Category: Events

2023 New England Championships Event Recap

October 7-8, 2023

Classic Day 1

Classic Day 2

USA Radio Orienteering Team Brings Back Silver, Bronze, and Experience From World Championship in Czechia

The USA Radio Orienteering Team won an individual silver medal and two team bronze medals at the 21st World Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Championship in Liberec, Czech Republic, held August 27 to September 2, 2023. USA fielded its largest-ever team of 21 athletes with seven competing in a world championship for their first time. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and Czech Radio Club (CRC) hosted the event in the mountainous region of North Bohemia with 28 countries and nearly 400 racers attending.

Next year the USA Radio Orienteering Championship will be held in Michigan October 7-13, 2024. Team USA will select its next team at the 2025 USA Championship. That team will then travel to Lithuania in 2025 to compete in the 22nd World ARDF Championship.

Read the Full Press Release here

  • Gheorghe Fala finishing the 3.5 MHz (80m) Classic. Credit: Ondrej Pec
  • Sandy Quinn completing 10th place 144 MHz (2m) finish in her first World ARDF Championship. Credt: Imre Polik
  • Eduard Nasybullin in the 3.5 MHz (80m band) Classic. Credit: Ondrej Pec
  • Nadia Scharlau KO4ADV competing in the 144 MHz (2m band) Classic. Credit: Ondrej Pec
  • Ruth Bromer WB4QZG on the podium after receiving silver medal in the Foxoring event. Credit: Joseph Huberman
  • Natalia Leoni (left) Nadia Scharlau KO4ADV (right) receiving the bronze team medal in the 144 MHz (2m) Classic. Credit: Imre Polik

2023 Laramie Daze Event Recap

August 30 – September 4, 2023

Daze 1 – The Unfair Race

Daze 2 – Knockout Sprints

Daze 3 – One Cowboy Relay

Daze 4 – Sugar Hill NRE

Daze 5 – Area 307 NRE

Daze 6 – Remarkable Flats NRE

TrailO Goes Tech

New TempO software is introduced during the first World Ranking TrailO event in U.S.

By: Jennifer A. Sheffield

The 2023 Navy Yard TrailO World Ranking Event (WRE) started with a 20-station riverfront Sprint PreO held at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard and ended with an eclectic tour of 25 flagged locations that took competitors through a mix of soccer fields, cultural markets, and around two large lakes within South Philadelphia’s FDR Park over the weekend of August 18-20. But it was two TempO events (both public), which kept the combined fields of Open (O), Juniors (J), and Physically Challenged (P) competitors on the edge of their seats.

Competitors dealt with flags set on a course designed by Daniel Heimgartner among gravel paths dotted with public art pieces at Central Green Park, then navigated a series of controls placed among the architectural elements of buildings surrounding Crescent Park at The Yard.

“It was challenging,” said U.S. Air Force Lt Col (ret.) and 2023 World Championships OUSA team member, Anne Maker (P), after completing the TempO on Central Green at The Yard. “There were circles everywhere, so, I had to figure out which circle I needed to focus on, at each stop, because this park is a circle,” she said.

Marshals on the TempO courses were equally challenged with using one of the first applications of a new time and scoring software, called Toepunch, which was tested against the speed and accuracy of each athlete’s decision. The point is to match the data entered, to the reality of a competitors’ experience, at each station. The app means marshals don’t have to set down a pen after the athlete gives their fourth answer, hit the stopwatch at the same time, then write down their final answer.

Amy Latva-Kokko, whose husband Mika and children, Jarmo and Katja, competed in the 2023 Trail-O World Championships was a marshal for the event. “I enjoyed using the handheld mobile devices on the TempO. I found it user-friendly, and much quicker,” she said. “If there was an error, I was able to fix it,” Latva-Kokko, explained. “We had a second marshal as a back-up, but I like the mobile device, because if the second marshal had a time difference of one second we can add that information to the device and it gets submitted to the server.”

Libor Forst of the Czech Republic created of this software because connectivity for a sport like orienteering is important. The success of the rollout also gave him confidence the sport can serve athletes with disabilities better while making stations enjoyable, and exact, for everyone; whether they are a beginner or seasoned racer. “Considering it was the first time that an American team made an WRE it was a good competition,” Forst said. “Regarding the technology everything worked very well for us in Philadelphia.”

