The U.S. Trail Orienteering Team is participating in the World Trail O Championships from June 5-9, with the main events on Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9 followed by the medal ceremony Saturday afternoon. Once events take place, results will be linked from here.
Open:
Paralympic:
Officials:
Special Tyvek Trail-O punch cards are now available from the Orienteering USA Trail Orienteering Committee. For clubs using them at local events there is a charge of 50 cents per card. They can be ordered from either the East or West Coast Trail O Committee representative:
Cards are available at no charge when:
Contact one of the Trail O Committee representatives for more information, including where to send order and payment.
U.S. Team to 2009 World Trail Orienteering Championships, left to right:
Sharon Crawford, Karen Dennis, Joe Brautigam, Mike Poulson, David Irving,
Cathy Yekenevicz, Frank Kuhn (Trail O Committee Chair)
In May, Karen Dennis, Chairperson, Trail-O Executive Steering Committee announced the U.S. 2009 WTOC Teams that headed to Miskolc Hungary in August 2009.
Please join me in offering congratulations to the 2009 WTOC Team!
Other trail orienteering info::
A few years back, the USOF Board recognized the need for Trail O and the WTOC Team to be organized pretty much along the lines as the Foot-O Team when the growth rate of Trail-O reached an appropriate level. Now that we have participated in four WTOCs and the fifth one is underway, it is appropriate that we begin phasing in the changeover.
Most of the methodology has been worked out. When some fine tuning has been completed, we will publish the details.
Frank Kuhn, Chair
USOF Trail Orienteering Committee
February 2009
Results of the 2008 National Trail-O Championships, held at the O' in the Oaks A-meet in California, Nov. 14-16, 2008 are available. Congratulations to 2008 Champions Eric Bone, Joe Brautigam and Dan Felitsky!
Karen Dennis has completed the paperwork for determining the 2008 U.S. Team for the WTOC in Olomouc, Czech Republic in July.
The make-up of the open team is very exciting, as it includes:
In addition, this will be David Irving's fourth trip to the WTOCs in the Paralympic Class. He has already earned bronze and silver medals in this class; now go for the gold!
On behalf of the USOF Trail O Committee, congratulations to the team members, and may they achieve their own personal goals at the 2008 WTOC!
Frank Kuhn, Chair
USOF Trail Orienteering Committee
8 May 2008 (*updated 27 May)
by Frank H. Kuhn
Chairperson, Orienteering USA Trail Orienteering Committee
31 March 2008
As the U.S. Trail O Team Trials at the West Point event on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 draw near, we are fast reaching the end of the road in identifying those folks who will be eligible for the U.S. Team going to the 2008 WTOC in Olomouc, Czech Republic, 12-16 July 2008.
Thanks to the hard work of Karen Dennis during the past months, we now have the methodology for selecting the 2008 US Team and the Spring 2008 U.S. Ranking List that are detailed below. The USOF Trail O Committee Members, previous U.S. WTOC Team Members and those who have been participants in the available Trail O Events in various parts of the U.S. had the opportunity to express their opinions as to what they felt should be the elements in the Team Selection Process. Thanks to all of those folks who provided Karen with their constructive ideas.
Please note the ranking list includes everybody who attended the listed Trail O events. To be a U.S. team member, you must be a USOF member in good standing and have full passport-holding citizenship for the U.S.
The Trail O start/finish, Meet Headquarters, Lodging, Dinner, and Donna Fluegel's Silent Auction will be at Camp Buckner.
The start times for Trail O on Saturday, May 3rd will be 1200-1500. The entry fee is $10.00 for all competitors. You may sign up for the Trail O Event on the Registration Form; however, if for some reason you fail to do this, you may pay your entrance fee at Meet Headquarters before going to the start line.
Paralympic and Open Class participants will both be doing the same Trail O course.
The USOF Trail O Committee will be looking forward to seeing you as one of a very large number of Trail O Participants!!!
And now to the information many of you have been awaiting –
1. Team Selection Committee
Each year, the Trail Orienteering Committee shall select the U.S. Trail Orienteering Team, to compete at the World Trail Orienteering Championships, using the selection criteria identified in the following sections.
The WTOC allows two teams from each country, consisting of three members in the paralympic category and three members in the open category. A paralympic team member may also compete in the open category (and be on both teams).
If, following the initial selection process, not enough selected participants have accepted to constitute a full team, the Selection Committee shall select such additional participants as necessary to form a full team, using criteria they deem appropriate.
2. Selection Criteria
The U.S. Trail Orienteering Team Trials and the U.S. Trail O Rankings will be used to determine who qualifies for team selection. The World Trail O Rankings will also be considered in making the selection, such as to break ties or to augment U.S. rankings.
3. WTOC U.S. Trail Orienteering Team Qualification
For each category, open and paralympic:
4. U.S.. .Trail Orienteering Ranking Events
The US. Trail O Committee will 'sanction' an event and determine its status as a ranking event. All bids for the U.S. Trail O Championships will be submitted to the Trail O committee, who will then present them to the USOF board for approval, if they are sanctioned. In the past, the U.S. Trail O ranking events have been the US Trail O Championships and also the Trail O Team Ranking event held in Tucson in February 2008. The annual U.S. Trail Orienteering Champs will always be a ranking event. Other sanctioned events can apply to the U.S. Trail O Committee to be deemed a ranking event.
