Australian / Oceanic records

[Ron]

Hi all,

After some investigation supported by Stefan Pochmann and Mr. Zemdegs we decided to change the continent Australia to Oceania.
There is a difference between the geographical continent and the political/economic continent. But in this case we prefer to follow the continents as chosen by the International Olympic Committee.
From today all Australian records (AuR) will become Oceanic records (OcR). We will not use OR because that indicator is already used for Olympic records.
We will not change the past announcements nor the countries that are part of the Australian/Oceanic continent.

Thanks,

Ron

[BryanLogan]

So is there a link for the IOC designation? Is that the designation offically used?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=570

[Ron]

http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Natio ... Committees

[StefanPochmann]

For those interested, these were my arguments (copy from email, slightly edited):

There are different definitions of what a continent is, and different opinions about Australia vs Oceania. But after some research, I came to the conclusion that Oceania is better, for these reasons:

1. Clarity
2. New Zealand
3. Big sports organizations

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1. "Australia" is ambiguous, it's not clear whether "Australian record" or "Australian championship" refers to the country or the continent. If we had "Oceania", the distinction would be clear.

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2. Rather strictly speaking, New Zealand's continent apparently is actually "Zealandia":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_New_Zealand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent)
Look for "Zealandia" on these pages.

The CIA's "World Factbook" groups both New Zealand and Australia into Oceania (see the "Geography ::" section):
https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... os/as.html
"Location: Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean"
https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... os/nz.html
"Location: Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia

Other islands in the Pacific Ocean are a similar problem, New Zealand is just the most prominent.

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3. Big sports organizations call it Oceania:

IOC (olympics):
http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Natio ... ommittees/
(see the continent selection on the left)

IAAF (athletics):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... sociations
http://www.iaaf.org/aboutiaaf/structure ... index.html
http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/records/ ... etail.html
(the last page shows they also use Oceania for their records)

ITF (tennis):
http://www.itftennis.com/abouttheitf/na ... ociations/
(see the "Regional Assoc." selection)

FIFA (soccer):
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federatio ... index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA#Structure
(they do call Oceania one of six continents, although the country Australia switched to the Asian confederation in 2006, so it looks a bit odd now)

I did check two or three more organizations that didn't call it Oceania, but that was because they arranged things differently and didn't have a name for that region at all. I didn't find *any* who called it Australia.

I'd say these big sports organizations calling it Oceania is by itself a good reason for us to also call it that, plus they probably had good reasons to call it that.

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And some reason I didn't know where to fit in above:

"some geographers group the Australasian continental plate with other islands in the pacific into one continent called Oceania. This allows the entire land surface of the Earth to be divided into continents or quasi-continents."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent

[BryanLogan]

2. Rather strictly speaking, New Zealand's continent apparently is actually "Zealandia":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_New_Zealand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent)
Look for "Zealandia" on these pages.
...
"some geographers group the Australasian continental plate with other islands in the pacific into one continent called Oceania. This allows the entire land surface of the Earth to be divided into continents or quasi-continents."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent

As long as Dene Beardsley doesn't get to hold any Zealandin CR's

[Ron]

Thanks for your great contribution, Stefan.

[StefanPochmann]

2. Rather strictly speaking, New Zealand's continent apparently is actually "Zealandia":

As long as Dene Beardsley doesn't get to hold any Zealandin CR's

Yeah, that's why I said "Rather strictly speaking", using a certain definition of "continent". The point was just to show that New Zealand shouldn't be part of Australia.

There seem to be three popular definitions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent# ... continents

1. continuous area of land or mainland
=> New Zealand is clearly separated by ocean

2. ... plus continental shelf and continental islands
=> New Zealand is on a different continent, namely Zealandia

3. cultural construct: plus oceanic islands and continental fragments
=> This seems to be more commonly called Oceania than Australia

I think we're now simply using that third definition, so no continent Zealandia.

Thanks for your great contribution, Stefan.

No problem, and thanks for using it
It was interesting to research, I learned a few new things. Didn't know Zealandia before, for example, and I didn't know how ubiquitously "Oceania" is used (at least by those sports organizations).

[Dene]

Thanks for the effort you put in Mr. Pochmann! You achieved something I failed miserably at last year.