I'm sure that when I first started planning orienteering courses, I was taught that the navigational challenge should finish at the last control. "Navigate to finish" was fine, but the finish should be obvious, easy to find from the last control, and there should be no significant route choice between last control and finish. This applied to all courses, not just the technically easy ones.
Increasingly these days, the finish to be treated as another control, and the leg to it from the last control as just another leg. Indeed today I ran a course where it could be argued that the technically hardest leg was from the last control to the finish, which was off paths and behind a thicket. (There was a different, and presumably easier, finish for the junior courses). A few weeks ago, at a C3 event, I had a very significant route choice on the run-in (which I got wrong, costing at least 30 seconds).
I'm not having a go at the planners of these events, both of which I enjoyed, and which I'm deliberately not identifying. What I want to ask for next time I plan is, am I wrong in thinking that the leg into the finish should be technically straightforward? And if I am wrong, isn't it about time that the finish control had a description like all the others?
Navigate to finish?
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Re: Navigate to finish?
You're right Ian, the finish at today's SAX event was quite disconcerting! It was a great course, but I guess the finish needs to be obvious enough that it is a feature in its own right. It certainly took a bit of navigation, but I wonder more if by that stage of the event you're just psyched up for a quick glance at the map and a charge down the run in.. I can't remember ever finishing an event without (at least a bit of) a sprint
- RobL
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Re: Navigate to finish?
This issue has been discussed ad nauseum in the past with opinions split. The finish should be obvious - ideally with banners/feather flags etc, if this is the case you don't need a description. Hiding the finish is poor planning.
- NeilC
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Re: Navigate to finish?
BOF Rules Appendix I
Electronic Punching
2.4 The Finish
2.4.1 Where a traditional timing system is in use then there are no specific new
requirements at the finish. However a punching finish offers significant
organisational advantages and is recommended.
2.4.2 It is important to ensure that the finish is easily located. "Navigate to finish"
should not be used except (sometimes) for score events where the finish will
normally be next to the start. In other cases, there should be an ordinary last
control (with description) and then a taped route, which can be just a few metres,
to the finish. As a minimum the finish should consist of a punch unit and control
flag, preferably with a prominent finish banner. There should be no possibility of
a competitor being unable to find the finish after they have visited the last control.
Electronic Punching
2.4 The Finish
2.4.1 Where a traditional timing system is in use then there are no specific new
requirements at the finish. However a punching finish offers significant
organisational advantages and is recommended.
2.4.2 It is important to ensure that the finish is easily located. "Navigate to finish"
should not be used except (sometimes) for score events where the finish will
normally be next to the start. In other cases, there should be an ordinary last
control (with description) and then a taped route, which can be just a few metres,
to the finish. As a minimum the finish should consist of a punch unit and control
flag, preferably with a prominent finish banner. There should be no possibility of
a competitor being unable to find the finish after they have visited the last control.
- Gnitworp
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Re: Navigate to finish?
Should not shall.
Good planners/controllers can produce fair courses without the need for a taped last leg. Some would argue as to the point of having a last control on a path and then a taped route 20m up the path to the finish. A technically difficult penultimate leg can also often be simplified by aiming off to the tapes that will then lead you into the control.
The event being discussed in this thread was a local club C5 event. How many clubs follow the guidance in Appendix 1 for these events?
Good planners/controllers can produce fair courses without the need for a taped last leg. Some would argue as to the point of having a last control on a path and then a taped route 20m up the path to the finish. A technically difficult penultimate leg can also often be simplified by aiming off to the tapes that will then lead you into the control.
The event being discussed in this thread was a local club C5 event. How many clubs follow the guidance in Appendix 1 for these events?
- NeilC
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Re: Navigate to finish?
How many clubs follow the Guideline in Appendix I for any event?
I suggest it be rewritten (and elevated to the main body of the rules) to reflect common good practice, whatever that is.
We certainly need a clear definition of what it is; and it's not 'navigate to nowhere in particular'. I have lost 2 minutes trying to find an undescribed 'finish' in a National Event. This sort of thing happens far too often, and it needs addressing.
By the way, Ian also refers to a C3 event in his post. He is arguing from the general not the particular.
I suggest it be rewritten (and elevated to the main body of the rules) to reflect common good practice, whatever that is.
We certainly need a clear definition of what it is; and it's not 'navigate to nowhere in particular'. I have lost 2 minutes trying to find an undescribed 'finish' in a National Event. This sort of thing happens far too often, and it needs addressing.
By the way, Ian also refers to a C3 event in his post. He is arguing from the general not the particular.
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Re: Navigate to finish?
No many clubs/planners don't read all the relevant rules and guidelines. But that's one reason why we have controllers.
2.4.2 It is important to ensure that the finish is easily located.
Seems to sum it up pretty well. Indeed this was the situation at the National Event that IanD planned last year where all but the very junior courses had to navigate to the finish from their last control. If the finish is stuck on a big path junction with banners and/or flags and a competitor makes a 30s mistake navigating to it whose fault is that? Would that competitor not have made the same mistake had the control descriptions said "Finish Path Junction"?
