Trail-O Standing Team Applications Now Open

Applications are now open for the TeamUSA Trail Orienteering Standing Team. The application link will stay active for another week until Monday, April 8th.

However, if you are interested in representing US in the trail orienteering European championships (ETOC) in Turku, Finland May 8th -May 12th please fill in your application for the standing team as soon as possible. Preferably this would be done by Monday Apr 1st, as the team size deadline for ETOC in Apr 8th.

Fill out the Team Application here.

Orienteering USA rules stipulate that all National team members must complete SafeSport training.  There is also a link to this training in the application form.

Here is the language in OUSA rules regarding the standing team:

  • G.4.4 The U.S. Trail Orienteering National Team shall be composed of a maximum of 10 applicants from each class who meet the following conditions:
    • a. Have full passport qualifying citizenship for the United States.
    • b. Regular member of Orienteering USA in good standing.
    • c. Agree to be an active part of the team.
    • d. Participate in Team discussions, elections, and fundraisers.
    • e. Agree to represent the USA in International Orienteering Events (if selected and available).
    • f. Subscribe to the Official Team communication channel.
  • G.4.5 The top five highest ranked applicants of each class from each of the PreO and TempO ranking lists shall be automatically selected to the team. Any remaining spots will be filled by the ESC using a combination of the PreO and TempO ranking lists.  In the event that fewer than 10 applicants for the team in a class have a valid ranking, the ESC may, at their discretion, name non-ranked applicants to the team.

As a member of the standing team you are eligible to wear US National team uniform in any US Trail-O event

Sincerely,
Mika Latva-Kokko
Trail-O ESC

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.

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.

2023 WTOC Team Announced

The Trail-O selection committee is pleased to announce the team that will represent TeamUSA at the World Trail Orienteering Championships taking place from July 1-7, 2023 in Zakupy, Czech Republic.

Ten athletes have been selected to represent TeamUSA in the Open and Paralympic classes. In addition, two athletes will join the team to compete in the public race.

Congratulations & good luck to our TeamUSA Trail-O Team!!

  • Open Class
    • Mika Latva-Kokko NEOC
    • Clare Durand LAOC
    • Piotr Zielczynski HVO
    • Sharon Crawford RMOC
  • Open Class (junior)
    • Jarmo Latva-Kokko NEOC
    • Katja Latva-Kokko NEOC
  • Paralympic Class
  • Public Race
    • Kevin Bittenbender CRNA
    • Rhonda Liddell CRNA

Team USA to Compete in World Trail Orienteering Championships 2022

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce the team competing in World Trail Orienteering Championships in Jelenia Gora, Poland, July 19th-23rd. The team is a mixture of youth and experience. The most experienced members of the team are David Irving (SDO), Sharon Crawford (RMOC), and Clare Durand (LAOC), whereas the newest team member, junior Jarmo Latva-Kokko (Age 16 from NEOC) is participating in his very first WTOC.

David is likely our biggest hope for strong placement in the paralympic category, but Jarmo is looking to turn some heads especially in the timed Temp-O event. He is already ranked 4th in the US in Temp-O and his performance in the Philadelphia training camp this May was impressive. Clare and Sharon bring lots of WTOC experience to the team and are hoping to improve on their personal best. Bob and Karen have less experience in competing in WTOC, but have done well in recent US ranking events. The team is looking to improve from past WTOC performances. Three of the selected team members were unable to go to Poland this year, but hopefully will participate in future.

Selected team:

Open:

  • Clare Durand (LAOC)
  • Sharon Crawford (RMOC)
  • Karen Dennis (SDO)
  • Bob Cooley (BAOC)
  • Jarmo Latva-Kokko (NEOC) Junior

Paralympic:

  • David Irving (SDO)
  • Daniel Heimgartner (CRNA) unable to attend
  • Lee Kuxhaus (CRNA) unable to attend
  • Julius Schram (CRNA) unable to attend