Route choice is a tactic in orienteering and related sports such as rogaining and

adventure racing Adventure racing (also called expedition racing) is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wilderness course with races extending anywhere from two hours up to two weeks in length. Some races offer solo co ...

. These sports involve

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

from one control point to the next and, in most cases, the choice of route is left to the competitor. This is provided the rules permit route choice and the course is designed so that a choice ''exists''. In trail orienteering and European style

mounted orienteering Mounted orienteering is the practice of orienteering while riding a horse or other riding animal. History Mounted orienteering was an important function of cavalry units and today remains an important skill for mounted search and rescue. Competi ...

route choice is not permitted. In United States style

foot orienteering Foot orienteering (usually referred to as simply Orienteering or FootO for short) is the oldest formal orienteering sport, and the one with the most "starts" per year. Usually, a FootO is a timed race in which participants start at staggered in ...

, route choice is absent from White courses, limited in Yellow courses, and a crucial element in the design of more advanced courses. Given a choice of route, the competitor evaluates trade-offs among such factors as distance, amount of "climb" (vertical movement), degree and extent of "fight" (travel through obstructing vegetation), mode of travel, technical difficulty, and the competitor's own preferences. Among orienteering sports, route choice has varied importance. It is arguably the single most important tactical factor in rogaining, it is very important in

mountain bike orienteering Mountain bike orienteering (MTB-O or MTBO) is an orienteering endurance racing sport on a mountain bike where navigation is done along trails and tracks. Compared with foot orienteering, competitors usually are not permitted to leave the trail ...

and

ski orienteering Ski orienteering (SkiO) is a cross-country skiing endurance winter racing sport and one of the four orienteering disciplines recognized by the IOF. A successful ski orienteer combines high physical endurance, strength and excellent technical skii ...

, and it is less important in some other forms of orienteering. Route choice is completely absent from the Parcours d'Orientation et de Régularité (orienteering and pace racing phase) of Techniques de Randonnée Équestre de Compétition (TREC) competitions. In that phase, orienteering involves following ''exactly'' a course marked on a map but not in the terrain. For example, if a course follows the east bank of a ditch then traveling in the ditch or on its west bank would be an error. Orienteering sports in which route choice is an important factor provide few locations where spectators can watch the race. During

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (or WOC for short) is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 2 ...

2009, the racers wore

GPS tracking A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses satellite navigation to determine its movement and determine its WGS84 UTM g ...

devices and many spectators watched them racing via the Internet. These spectators who watched the men's relay race "saw" Martin Johansson (Sweden) have a freak accident, and Thierry Gueorgiou (France),

Anders Nordberg Anders Nordberg (born 17 February 1978) is a Norwegian orienteering competitor. He received a bronze medal at the 2004 World Orienteering Championship, and again a bronze medal in 2007.

(Norway), and Michal Smola (Czech Republic) come to his aid.

References

{{Orienteering-stub Orienteering

See also

References