Retired Armed Forces member, Charles Bromly Gardner, is an ElitO competitor, who also competes in FootO, and SkiO for Great Britain. He reflected on 40 years of doing the sport abroad. “I’ve not been to America for trail orienteering before and that was the attraction,” he said. The last, high standard (non-WRE) event held in Britain, was the 2019 European Cup.

Even with new technology applied for its competition, Gardner still stated the model event held prior to the weekend was useful to see what the mapper is putting on the map and is not. “It’s a mental challenge and I’m better at precision rather than the timed events. I’m starting to take my time in TempO but the youngsters still make quicker decisions,” Gardner said.

Cruising Through Obstacles

The 2023 IOFTOC TrailO WRE was hosted by OUSA’s Capital Region Nordic Alliance (CNRA) based in Albany, N.Y. Director, Russ Meyer said compared to the 2021 OUSA Veteran Paralympic National Championships, shipyard courses were condensed, for specific areas.

Using electronic punch cards, wirelessly attached to electronic boxes placed at each station was a big change for athletes. “For para (P) athletes who have hand mobility challenges, or use a wheelchair, it can be difficult, but with patience they can manage it,” said Latva-Kokko. This is a reason P and O athletes get different times to finish problems.

Gardner added, “It reduces man hours, but, what the software does, that is what you do, so if you wish to change it, the software has to change.”

However, the system has increased flexibility in FootO and mappers can now design looped courses. Toepunch shows real-time results, but this also means the race host is putting more expense out into the forest.

Philadelphia’s FDR Park cartographic work was done by an experienced consortium of Ari Tertsunen, Richard H. Ebright and Bob Burg.

Orienteering USA President and TrailO competitor Clare Durand commented the sightlines across bodies of water made the course especially challenging. “I had some issues reading how they mapped some of the vegetation, which was not standard combined with problems that were vegetation based but I was happy with the difficult controls that made me think,” said Durand.

Forst added, “The WRE TempO course, specifically, could be a good competition for any country to use.”

“The PreO had problems because if you make a competition a public park, you have people there. The other thing was light conditions which was the reason for voiding some controls,” Forst explained.

U.S. National team member, Paige Suhocki (J; DVOA) marshaled at The Yard and did the long PreO. It was her first time trying TrailO. “It felt inclusive,” she said. “It is all about having good flow.”

Continuing to Connect

Overall, Durand acknowledged that it is not OUSA, but the work of clubs like CRNA that do the event work whose efforts lead the way to leveling the playing field, and bringing international competitors together.

CRNA is a Move United chapter that sponsors Paralympic athletes in cross-country skiing, biathlon, skeleton and bobsled year-round. It added orienteering to its Nordic menu after receiving a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adaptive sports grant.

U.S. Army Sergeant Major (ret.) Kevin Bittenbender competed in Philadelphia with his service dog, Kirby, and said, TrailO really requires the participants to get out of their comfort zones. “It provides those with disabilities, a chance to be involved, in something and it narrows that excuse not to get out, because it gets you outdoors,” he said.

Bittenbender learned land navigation in the Army, but he practiced for WRE, using online orienteering. He appreciates the focus that is necessary for TempO, and that the Toepunch system made it easy to navigate the course and stay organized along the route. “You don’t miss a station, or, accidently punch something,” he said. “You do have to make sure you have the right card in your hand, though.”

For veterans, the sport also creates camaraderie, whether the competitor lives with a disability, or not.

In 2021, at The Yard, Lee Kuxhaus had never competed in TrailO and this year spent her free time studying her mistakes and was awarded for that with the second place medal in the WRE PreO para (P) class. “It is fun to introduce any sport, to new people,” she said. “Because when you go to a competition know that you’re going to build memories.”

One thing that drives Bittenbender is a recipe he calls P-3, which stands for purpose, passion, and a part bigger than yourself. “In TrailO you’re pushing your abilities, and whether you get 100% or 10% on a problem, it provides you a level upon which you can improve.”

From a technology standpoint too, “Everything can be solved before the time clock is running,” said Forst. “I am glad we got a chance to try this technology over the ocean and it worked.”

