Street or Urban orienteering?

[DJM]

A sprint race can refer to lots of high speed races whereas, in orienteering parlance, a Sprint race refers to a specific format of race, i.e. that defined by BOF/IOF (12 -15 minutes winning time, etc etc).

Correspondingly, an urban race can means lots of things, which include those mentioned by awk. But an Urban race has specific characteristics, as described by the BOF Urban Guideline (and by greywolf too).

Not quite sure how you differentiate between these in conversation however ...

PS Don't forget there's a top class Urban race as part of Croeso 2012 - and it will probably be the largest entry Urban race in the UK to date (1049 so far, and still 5 months to go!)

[awk]

am obviously in a minority here - that'll teach me to take any notice of official defintions "Urban races are normally staged in town and city centres, utilising public open spaces, pedestrianised and trafficked streets and parks. The terrain is similar to that which might be used for Sprint races but the nature of the race is different in that courses will be longer than for a Sprint"

Apologies Greywolf for doubting your veracity! All I can say is that the law (or, at least, officialdom in this case) is an ass. The word 'urban' has nothing to do with the distance, and to lump 'Urban' in with 'Sprint', 'Middle', 'Long' etc as defining a distance to my mind makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially as at least one of those is normally held in 'urban' style terrain. Being a complete reactionary, I will stick with the definitions I outlined in my conversations, having not yet had any problems with anybody understanding them other than, it now appears, officialdom.

[madmike]

Awk - spot on imvho.

Distance: Short (vice sprint) Middle, Long

Terrain: Urban, Moorland, Forest, Park, Mixed, Swamp.........Whatever

Simples and passes ronseal quick drying wood stain test.

[AlanB]

Awk - spot on imvho.

Distance: Short (vice sprint) Middle, Long

Terrain: Urban, Moorland, Forest, Park, Mixed, Swamp.........Whatever

Simples and passes ronseal quick drying wood stain test.

Vice sprint?

[graeme]

Sprint (aerobic)
Middle (formerly known as short)
Long (formerly classic, previously didn't need a name)
Unavailable (formerly known as Long)
Same as it ever was

[Paul Frost]

Judging by the replies, it seems that we are destined to continue to make our sport complicated and confusing, not only to Joe Public but existing orienteers too.

[madmike]

Vice sprint?

Alan, just to be clear, I wasn't talking about a police raid on shady clubs near Kings Cross but vice = instead of

Short distance 12-15 minute winning time

Middle Distance 25-30 mins

Long distance depending on event but let's say 80-90 mins.

Graeme is correct but I think we have moved far enough away that few people remember the old short is now middle hence no danger of confusion and we can abolish the misnomer of sprint - unless there are now athletes who can sprint for 12 minutes

I think we should make things simple and then we would not have the confusion like (urban/sprint) earlier in this thread between awk and the grizzled lupine one from the frozen north. Simple is good

[ic]

I quite agree. Rationalising the terminology will do wonders for the public perception, as well as an increased clarity and understanding within the sport. Usually once every 3-4 years should be enough.

Hope this helps.

[SJC]

Rationalising the terminology will do wonders for the public perception, as well as an increased clarity and understanding within the sport.

Only it wouldn't take long for the rationalisation to unfold.
How long would "Long, forest" last before being reduced to simply Long ?
Likewise "Sprint, urban" and "Long, urban" would simply retain their current abbreviations of Sprint and Urban respectively.

The only way to simplify the terminology would be to reduce the number of different types of event on offer. They would all have clear definitions, so for example "Sprint" would be in urban terrain only, "Middle" only in forest. Somehow I can't see this happening,

[AlanB]

Vice sprint?

Alan, just to be clear, I wasn't talking about a police raid on shady clubs near Kings Cross but vice = instead of

In my wild imagination I pictured dashing from control to control, participating in one naughty activity after another - cigarette at one, drink at another, quick bit of hanky-panky at yet another (who was that saying I would do well at that with my latest generation, ultra-fast SI Card? )...