Relay Forking

Platform: 🖥️ Desktop only

See also: Relay Legs, Classes, Courses & Maps, Creating & Editing Events

When you need this

You're organizing a relay event where runners on the same leg need to run different course variants. Forking ensures that every team visits all required controls across their legs, while each individual runner takes a different route — preventing teams from simply following each other. You'll use this page to randomize, import, validate, and fix forking assignments for all teams.

Opening Relay Forking Management

You've set up your relay event with classes, legs, and courses, and now you need to assign course variants to teams. The relay forking button is available from the registrations page toolbar — it only appears for relay events.

To manage relay forkings:

  1. Click on a relay event in the event list to open the event options modal
  2. Click Relay forking

This opens the Relay forking management view where you can see and edit forking assignments for all teams and legs.

Randomizing Forkings

You want Navisport to automatically distribute course variants across teams so that each team gets a valid combination. This is the fastest way to assign forkings for a large number of teams.

To automatically assign course variants to teams:

  1. Select the classes you want to randomize
  2. Click Randomize forkings

Navisport will randomly assign valid course combinations to each team in the selected classes. If no classes are selected, you will be prompted to select classes first.

Exporting Forkings

You need to share forking assignments with another system, or you want a backup of the current assignments before making changes.

Click Export forkings to download the current forking assignments as a file. This is useful for sharing forking data with other systems or for backup purposes.

Importing Forkings

You've prepared forking assignments externally (e.g. in a spreadsheet or another timing system) and want to load them into Navisport.

You can import forking assignments from a CSV file:

  1. Click Import forkings
  2. Select your CSV file

The CSV file has a header row with bib number, class, and one column per leg. Here is an example:

Bib number,Class,Leg 1,Leg 2,Leg 3
1,H21,Course A1,Course B2,Course C1
2,H21,Course B1,Course C2,Course A1
3,H21,Course C1,Course A2,Course B1

If you need a reference for the CSV format, click Example file to download a template.

Import Errors

If the import encounters issues, you will see error messages such as:

  • A team was not found in the event
  • A course name in the CSV does not match any course in the event

Review the error details and correct your CSV file before trying again.

Forking Validation

After assigning forkings — whether manually, by randomization, or by import — you need to verify that all assignments are correct. Navisport validates the assignments automatically. If everything is correct, you will see:

"All forking assignments are valid"

If there are issues, you will see a warning count (e.g., "3 warnings"). Possible warnings include:

  • No course assigned — A leg is missing a course assignment
  • Invalid course for this leg — The assigned course is not valid for this leg
  • Team visits different controls than other teams — The team's combined route does not cover the same controls as other teams
  • Missing runner for leg — A leg does not have a runner assigned
  • Duplicate leg assignment — The same leg has been assigned more than once

Fixing Invalid Assignments

Some teams have validation warnings and you need to resolve them quickly. Click Fix next to the affected team to let Navisport attempt to find a valid course combination automatically.

If no valid combination can be found, you will see a message that the fix failed. In that case, you may need to adjust the course setup or manually reassign forkings.

Saving and Discarding Changes

After making changes to forking assignments, make sure to save your work. If you want to undo your changes, you can discard them to revert to the last saved state.

Putting it together: Assigning forkings for a relay competition

You're preparing a relay competition with 20 teams in H21 class, each running 3 legs with 3 course variants per leg. Here's the typical workflow:

  1. Set up the relay event with classes, legs, and courses in Classes, Courses & Maps
  2. Register all teams and assign runners to legs in Registrations
  3. Open Relay forking from the event options
  4. Select the H21 class and click Randomize forkings — Navisport distributes valid course combinations across all 20 teams
  5. Check the validation status — if you see "All forking assignments are valid", you're done
  6. If any teams show warnings, click Fix to let Navisport find a valid combination, or manually adjust the assignment
  7. Save your changes
  8. Optionally, click Export forkings to keep a backup or share with course setters