5. U.S. Trail Orienteering Rankings Calculations
You need to have attended at least one (1) of the last seven (7) U.S. Trail O ranking events to be ranked. You will be ranked by taking the average of your best 3 scores at any of the last 7 ranking events. If you competed at fewer than 3 events, a zero will be used for your score at each missing event. Course setters, vetters, and mappers for U.S. Trail O ranked events will be given credit days. Credit days can be used to determine the best 3 scores, by replacing each credit day with your highest score.
The ranking is based on the percentage of correct answers at the event. It is calculated by taking the number of correct answers divided by the total number of controls, including timed controls but not any controls thrown out, then multiplying by 100.
The timed control score (in seconds) will be used to break ties.
6. World Trail Orienteering Rankings
Calculated similar to US Rankings, using data from the World Championships in Trail Orienteering. The WTOC scores will be used to calculate a world ranking of past WTOC team members.
The following seven events were used for the ranking used to select the 2008 WTOC team:
The 2007 WTOC held in Kiev, Ukraine from 20-25 August are now history. All of the participants were pleased and challenged by the courses, which were quite different than those in the earlier WTOCs in Sweden, Japan, and Finland.
The U.S. Trail O Team (David Irving/SDO in the Paralympic Class and Bob Turbyfill/QOC, Scott Drumm/CROC, and Mike Poulsen/CROC in the Open Class) did not bring home any medals. Much to their credit, however, all of the Team members did place in the upper half of their respective classes. Kudos go to Mike Poulsen for his 9th place achievement in the 2-day Open Class–30 points and 161 minutes for the timed controls. Check Anne Braggins' Trail-Orienteering Web site in the near future for the WTOC Results and see how just seconds at the timed controls makes a difference between 9th and 5th place!
The real challenge for Trail O is at the club and individual levels. There is a great need to increase more individual and USOF Club participation in order to move Trail O forward in the U.S. Individual and club interest is deterred because Trail O course setting and mapping are more labor-intensive than course setting for Foot O; hence there are a very limited number of course setters and mappers available to put on Trail O events since most of these folks are still in the early stages of the learning process.
With the Trail O seminars offered at the Annual Convention in Colorado in August and the enthusiastic turn-out for the Trail O Demo Course at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, it is hoped that this will give Trail O a real boost at the local level in terms of more interest in Trail O and many more events being offered in all areas of the US. This in turn will result in a larger and stronger base for future WTOC Teams. If we provide more events for potential U.S. WTOC members, the more opportunities they will have to hone their Trail O skills.
In the next years, the Trail O Committee has a goal of 50+ Trail O events in the U.S. each year–a goal Sweden has achieved in recent years.
It is now time to look forward to the 2008 WTOC in Olomouc,CZE, from 10 to 20 July. For us, the first step is designating the time, date and location of the U.S. National Trail O Championships which will serve as part of the 2008 WTOC Team Selection process. The plan that is on the drawing board is the Western States and Intercollegiate Championships in Arizona on February 23 and 24. Since the terrain at the Saturday and Sunday events is not suitable for a Trail O Course, the Trail O Championships will have to be in a park in Tucson on Friday afternoon, February 22nd. Our inveterate Trail O course designers Karen Dennis and David Irving have reviewed a map of the park and believe the area will be suitable for the Championships; however, on-site inspections around November 15th will be required. If the site does meet the standards for the Championship, then the Executive Committee will have to give their approval. Hopefully we will be able to confirm the February 22nd date on or before December 1, 2007. If the above does not work out, then we will have to move forward with Plan B.
In closing, the Number One item on the Trail O Committee Wish List is still a simple Trail O Web Site and a Web Master to set it up and keep it up to date. Won't someone please make my computer call out with your e-mail message that says- "... is willing and able to take on this very important Trail O project."
Thanks for your interest in and support of Trail Orienteering !!!
Frank Kuhn, tbaukuhn [at] aol [dot] com
Chairperson, USOF Trail Orienteering Committee
Member IOF Trail Orienteering Commission
The 2007 U.S. Trail-O Championships were held in early March in North Carolina, as part of the U.S. Team Fundraiser event at Umstead. Congratulations to the top Trail-Orienteers for 2007:
1st - Nikolay Nachev, COC
2nd - Jim Eagleton, DVOA
3rd - Robert Turbyfill, QOC
Sixty-two individuals or teams took part in the 2007 Championships. Those who have scored well in this and past events will be contacted by the U.S. Trail-O committee to gauge their interest in attending the 2007 World Trail Orienteering Championships, scheduled for August 16-27 in Kiev, Ukraine. (Committee Chairperson: Frank Kuhn, tbaukuhn [at] aol [dot] com)
U.S. Team for the 2006 WTOC
The three-member team included:
to the 3rd World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC) July 9-14, 2006, in the Joensuu area, Finland, held in conjunction with the Finnish Orienteering Week 2006 and the Mountain Bike World Championships.
2005 Results: The U.S. sent a team to the 2005 World Trail Orienteering Championships, held in Japan in August. The team was selected at the U.S. Trail O' Championship event held in April, 2005 at West Point. The team included David Irving (SDO) who competed in both the Open Class and the Paralympic Class; and Scott Drumm (CROC) and Dean Sturtevant (NEOC) in the Open Class. David was a silver medalist in the Paralympic Class, improving on his third place finish in 2004!
Last update: December 30, 2009
