2024 JWOC & WUOC Team Selection Criteria Announced

In 2024 it will be possible for young athletes of Junior age and of College age to participate in one combined Team Trials event to qualify for two teams if eligible. The Team Trials event for the IOF 2024 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) as well as for the FISU 2024 World University Championship Orienteering (WUOC) will be all races of the Flying Pig XXVI / 2024 OUSA Masters Nationals, held April 5 – 7 in Ohio and hosted by OCIN. The Team Trials races will be identified accordingly in the EventReg registration process.

At the November 13, 2023 Orienteering USA Board Meeting, the Rules Proposal from the National Team for WUOC / JWOC selections changes was approved, with the final wording of the new rules still to be published. These new rules allow for all FISU WUOC eligible athletes to participate in the races designated for team selection, while the old rules allowed only the athletes eligible to participate in the USA Intercollegiate races to be eligible for selection by races, forcing a significant number of other WUOC eligible athletes to have to rely on petitioning to be selected. Furthermore, the alignment of WUOC and JWOC selection rules to be based on IOF and FISU eligibility, with the courses for the trials being the same for an athlete (e.g. the same Red course for all Team Trials Male athletes, independent of age), makes it possible for athletes eligible for both teams to participate in one combined Team Trials event for WUOC and JWOC.

The 2024 Junior World Orienteering Championships will take place from June 30 – July 7, 2024 in Pilsen, Czechia. An official pre-JWOC training will be hosted the week prior to the championships, with the US Team intending to start training June 24, 2024. Orienteering USA’s combined JWOC/WUOC Selection Committee will choose up to six young male and six young female athletes to represent the USA at JWOC ’24.

The 2024 World University Championships Orienteering will take place from August 1 – 5, in Bansko, Bulgaria, with Team arrival no later than July 30. Orienteering USA’s combined JWOC/WUOC Selection Committee will choose up to six young male and six young female athletes to represent the USA at WUOC ’24.

The full 2024 JWOC Team Selection Criteria and 2024 WUOC Team Selection Criteria documents can be found in the Orienteering USA Library.

Note to Petitioners: Petitioners who can not attend the Team Trials will still be required to register for the Team Trials as Non-Compete and fill in the declaration page, whether for the JWOC team, the WUOC team or both teams. Petitioning information will be collected through EventReg during registration – whether competing in the trials races, or entering as Non-Compete.

Both events have races for accompanying supporters and other orienteers, the Czech O-Tour during JWOC, and the WUOC Tour during WUOC.

2023 Annual Fundraising Campaign

November 2023
Dear Friend of Orienteering,

As an orienteer, you understand the thrill of navigating through unfamiliar terrain. Orienteering is not just a sport; it’s an adventure. Through your support, Orienteering USA can bring more adventure to more people.

OUSA is embarking on a new strategic direction with a focus on improving services and sponsoring innovation. We believe that these initiatives will help the sport of orienteering to succeed into the future.

Improving Services

Through website improvements, educational programs, and monthly online forums, OUSA wants to connect everyone with the resources they need. Whether a club is looking to improve their events or an athlete is looking to improve their performance, we want to help. We will also continue to support our teams and juniors in their quest for competitive excellence.

Sponsoring Innovation

OUSA is also committed to supporting innovative ideas for the future of orienteering. We will provide funding for clubs or individuals who want to try out new ideas, expand their reach, or learn from the experiences of other organizations.

Your Support is Needed

OUSA cannot achieve these ambitious goals without the support of our members and donors. Make a one-time donation or a monthly recurring donation. Your contributions will help us to:

  • Provide grants to clubs and individuals that are helping to grow orienteering.
  • Fund junior orienteers who want to improve their skills or learn more about event management or mapping.
  • Support our teams with funding for international competitions.

DONATE ONLINE NOW

Orienteering USA is a Section 501(c)3 nonprofit. Your gift may qualify as a charitable deduction for federal income tax purposes and for employer matching.

Sincerely,

Clare Durand
President, Orienteering USA

1405 S. Fern Street #90654
Arlington, VA  22202

Queen of the Hills Event Recap

November 4-5, 2023

  • 2-Day Classic – combined time
  • Host: DVOA
  • Venues:
    • Sat: Iron Hill Park
    • Sun: Fair Hill Park
  • Event Director: Angelica Riley
  • Course Setters:
    • Sat: Sergey Ryzhkov
    • Sun: Bob Agosta
  • Event Website

Results, photos, maps

Orienteering USA Introduces Monthly Forum Series

Orienteering USA is introducing a monthly series of Orienteering Forums focusing on a wide variety of topics suggested by OUSA participants and clubs.  Our first Forum topic will be of particular interest to Event Directors, Volunteers, and Club Officers since we will be sharing best practices on how we run our local events. Did we change our procedures for Covid? Are we keeping some of these changes? What are we doing to make hosting our events easier and safer?

