**Sponsorship makes the difference of attendance and participation or not. Competitive success depends on several factors:  training, desire, discipline, innate talent and experience among others. Every aspect  can be present and ready, but without experience at the level of competition being considered, competitive success will be elusive.

To compete, one must compete.  It is not important why an athlete did not participate.  Only those competitions the athlete participated in and completed count towards standing and experience.