Results at: top.yq.cz 
Photos at: Orienteering USA Facebook
Photos courtesy Orienteering USA and Jennifer Sheffield

Correction: The new ToePunch software, which was approved in January 2023, was used for the PreO events. The TempO events used existing ANT software, also developed by Libor Forst, that has been in approved usage since 2016.

California Orienteering Festival Event Recap

July 17-30, 2023

  • Event Website
  • Director: Gavin Wyatt-Mair
    • Coordination: Sarah Williams
    • Registrar: Team
    • Technical quality: Erin Schirm
    • Technology: Jay Hann
    • Volunteers: Marie-Josee Parayre
    • Publicity: Stephanie MacLean
    • Mapping: Bill Cusworth
    • Consulting: Tapio Karras
    • Treasurer: Gary Kraght
    • IOF advisor: Erik Blake
    • IRF advisors: Merv Trease, Vic Sedunary, Phil Wood

July 17 – Sprint NRE @ Presidio

July 18 – Middle NRE @ Golden Gate Park

  • Western States Orienteering Championships – Day 2
  • Stage #2 Info
  • Event Summary from Stage 2 Director Rex Winterbottom:
    • The persistent fog and slight bluster made it a true San Francisco Summer event, more so than Presidio. I think if we had our choice, it was better to have the better weather the first day to ease people into these 2 weeks of adventures.
    • Although wearing the event-director hat the majority of the time, from when I arrived at 5:55 A.M. until departing after 4:00 P.M., I was able to escape into the woods as the starts were closing and tremendously enjoyed the ping-pongy jaunt through a variety of Golden Gate Park habitats. Well done on the course planning, Andrejus!
    • Course setter Andrejus Masalkovas had 92 checkpoints to place, we weren’t allowed to place any the day before according to the permit, and we were severely limited for placings. 80% of the checkpoints had to be cones or stands according to Parks & Rec. So major thanks to Vladimir, Steve Haas, Dan Greene, and another guy who happened to be there earlier than planned at 5:55 A.M. to get it done. It was a tight squeeze before the first scheduled starts, and our pre-runners Clinton Morse and Steve Gregg didn’t have much time to verify the controls — none of which, fortunately, were disturbed, and all were easily recovered after the event.
    • An absolute thank you to all of our volunteers and participants for building a day in the park we could all enjoy. Thank you so much!
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
  • Results / Splits from AttackPoint
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [235 photos]

July 19 – Long NRE @ Morgan Territory

  • Western States Orienteering Championships – Day 3
  • Stage #3 Info
  • Event Summary from Stage 3 Director Martin Kunz:
    • It takes a village …  to organize a stage at Cal-O-Fest, so the old saying goes. Of course the good people in and around BAOC stepped up and raised the third stage out of its inception to full completion. I entered the doing only at a fairly advanced stage but as I heard through the grapevine, stage 3 went through various levels of near death experiences including a change of venue and a capricious permit procedure.
    • Gavin Wyatt-Mair, together of course with the Cal-O-Fest steering committee, were, so I have heard, instrumental in keeping the baby alive and unharmed by bureaucratic round-abouts and baby eaters. Many thanks to them from all the happy Orienteers that eventually got to enjoy a most memorable stage in our beloved Morgan Territory. 
    • I think this was the first time we dared to organize an event in this typical Bay Area terrain with its oak chaparral meadows and distinctly structured terrains in the middle of summer. It was a risk but we lucked out and the temperatures were in the very acceptable mid-eighties. It’s better to be lucky than to be good – another old saying I tend to live my life by. A total of 283 runners who came and braved the summer conditions at Morgan Territory.
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [76 photos]

July 20 – Rest Day

July 21 – Sprint WRE @ Northstar California

  • North American Orienteering Championships – Day 1
  • Stage #4 Info
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
    • Additional Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
    • (due to WRE some classes processed separately
  • Bjorn Kjellstrom & Future Champions Cup scoring
    • The battle for the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup as well as the Future Champions Cup is underway in California. In today’s Sprint at Northstar California Resort, the US squad came out on top in the preliminary scoring.
    • BK Cup scores after today puts USA 126 vs Canada 62.
    • Future Champions scoring the tally was USA 109 Canada 46.
    • Scoring orienteers can be found at Orienteering USA Facebook
    • Thanks to Orienteering USA VP Competition Jon Torrance for tallying up these scores for us.
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [345 photos]

