Kingussie Sprint Race

[redpossum]

If all these tales of people crossing olive areas and uncrossable fences are true then it would appear that a lot of people ought to be disqualified. I suspect, however, that a lot of these violations were down to ignorance.

I was disqualified at the APOC Sprint this year along with a large number of competitors for crossing a purple line along a road and didn't realise why until I read the International Sprint Mapping specifications. How many orienteers are actually aware of what the symbols on the map represent? Not many I fear. There are several symbols which are specified as forbidden to cross and it is stated that competitors violating the rules will be disqualified.

Sprint 'O' is quite new to the non-elite orienteering and public and has the potential to be very popular at multi-day events (as proved at the JK and Kingussie). The rules, therefore, need to be publicised (are there any apart from BOF Guideline K ?). It is important for future permissions that orienteers don't go ploughing through people's gardens particularly in urban areas.

[EddieH]

A purple line along a line feature to signify that it MUST NOT be crossed is not sprint map spec and neither is olive green to show PRIVATE out of bounds areas.

These have ben the recognised way in ALL orienteering maps for about a decade. Therefore all orienteers aught to know them.

Of course learning the former is not helped by planners and controllers stubborn refusal to employ them, instead writing notes in programs that not everyone sees or remembers.

Regarding special sprint map forbidden to cross symbols it is really quite simple - if the line, be it black, green or blue, is abnormally thick it is forbidden.

[Oldman]

A ... is not sprint map spec and neither is olive green to show PRIVATE out of bounds areas.

These have ben the recognised way in ALL orienteering maps for about a decade. Therefore all orienteers aught to know them.

True, but another issue is that sprints usually draw all control to control lines straight across out of bounds areas (nearly always across olive green settlements), which is not normal practice for other O races. People not used to sprints need to learn that too.

But, if we don't want to risk a lot of negative PR and possible future difficulties, it's no use saying orienteers "ought to know" - we must work harder to educate them by articles, pre-race materials, etc.

[redpossum]

I know that olive green has been used for the past 15 years for private land Eddie but the Sprint spec. varies with the explicit instruction that competitors will be disqualified who violate this. I also know that the purple line has been used to forbid crossing for considerably longer. The APOC incident was slightly different as the Sprint spec does not allow the crosses for a forbidden route which I would have expected.

Oldman gets it right when he says we need education. In Sprint races in particular significant gains can be made by breaking the rules.

[Gross]

The APOC incident was slightly different as the Sprint spec does not allow the crosses for a forbidden route which I would have expected.

Why expect something that's not part of the spec.... if you're going to compete then prepare properly. Don't pass the fault onto others because you haven't bothered to study the differences!!!!

[FatBoy]

It's interesting that after the long thread we had about correct or incorrect use of uncrossable boundary in MTB-O, that actually the sprint standard does exactly what we came up with, rather than using Xs. I rest my case your honour! I have to confess to not knowing that it could be used for roads/tracks in sprint, although I would've worked it out from knowledge that it means uncrossable boundary.

I agree we should use this symbol more in "normal" x-country O rather than putting a note in the programme, then partly we all learn what it means, and partly you don't have to try and remember whether the programme said crossing points were compulsory or not 60 mins into a race.

[redpossum]

I think you're being a little unfair Gross - I did not pass any blame to others with regards APOC nor did I complain to anyone about being disqualified - my mistake entirely. There is. I did, in fact, take a copy of !SSOM 2007 with me but neglected to look at the overprint section.

The whole point of my observations was that not everyone is aware of the differences and a lot would not prepare at all. There is a subtle difference with the high fence that was allegedly crossed. ISOM 2000 says it is a high fence not crossable by the average orienteer whereas ISSOM 2007 says it is an impassable fence which is forbidden to cross.

[Mrs H]

Gross wouldn't be Gross if he wasn't perpetually irrascible.

nice picture by the way Red - where did you get the costume?

[redpossum]

Aguirre - Wrath of God starring the late great Klaus Kinski.