Orienteering courses are usually identified by a set of colors, which communicate the relative length and difficult of the course. These range from White, the shortest and simplest; to Blue, the longest and most challenging.
In competition, orienteers are grouped into “classes”: age groups that reflect their sex and year of birth; and each class is assigned a course intended to provide an appropriate level of physical and technical challenge.
For example, a 37 year old woman would fall into the F35+ class, which competes on Green courses.
The following table summarizes these primary competition courses, showing which course is typical for women and men based on their year of birth. (Or, equivalently, their age at the very end of the current year.)
However, it is not required to select this course: anyone can participate in any course they prefer, with different implications for how and with whom they’ll compete. The tables below detail all of the options, for athletes of any age, on any course. To use these tables,
- Select the table applicable to the athlete’s sex.
- Find the row that corresponds to the athlete’s year of birth.
- Read across the row to see how they’d compete, should they select the course in that column.
In each row, the course options fall into three broad camps:
- Default Championship courses/classes: Options with a color-coded background and bold border match the Primary Competition Courses described above. Most competitive orienteers will select this course, and compete for awards & championships with others of a similar age.
- Sometimes an athlete has multiple class options within the same course. For example, a 71 year old man would typically compete on Brown in the M70+ class (bold). But he could also choose to still run Brown, but compete in the younger M65+ class (italics).
- Additional Championship courses/classes: Options in italics, typically to the right of the chart, present opportunities to “run up” on a harder and/or longer course. On these courses, the athlete is still eligible to win Championships in any of the listed classes, but they’ll tend to face stiffer competition.
- For example, a 15 year old girl, who would typically run Orange, could compete for a championship on Brown, Green, or Red, against progressively older competitors; or even Blue, which is “open” to women and men of any age.
- Non-Championship courses/classes: Options with a purple background, typically to the left of the chart, present opportunities to participate on simpler and/or shorter courses than the competitive standard. These courses aren’t eligible for championships, but can still be competitive for athletes who are less experienced, less physically capable, injured, or simply want a different orienteering experience.