Yep Sport

GPS in Events - BOF

Interesting extract from the most recent BOF events committee minutes:
Agenda item 07/24: Use of GPS systems at orienteering competitions – Competitors are currently not permitted to use a GPS device as an aid to navigation at any competition registered with British Orienteering. However at this time Rules Group was unwilling to ban the [...]

Posted in Opinion | 2 Comments »

Why I Like the Bushy Park Time Trial more than most Orienteering Events

Oh dear. I had starting running in the Bushy Park Time Trial, a 5km trail race every Saturday at 9am in SW London, as a way to get me up and out of the house on mornings when there was no orienteering event. But now I’m choosing to go to it in preference to the [...]

Posted in Opinion | 1 Comment »

Top 10

Okansas is doing a Top 10.
Here’s my Top 10 Areas I ran on in 2006:
10. Hindleap Warren (enjoyable, felt good.)
9. South Ashdown Forest (satisfying battle against the weather.)
8. Hatfield Forest (a breakthrough race for me.)
7. Ilkley Moor - JK Day 1 (moorland but intricate.)
6. Druskininkai - JWOC Spectator Races Day 5 (so fast but so [...]

Posted in Opinion | No Comments »

First (Real) Orienteering Podcast?

Mat Dickinson has now posted a couple of short podcasts at OS Now, which I guess makes him the world’s first second orienteer podcasting about the sport. Nice one! Now all he needs is a decent jingle at the beginning
[Update - Sero mentions in the comments that Orienteering Orange has been podcasting [...]

Posted in For The Record, Opinion | 3 Comments »

Official: Men are the Better Map Readers

The results for the Micro-O section of the Esher Commons orienteering event finally provide a definitive, unbiased answer to the age old question.
Out of the 91 men completing the MicroO course, 24 (26%) made no mistakes. But out of the 28 women competing, only 2 (7%) had a clean sheet.
The statistics speak for themselves… [...]

Posted in Opinion | No Comments »

Stress and Orienteering

Here is the summary of the previous season.
One of my fellow orienteers in JOK advanced the theory that the stress of work affects my results adversely. Case in point - after a week’s holiday, I got my best results of the season during the Scottish 6 Day. On the other hand, I generally perform badly [...]

Posted in Opinion | No Comments »

Nopesport? Nope Yep

[Updated] Aargh, what’s happened to the Nopesport website? Not linking to it here, as it looks like it’s been namejacked in the last few days by a dodgy domain registry peddling ads, or possibly someone forgot to pay domain registry fees? The forums on Nopesport really invigorated discussion within the British and wider orienteering scene, [...]

Posted in Opinion | 2 Comments »

Orienteering Events and Sunday mornings

B*ll*cks. Another orienteering event missed. I was out until 4 this morning, I got to sleep at 5, I like my sleep, so getting up at 9 to get a 10am train for the Maidstone event today was never really going to happen. I’ve noticed a pattern since I’ve left university:
Monday to Thursday - [...]

Posted in Opinion | No Comments »

Odd Orienteering Maps: No. 2 in a series

Most number of paths leading from a junction: Binning Wood.
There’s 12, count-em… In fact, you can see in the extract below I chose the wrong exit:

If you are a glutton for punishment, there’s two other similar junctions in the wood.

Posted in Opinion | 2 Comments »

Odd Orienteering Maps: No. 1 in a series

Loopiest/most inefficiently designed track: Bagshot Heath.
After a great deal of up-and-down, you get to… almost where you started again. If ever there was an excuse to go off-road in a leg, it’s the leg shown:

Posted in Opinion | 1 Comment »