What is the Sport of Orienteering?
I'm sure you all understand the basic premise of what Orienteering is. Some people will be put off with visions of Boy (or Girl) Scout outings or Duke of Edinburgh weekends carrying a MAHOOOSIVE rucksack containing every item in the whole world, sent out in groups with a map and compass to get lost in the deep wilderness of a local country park. Well the Sport of Orienteering isn't quite the the same.
The Sport of Orienteering originates from the Nordic countries and came to the UK in the 1960's. A competitive sport that challenges the fitness of not just your body, but your mind as well. Typically competitors start at different times (1 minute apart) to prevent following each other and are challenged to navigate across the map to find ‘controls' in the fastest possible time.
Courses have different formats but are typically either Linear format, where you have to visit control sites in order, or Score format, where you can visit any control in any order but you have a time limit to return to the finish. There is no set “route”, no flags or markers to follow, you just look at the map and make it up yourself.
The sport is open to all skill levels and all ages and you can be as competitive as you wish. We don’t mind if you’re competitive and want to race or just want to practice your navigational skills and walk. Bring a friend or your children and go round together, it doesn’t matter. The more you try it the better you will get, well that’s the theory anyway ;-)
A description of the different types of events are listed below but if you want any more information or have any questions then please feel free to message me. You can contact me on the clubs WhatsApp Group, grab me at a club run or get in touch via one of the club members. Alternatively, contact your local orienteering club or check out the British Orienteering website for information on the sport and find local events.
So find an event, grab your compass, pick up your map and get out there!
Mark Sammon
Traditional Orienteering
Traditional Orienteering usually takes place in parks or on open moorland/hills/fells. Courses are available for all skill levels which increase in length and technical difficulty based on colour codes.
White, Yellow and Orange courses are on the easier/shorter end of the scale with control locations typically being on path junctions or obvious features. Green, Blue and Brown courses are more difficult and longer with control sites often hidden deep in the undergrowth or located in areas to make you think about your route to get there.
At each control site there is typically an Orange/White Flag with a numbered electronic timing box where you record your visit using a “dibber” (timing chip) worn on the finger.
Once you finish the course your times are downloaded from the dibber and you receive a printout showing how fast you went between controls and your current overall position.
For those that have less experience, there are often helpers from local clubs keen to share advice and help you on your way.
Another variation on this is Night Orienteering. This is just the same event but held in the dark where everything just seems to feel more difficult when you can see as far.
Urban Orienteering
Urban Orienteering is really just a variation on traditional orienteering, carried out in towns and cities. With less open areas and often lots of little intricate path networks it can sometimes be challenging to work out the routes whilst you are on the run.
Often urban maps are Grey (buildings) or Deep Green (Out of Bounds, private land) with some having multi-level options just to add to the complexity.
Again courses vary in distance but all courses have a similar technical difficulty as often a long run across the map can offer various route options to your destination.
Control site are usually marked with Orange/White flags along with electronic timing boxes and dibbers worn on the finger used to record your visit to a control.
Street Orienteering
Street Orienteering uses quite a simple map style where streets and footpaths are shown in as black lines on the map. Water shown in blue and open (crossable) land in Orange.
Often starting from a Pub, “StreetO” is a time based, score format event, where competitors run for a period of time (often 60, 75 or 90 minutes) and strive to get the highest “score” within their selected time. After the event, there is the opportunity to stay for a drink, some food and have chat with others about the challenges of the nights event.
Control sites often use numbers located on items of street furniture such as Lamposts (LP), Telegraph Poles (TP) and PostBoxes (PB) which you record on an answer sheet with different controls being worth a different point value. It isn’t just about visiting the most control sites you can but maximising the amount of points you can score. A usual scoring system is “10 times the first digit” where a control with a number of 34 would be worth 30 points and a control with a number 68 would be worth 60 points etc...
BUT DON’T BE LATE BACK!!!
If you return late to the finish you LOSE points quickly, often at rate of around 1 point for every 2 seconds after the time limit.
Some clubs are now using an App based system called “MapRun” which uses a GPS phone based App or Apple/Garmin GPS watches to record control visits using your GPS position. This system can also be used for traditional events but is less effective for some urban style events in areas with tall buildings where GPS can be less accurate such as major cities.