okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Monday, June 30, 2008
JWOC sprint course - a quick look
The JWOC sprint map gave is worth a few minutes of map study.
Three things struck me immediately when I looked at the courses (the map above in the M20 course). First, the course looks to be designed for the runners rather than for spectators. I've gotten so used to seeing courses designed with spectators in mind that it seems almost odd to see a course without looping through the start/finish area. Second, the terrain looks interesting - a nice mix of urban orienteering and some bits of forest mixed in. Third, the course setter didn't test the classic sprint O' challenge - skipping a control. Lots of sprint courses have a control or two that would be very easy to skip, like a short leg that is in a direct line with a longer leg. This course setter didn't set a leg like that (which is, I think, a good thing).