July 22 – Middle WRE @ Little Truckee Summit

July 23 – Long WRE @ Sagehen

July 24 – NAOC Relay @ Northstar California

July 25 – Rest Day

July 26 – Middle NRE @ Independence Creek

July 27 – Long NRE @ Spooner Lake

July 28 – Rest Day / WRC Model

July 29-30 – World Rogaining Championships

JWOC ’23 Event Recap

July 2-9, 2023

July 2nd – Opening Ceremony (& pre-event)

July 3rd – Individual Sprint

https://youtu.be/v1x4Y9lyfBI
Livestream Replay – YouTube

July 4th – Sprint Relay

https://youtu.be/zh_ui50Svdc
Livestream Replay – YouTube

July 5th – Middle Distance

https://youtu.be/Us_6iqQF1cA
Livestream Replay – YouTube

July 7th – Long Distance

July 8th – Forest Relay

https://youtu.be/nL67Wger9XQ
Livestream Replay – YouTube

Trail-O Team heads for Czech Republic

With all of the pre-event hype for JWOC, it would be easy to overlook that another TeamUSA contingent is on it’s way to Europe to compete at the World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC) in the Czech Republic. The WTOC is running concurrently with JWOC, so we will venture to bring you all the news from both events and hopefully not get you too confused!

A portion of the team including Clare Durand (LAOC), Piotr Zielczynski (HVO), Daniel Heimgartner (QOC) and Sharon Crawford (RMOC) will run the PreWTOC TrailO Adventure, a two event WRE warmup this coming weekend with a PreO event on Friday and TempO on Saturday. Daniel will only be competing on Saturday, according to the start lists.

The team will then travel on to Kokořínsko, a beautiful natural region of rocks, small lakes and its unique sandstone towers, gates, windows and other formations. They will meet up with the remainder of TeamUSA for opening ceremonies on Sunday with competition running Monday through Thursday of next week. If the map snippets and photo look familiar, the same area hosted the World Orienteering Championships in 2021. Check our Event Recap page for a look back at WOC ’21.

It is our understanding that the full team composition for the World Champs events has changed somewhat from that initially announced back in May. We’ll bring you an updated list of who is competing in the coming days. The team will probably also update us on the current team via the US Trail-O Blog, which has been reactivated. In the meantime, please join us in wishing our TeamUSA athletes safe travels and speedy and accurate courses at both the WRE’s and the ensuing World Champs!

Photos: Map snippets & terrain photo from organizer website (photographer not mentioned). Selfie: Clare Durand.

Marmot O-Cup NRE cancelled

Permits for use of Fisk State Park in 2023 have been denied due to archaeological & tribal reviews being incomplete at this time. The two NRE events originally scheduled for June 24-25, 2023 have been canceled.

The Marmot O-Cup will proceed with the Fisk SP events being replaced by non-NRE events (likely middle & long) at Fishtrap Lake.

Cascade Orienteering Club is tentatively planning for two NRE events at Fisk State Park in June of 2024. Stay tuned.

Calero 2023 Event Recap

April 2nd, 2023

  • Host: Bay Area Orienteering Club
  • Venue: Calero County Park, San Jose, CA
  • Event Director: Tapio Karras
    • Course Setter: Rich Parker
  • Event Website

Results

Note:The Red course was voided due to a misplaced control. Full details can be found in the Jury Report. Posted results for Red course/classes are unofficial with the offending control removed.

43rd Annual West Point NRE Event Recap

including 2023 WOC Team Trials

April 15-16, 2023

  • Host: United States Military Academy Orienteering Club
  • Venue(s):
    • Middle: Lake Popolopen, West Point, NY
    • Sprint: Camp Buckner, West Point, NY
    • Long: Jackie Jones, Harriman SP, NY
  • Event Director: CDT Tyler Wilson
    • Registrar: CDT Gregory Kies
    • Course Setters:
      • Middle: CDT Shawn Mather
      • Sprint: CDT Holden Sopoti
      • Long: CDT Neal Anderson
      • Course Vetting: CDT Paul Bruce
    • Course Consultant: Jordan Laughlin
  • Event Website

Results

Photos & Media