Michael writes...
Continuing the experiment with a minimally fieldworked new forest map, and middle distance courses with one-man organisation. Courses similar to last December with tweaks. Emphasis on training as opposed to competition, with free entry for coaches and chaperones. Further comment at the end, and in last year's results.
A big thank you to those who chaperoned or shadowed less experienced orienteers, it's hugely valuable. As a sport we don't do enough training, it's always racing with some sort of championship or series points at stake. In fact it's valuable for orienteers of similar ability to run together, observing and discussing technique. I suggest you read Malcolm Ingham's (ONZ HP Director) February report on this.
So the "results" are of passing interest only. Many were in a pair situation, or attempting something at the next level, some had done similar courses last December, etc etc. Unlike last year we haven't subtracted a steep uphill part of the red. Listed mainly to document participation, with missed and extra controls noted for learning. (Extra controls never have a penalty.) Excuse us if we have misinterpreted things, a missed SI box (shown as M) could actually mean "got a ribbon for a different control".
We acknowledge too that with controls close together, getting a wrong control was quite possible whereas you would normally have checked the code. This was the case at Red #17 and affected half the field. It was twice as far up the reentrant as an orange control on the muddy waterhole (pig-wallow?) which could also be described as a reentrant. There were also several in the flat pines which could be misinterpreted. These are planner errors not yours and would normally be caught by a controller.
Results
Lemon course (1.2km/15m)
Organisational comment
To recap, traditional events are expensive on manpower. This was a one-man event which focussed on the orienteering rather than competition. The fieldwork consisted of (a) a quick look for last year's rogaine (b) 3 half-days last December and (c) 3 half-days this week including some extensions not so far used. Pretty good in most places where the courses went, vegetation not perfect, and spurious wiggles in the contours still evident. Thanks to raw Lidar data captured by the regional council, and new tools to analyse it in OCAD.
Three courses can be made with under 40 controls, bright orange ribbons are easy to put out in advance and don't need to be taken in immediately. We dont always need control codes, they take much longer to prepare and set out than anonymous markers. We don't need an SI box at every control - half of us have GPS watches for goodness sake. Participants can print their own maps (and some people printed an extra one or two which is appreciated.) Our little battery powered splits printer can do the timing. The base was packed up by 12:30pm and the (11) SI controls were in by 1:30.
This page was installed by on 10 Mar 19.