okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Learning something new
Neil Dobbs wrote in a discussion at Attackpoint:
In most long/classic races, one spends a fair amount of time not actually reading the map or making decisions.
In a good sprint, there are decisions to be made every few seconds. It tests navigation at speed perhaps more than map interpretation, but I wouldn't knock it as a form of orienteering. There are plenty of middles and longs which aren't particularly challenging technically.
A French guy who was at one point one place off the national XC team and still winning national club relay golds, so a damn fast runner, joined our orienteering club and loved it. Even after two years I was still beating him in sprints - even without mistakes his running-speed while map-reading was slower than mine.
This isn't to say the cash-prize idea won't work, and I'd love to see it tried. But it could be orienteers that win the prize money for a while yet :)
I thought Neil's comment (especially the part where I added the emphasis) was interesting because it helped me better understand what people mean when they say sprint orienteering is easy. I think they mean that "map interpretation" is comparatively easy. I guess it is obvious, but it is something I never really understood.
