ranking list

[andypat]

For sure it is. I've just invested about £80 in a princeton tech headlamp after reading some reviews on here. Its not the same as some of the serious kit you can buy for £200-£300 but its a signficant bit better than my previous petzl (which I lost some years ago) . To be honest I bought this so i could run locally during the winter rather than for night O but am looking forward to trying it out at the Scottish and British in the next month or so.

But that argument extends to other O equipment such as compasses ( I assume most elite orienteers have a fast settling thumb compass (or possibly several!) and I'm led to believe that the new range of SI dibbers react much quicker and at a slightly longer range than my old thing. For events (urban and park eg) where the SI unit has to be secured through the actual SI Card hole I spend sometimes several seconds per control getting the thing to beep.

I'm sure many Orienteers have different shoes for different conditions too. I've never been able to stretch to more than 1 pair at a time. No spikes just studs for me. Does this put me at a disadvantage?


What I'm trying to say is that the fact you need a torch shouldnt necessarily exclude night o from rankings. Its still basically the same thing on the same map.

[EddieH]

I seem to remember someone winning a NI Night Championships (elite class) after headtorch failure half way round, then reading his map with his key fob light.

Yes I am sure he slowed down significantly, but all of the best equipment won't create a winner.

[Darwin]

So, given the number of urban events now available, it doesn't seem far fetched to me that specialised urban orienteers could soon emerge - just look at the legions of young indoor - only climbers - some of whom win climbing competitions

So I could (or may already) be outranked by somebody who has just run very fast around a few towns and never been orienteering in terrain? Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

[madmike]

but all of the best equipment won't create a winner.

I can vouch for that, I have more (hugely expensive) light on my head than most people have on their car and I'm still the worst night orienteer in the country.

The only night race I ever "won" was a Southern nights when I was the only M40S who turned up to face the somewhat challenging weather.

[andy]

Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

I certainly hope so!

[Spookster]

So, given the number of urban events now available, it doesn't seem far fetched to me that specialised urban orienteers could soon emerge - just look at the legions of young indoor - only climbers - some of whom win climbing competitions

So I could (or may already) be outranked by somebody who has just run very fast around a few towns and never been orienteering in terrain? Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

Climbing doesn't have to happen outdoors. Orienteering doesn't have to happen in forests. Change is inevitable, and welcome.

In theory urban-only orienteers could be well ranked. But in practice most orienteers take part of most forms of the sport, but each has personal favourites that they do more of.

[Angry Haggis]

So, given the number of urban events now available, it doesn't seem far fetched to me that specialised urban orienteers could soon emerge - just look at the legions of young indoor - only climbers - some of whom win climbing competitions

So I could (or may already) be outranked by somebody who has just run very fast around a few towns and never been orienteering in terrain? Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

So get running around the aforementioned towns and beat them! It's the same sport, after all.

[DM]

So, given the number of urban events now available, it doesn't seem far fetched to me that specialised urban orienteers could soon emerge - just look at the legions of young indoor - only climbers - some of whom win climbing competitions

So I could (or may already) be outranked by somebody who has just run very fast around a few towns and never been orienteering in terrain? Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

So get running around the aforementioned towns and beat them! It's the same sport, after all.

But make sure you dress smartly and don't have a snotty hanky tied to your shirt (someone else must have noticed this guy!) and don't run grunting like a warthog every 2 steps ( think this one was Swedish at the Scottish 6 days last year). Both not a good advert.

[LostAgain]

A natural extension would be to also include Treasure Hunts and maybe even Car Treasure Hunts.

May be we could also include East Egg Hunts

[EddieH]

Madmike wrote [quote]I'm still the worst night orienteer in the country.[/quote]

Well free up some Wednesdays and come to a few Desside Night League events. You'll either rapidly improve or you'll confirm that you are really totally inept.

[madmike]

Eddie,
have made a couple of trips down to Kent as it's closer than Deeside and unfortunately your latter alternative appears to be the case.

My biggest ever night orienteering challenge was to finish Leg 1 of the harvester in time for my own mini mass start for leg 3

[Adventure Racer]

Also to prove you don't need a mega headtorch, I've won a night event using a Princeton Tech Eos - a bit like a Petzl Tikka XP, but slightly brighter (though actually less well suited to orienteering I decided afterwards, because the beam is too much of a spot, so I didn't even get enough spill to mapread by without moving my head). Surely most people have (or can afford) something of at least that sort?

[awk]

So I could (or may already) be outranked by somebody who has just run very fast around a few towns and never been orienteering in terrain? Am I alone in finding this unwelcome?

And the other way round of course - somebody who has just run very fast round a few forests might actually outrank an urban-focused orienteer. Shame!!!

[Darwin]

Take a random, running fit, member of the public and put them in an orienteering event around Carlisle city centre and they'll happily trip around - in maybe double the winning time - using the same skills they used to go to B&Q to buy some garden furniture the previous day.

Now, take the same person and put them on any decent technical course in complex terrain - they have huge learning curve in front of them and a lifetime of developing and refining skills.

I know that great and good of Nopesport like their urban events, and have well rehearsed arguments about how challenging they can be. However I just don't see how the skills are comparable enough to include them in a ranking alongside terrain events.

There are other inherent problems with the urban format that make it difficult to take seriously such as the prevalence of cheating - intentional and unintentional - and disproportionate local advantage. I witnessed breathtakingly brazen intentional cheating on the part of scores of people on the Zermatt town race for example..

My point about climbing, is that although there are brilliant indoor climbers who can out-climb anyone in an indoor competition - no-one would seriously rank them as the best in the world. In fact there are separate world ranking lists for indoor climbing and "proper" climbing - though the latter is controversial to say the least.

So in conclusion - can we have separate rankings for urban and proper orienteering please

[IanD]

can we have separate rankings for urban and proper orienteering please

Ignoring the comment about urban orienteering not being "proper", I would like to see filters on the ranking list so that one could select rankings comprising the points earned solely from forest races, or from urban races, or long-distance races, or sprint races, etc.

Although I suspect the same people would appear at the top however it is filtered.