Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005 Micro O'The internet is buzzing with discussion about "micro O'." The International O' Federation decided to include micro O' as part of next year's middle distance WOC.What is micro orienteering? It is pretty simple. At some point during the race, the course will include a number of legs where the control flag is on a feature, but there are also controls hung on nearby features. The idea is to punch at the correct feature. To make it tougher, the orienteers won't have control codes. Punching at the wrong control results in a penalty, but not a disqualification. The penalty involves running a bit extra. The idea is to make orienteering a bit like biathlon (cross-country skiing with target shooting, where the athletes have to ski a bit further if they miss a target). Most of the discussion on the internet seems to be complaints about including micro O' in a WOC and/or changing the rules without much discussion or input from elite orienteers. I don't think including micro O' in the middle distance is a good idea. But, IOF didn't ask me (and probably wouldn't listen anyway). I find it interesting, however, to think about how I'd prepare if I had to compete in a micro O' race. To start to think about it, I'd ask myself what different demands micro O' puts on the orienteer. It seems like the main problems an orienteer is going to face are: 1. Changing maps in the middle of the race. At the Nordic Champs -- so far the only big micro O' event I'm aware of -- the course began on a 1:10,000/5 meter map; went to a 1:5,000/2.5 meter map for the micro O' portion; and then finished on a 1:10,000/5 meter map. I think the micro O' map had a bit of extra detail, too. That change could be tricky. 2. Micro O' changes the rythem of the race. I've watched a video of the micro O' portion of the Nordic Champs and it is clear that the orienteers in the micro O' portion move slowly. That change, from running at a normal O' pace to standing around, could also be tricky. 3. Micro O' penalizes you for just getting close and looking for the flag. Having a very clear picture of the control feature and surrounding details is always a good idea, but should pay off even more in micro O'. Are there other problems you'd face during micro O'? Probably, but I'm not sure what they'd be. posted by Michael | 7:23 PM 
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