I tried to look a little into the gold and silver medal awards...

I tried to look a little into the gold and silver medal awards that keep being mentioned, as I never really have heard much about them before.
From what I have been able to see, it states " all entries gaining 18 points or more will be awarded gold medal awards and those gaining 16 or 17.9 points will be awarded a silver medal."
I assumed that gold meant first or top place, and silver runner up, but how wrong I was after reading that. Once again it appears that all is not what it seems at all.

Congrats to them winning the Hansen cup for having the highest scoring cheddar entry, but when I went through the results nothing else stands out, its all the other producers in the cheddar categories with the higher scoring entries, so I am wondering if that was more good luck rather than anything else .