2.4.2 It is important to ensure that the finish is easily located.
Seems to sum it up pretty well. Indeed this was the situation at the National Event that IanD planned last year where all but the very junior courses had to navigate to the finish from their last control. If the finish is stuck on a big path junction with banners and/or flags and a competitor makes a 30s mistake navigating to it whose fault is that? Would that competitor not have made the same mistake had the control descriptions said "Finish Path Junction"?
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Re: Navigate to finish?
I once lost about 15 seconds on a 'navigate to finish' because I didn't know where the control units were relative to the Finish Banner. Cost me a place.
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Re: Navigate to finish?
Luxuriated in the ecstasy of a regulation finish at Burghfield Common today
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Re: Navigate to finish?
My worst nightmare about 2 years ago was getting lost for 15 minutes between the last control and the finish (only about 100 metres apart).
All I did wrong was run along the wrong side of a rhodo bush and completely miss the finish and carry on.
I know it is difficult sometimes as I have been guilty of using the tapes to attack the final technical control but the point is that the finish does not have a control description - it is often not even a feature on the map but just a point in the middle of somewhere.
Today got it right - a final control and then a run in of about 100 metres taped all the way. You could never have given a control description of a vague point on the map (in fact the field was not even maped but that didn't matter because it was correctly taped)
All events should be taped from the last finish - it does not matter if it is a C1 or C5 - good practice should always apply.
All I did wrong was run along the wrong side of a rhodo bush and completely miss the finish and carry on.
I know it is difficult sometimes as I have been guilty of using the tapes to attack the final technical control but the point is that the finish does not have a control description - it is often not even a feature on the map but just a point in the middle of somewhere.
Today got it right - a final control and then a run in of about 100 metres taped all the way. You could never have given a control description of a vague point on the map (in fact the field was not even maped but that didn't matter because it was correctly taped)
All events should be taped from the last finish - it does not matter if it is a C1 or C5 - good practice should always apply.
- Barny of Blandford
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Re: Navigate to finish?
Barny of Blandford wrote:
I know it is difficult sometimes as I have been guilty of using the tapes to attack the final technical control
A good solution is to have the penultimate control as your last technical control a short distance from the last control.
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Re: Navigate to finish?
Gnitworp wrote:Barny of Blandford wrote:
I know it is difficult sometimes as I have been guilty of using the tapes to attack the final technical control
A good solution is to have the penultimate control as your last technical control a short distance from the last control.
Which means if using SI that you are limited to 29 proper controls rather than the normal 30 (noting that the planner of the event I did today managed to fit 31 controls into 6.8k, which made for what felt like a proper middle course ).
I actually achieved a personal first today - I was fastest on the run-in. Didn't feel difficult technically to me at the time (S to path, then keep going), but I'm guessing from the fact I beat everybody and the amount some people lost that it must have been.
Not a fan of a technical finish (I have lost time on one before), but OTOH not convinced of the need to tape it - you just need to make sure it's easy enough. On the recent event I controlled, all courses navigated to the finish across open ground with no paths - including the yellow. Now whilst that is definitely outside guidelines for yellow, they went along a path from the previous control and when they emerged into the open the finish banner was right in front of them, so they couldn't really miss it - certainly no complaints, or anybody losing any time. Not really a lot harder for the other courses, which is how I'd suggest it should be.
British candle-O champion.
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Re: Navigate to finish?
At an LOK summer evening event on Hampstead Heath last year the last control was over a mile from the finish, and I had a run-in split of 8 minutes! It was the best leg on the course, and I thought it was a good, imaginative bit of planning, whatever BOF rules may say.
- mike g
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Re: Navigate to finish?
Part of the reason for widespread unawareness of the recommended good practice is that all that appears in the main rules section of the BOF Rules (the little red book) is this:
8.5 The Finish
8.5.1 The precise location of the finishing line or point shall be clear to all competitors
approaching it.
8.5.2 The finishing time shall be measured when the competitor’s chest crosses the
finishing line or when the competitor punches at the finish point.
8.5.3 Finish times shall be rounded down to the completed second.
This is a slightly adapted version of the pre-e-punching-days rule. How to deal with the new and totally different scenario of a punching finish is not addressed here but hidden away in an appendix that nobody looks at.
Statements representing a consensus of authoritative opinion such as 'It is important that the Finish is easily located' and 'There shall (yes 'shall', Neil) be no possiblity of a competitor being unable to find the Finish after leaving the last control' should appear in the main rules section together with a cross reference to the appendix that explains how to best achieve this.
8.5 The Finish
8.5.1 The precise location of the finishing line or point shall be clear to all competitors
approaching it.
8.5.2 The finishing time shall be measured when the competitor’s chest crosses the
finishing line or when the competitor punches at the finish point.
8.5.3 Finish times shall be rounded down to the completed second.
This is a slightly adapted version of the pre-e-punching-days rule. How to deal with the new and totally different scenario of a punching finish is not addressed here but hidden away in an appendix that nobody looks at.
Statements representing a consensus of authoritative opinion such as 'It is important that the Finish is easily located' and 'There shall (yes 'shall', Neil) be no possiblity of a competitor being unable to find the Finish after leaving the last control' should appear in the main rules section together with a cross reference to the appendix that explains how to best achieve this.
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Re: Navigate to finish?
GO Regional - Excellent finish today, Neil!
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