations¶
You can collect seeding data on entry by requiring athletes to fill out PB and SB, or QP values for each event they enter. These settings are managed on the Entry Configuration management screen.
Seeding data can also be collected from statistics providers with whom we have integrations, currently World Athletics, Tilastopaja, and the Power of 10 in the UK.
You can fetch data for all competitors within a competition by using the lookup functionality in Manage Competitors.
The ACTIONS dropdown in the top right-hand corner has two options for finding stats:
- PB LOOKUP, which will only add data to a competitor if none already exists, or it is better than what is already there.
- PB LOOKUP (OVERWRITE), which will add all data found, regardless of whether it is better than what is already there.
You can also look up data for a single event on that event's page, clicking LOOK UP PBS in the top right-hand corner of the Competitors tab.
Manual Changes/Additions¶
You can edit seeding data for multiple competitors in the same event by using the Competitors tab of that event, remembering to press SAVE after making changes.
Alternatively, to edit data for a single competitor in multiple events, head to Manage Competitors and select that competitor. In the Events Entered tab, you can edit the data for all events.
If you are bulk loading competitors, you are able to add seeding data in each row.
How to Use¶
Whilst there are multiple types of seeding data, we only use one when athletes are ranked for seeding. This is shown in the Competitors tab under the SP heading, for Seeding Performance.
The order of precedence is:
- Qualifying Performance
- Season's Best
- Personal Best
Ranking of Athletes Without SP
Any athlete without a seeding performance, as they have no QP, SB, or PB, will be ranked last.
If there are multiple athletes with no seeding performance, they will be ranked randomly.
Display of PBs and SBs
One thing to be aware of is that the values shown in PB and SB fields on the Competitors tab of an event are the same as those shown next to athletes' names in start lists, and they are what OpenTrack compares against when results come in, to add a note if athletes have achieved a SB or PB.
If you have collected athletes' PBs and SBs from a statistics database, manipulating these in order to get the ranking of athletes you want is not good practice - it leads to incorrect data being shown, and incorrect notes being added to athletes' results.
Instead, we strongly recommend using the QP field. QPs are not shown to the public, and will take priority over whatever is in the PB or SB fields when it comes to seeding.
After editing data in the Competitors tab, click SAVE before navigating back to the tab of the round you wish to seed.
Track Events¶
Each tab for one round of a track event will contain the seeding configuration options at the top, inside a blue box, with detailed information for each heat shown below.
Generic Configuration Options¶
- Lanes — For events starting in lanes, the number of available lanes in any given race
- Max per Heat — For events not starting in lanes, the maximum number of athletes who should be starting in any given race
- Round Structure — Taken from the rounds column of the events grid, this denotes the number of heats in each round of an event.
Open Meet Seeding¶
Open meet seeding is designed to be used at open meetings, or in any other type of event where athletes do not progress through rounds towards a final.
Athletes are grouped by ability, so they are in races with others of a similar ability. This is often known as 'graded' seeding.
For example, in a 100 metres event where there are 8 lanes available across three heats, and 24 athletes due to run, the three heats would contain the fastest 8 athletes, the middle 8 athletes, and the slowest 8 athletes.
The Order field determines the sequencing of these heats:
- Best Last — The fastest athletes are placed in the final heat, and the slowest in the first.
- Best First — The fastest athletes are placed in the first heat, and the slowest in the last.
Multiple Rounds¶
For events with round structures like 20,20, often used when athletes compete in two rounds of 100 metres or similar, open meet seeding is set up to use athletes' performances in the first round to re-seed them for the second round.
After all results from the first round are in, head to the next round, and select who you want to be eligible. All competitors with valid times will be included by right, but you can also add in those who received a DNF, DQ, or DNS.
If you need to tweak the number of heats thanks to dropouts from one round to the next, just head back to the tab for the first round, and edit the Rounds field.
Championship Seeding¶
Championship seeding is designed for use at competitions following World Athletics rules to the letter, often with two or three rounds, where only the top athletes in each round progress to the subsequent round.
The two fields unique to championship seeding are Qualifiers on position (Q), and Qualifiers on performance (q).
The former decides how many athletes from each heat will progress to the next round by virtue of their position in their heat, while the latter decides how many athletes outside those top few will progress, based on their performance.
Example
For an event where two heats are being used to progress athletes into one final, a typical setup is for three qualifiers on position (Q), and two qualifiers on performance (q).
The top three athletes in each heat will receive a Q, and the next two fastest athletes from any heat will progress.
For example:
| # | Heat 1 | Heat 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9.58 Q | 9.67 Q |
| 2 | 9.63 Q | 9.70 Q |
| 3 | 9.67 Q | 9.75 Q |
| 4 | 9.70 q | 9.77 |
| 5 | 9.71 q | 9.78 |
| 6 | 9.73 | 9.83 |
| 7 | 9.85 | 9.99 |
| 8 | 9.97 | 10.05 |
You will receive guidance, based on the number of lanes and heats you have available, and the number of Qs and qs you have set, as to whether you have progression set up correctly. You may be warned that there are More spaces available, or More qualifiers than spaces.
Once all results are in for a round, you will need to press the MARK QUALIFIERS button found at the top of that round's tab.
Once qualifiers have been marked, simply head to the next round and seed.
Field Events¶
Seeding one or multiple pools in a field event is pretty much the same as in track events.
Generic Configuration Options¶
- Max per Pool — The maximum number of athletes who should be starting in any given pool
- Round Structure — Taken from the rounds column of the events grid, this denotes the number of heats in each round of an event.
Open Meet Seeding¶
Open meet seeding is designed to be used at open meetings, or in any other type of event where the organiser requires flexibility, and is not rigidly following World Athletics rules.
In events with multiple pools, athletes are grouped by ability, so they are in pools with others of a similar ability.
The Order field will show when there is more than one pool in a round, and determines the sequencing of these pools:
- Best Last — The best athletes (furthest/highest SPs) are placed in the final heat, and the worst in the first.
- Best First — The best athletes (furthest/highest SPs) are placed in the first heat, and the worst in the last.
Additionally, the Pool Order field will always show, and determines the ordering of athletes within the pool(s).
- Random — Athletes will be ordered randomly
- By bib — Athletes will be placed in ascending bib number order
- By category — Athletes will be ordered alphabetically on their age category
- By SP (best first) — Athletes with the best (furthest/highest) seeding performance are ordered first
- By SP (best last) — Athletes with the best (furthest/highest) seeding performance are ordered last
Championship Seeding¶
Championship seeding is designed for use at competitions following World Athletics rules to the letter, sometimes with multiple qualifying pools of a field event progressing into a single final.
The two fields unique to championship seeding are Qualifying performance (Q), and Qualifiers on minimum final size (q).
The former decides the minimum performance required for automatic qualification to the final, while the latter decides the minimum number of competitors who will be in the final.
Seeding Buttons¶
SAVE SETTINGS — Saves any changes made to seeding settings
SEED HEATS/POOLS — Seeds all heats/pools for that round, based on the settings selected
PUBLISH — Publishes all heats to public view
After choosing to SEED HEATS/POOLS, you will be able to see the newly-created start lists by expanding any of the heats/pools below the blue seeding box.
Overriding Seeding¶
If you want to tweak anything or make slight changes then this is possible by clicking on the athlete you wish to move.
Click the single arrows to move athletes up or down within their heat or pool, or the double arrows to move them between heats/pools.
Once done editing, ensure you click SAVE to commit your changes.