The inaugural Monthly Orienteering Forum will be on Tuesday, November 14, at 8:30-9:30 PM Eastern Time on Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/ama-bpex-yrv. Forum participation is open to all interested persons regardless of experience level. Whether you’re a veteran event organizer, or a newcomer interested in learning more, please plan to join us for these monthly meetings.

For our November forum, Don Fish, Sharmagh Yepremian and Beatri Bennett will get us started with a presentation on Quantico Orienteering Club’s newly updated Event Director’s Manual, reflecting changes made in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic waxed and waned.

After the presentation we will have a round-table discussion of not only QOC’s manual & procedures, but open the discussion to forum participants to share how their club makes events run more smoothly. So if you are interested in improving the way your club runs local events, plan on joining us on November 14th and feel free to bring along some ideas to share with the group.

Orienteering USA is planning to host these meetings on a monthly basis, alternating between Tuesdays and Thursdays. Odd numbered months i.e. Jan, March, May etc. will be on the 2nd Tuesday.  Even numbered months i.e. Feb, April, June etc. will be on the 2nd Thursday. 

Future forums will discuss a variety of topics with your suggestions welcome (particularly if the suggester is also up for presenting).  Suggestions can be made via ClubNet (https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/g/clubnet) so others can chime in.

We will always get together on Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/ama-bpex-yrv however we have also created a Facebook Event – if you want to let us know you are interested or wish to start some online discussion either before or after the forum takes place. Keep discussions civil, we will delete inappropriate or off-topic posts.

We look forward to seeing you. 

Joseph Huberman, VP Club Services
Jon Torrance, VP Competition
Clinton Morse, Communications Manager

2023 New England Championships Event Recap

October 7-8, 2023

Classic Day 1

Classic Day 2

2023 OUSA Master’s Nationals Event Recap

September 23-24, 2023

Day 1 – Sprague Brook

Day 2 – Letchworth SP

Overall Results

  • 2-Day Combined Time Results – PDF
  • 2023 OUSA Masters Champions
    • F35+ Kseniya Popova – HVO
    • F40+ Anna Bringle – GAOC
    • F45+ Angelica Riley – DVOA
    • F50+ Kristin Hall – NEOC
    • F55+ Anne Jepsen – QOC
    • F60+ Pavlina Brautigam – WCOC
    • F65+ Chiori Shimizu – COO
    • F70+ Janet Findlay – EMPO
    • F75+ Sharon Crawford – RMOC
    • F80+ Valentina Grigoryeva – HVO
    • M35+ Sergei Federov – DVOA
    • M40+ Brendan Shields – CSU
    • M45+ Ken Walker Jr – CSU
    • M50+ Ryan Knecht – WPOC
    • M55+ Ted Good – QOC
    • M60+ Sergey Velichko – CTOC
    • M65+ Kevin Teschendorf – A/L
    • M70+ Walter Siegenthaler – COK
    • M75+ Peter Gagarin – WCOC
    • M80+ Eric Smith – CNYO
  • Historical List of previous OUSA Master’s Champions at OUSA Library
  • Masters Champs Recap (From a bunch of non-masters) – via OUSA Team Blog

2023 Silva Award Winner: Andrea Schneider

Orienteering USA is proud to announce Andrea Schneider of the Minnesota Orienteering Club (MNOC) as this year’s winner of the prestigious Silva Award. As OUSA President Clare Durand commented during the presentation of awards at last nights AGM, Andrea is sort of the Susan Lucci of orienteering. She has been nominated for this award on many occasions, but has never been selected to receive the coveted award until now. A well deserved award indeed.

Andrea is recognized for her work with youth and schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and with the US Junior Teams and National Junior Program (NJP) as well as serving as the Junior Team Administrator. Andrea has led NJP fundraising efforts at numerous national events mostly through the ubiquitous Junior Team sandwich sales. Planning, shopping, preparing, and distributing the ordered sandwiches takes significant planning and time and is no trivial task. If she could not be at the event in person, she has arranged for her husband, Vince Laraia, along with her sons, Michael and Thomas, plus other juniors, to seamlessly handle shopping, preparation, and distribution, in her stead.

In the summer of 2022, Andrea was the Team Leader at The World Games 2022 Birmingham in charge of all of the volunteers for the Venue Prep and Finish Teams. She was the Functional Lead for the Finish Team. And she was the sign “wrangler” in charge of moving the signs from place to place for each event. She was also of monumental help to Anne Mathews in working with the volunteer team from the TWG staff in getting the scheduling data entered into software used by TWG.

For numerous national events to which juniors have traveled long distances without parents, Andrea has coordinated lodging and transportation—both to/from airports and event venues. This has enabled many juniors to participate in events that they might not have been able to otherwise.

Andrea has handled uniform orders for all of the National teams for several years, working with the supplier, collecting orders, adjusting when minimum quantities of certain items are not reached, and then arranging delivery by multiple means—often with juniors themselves—in order to minimize costs. Andrea and her husband Vince Laraia have frequently hosted NJP members and other junior orienteers at her home. In 2017, she organized, as well as provided, housing for juniors at the 2017 JWOC & WOC Trials, hosted by MNOC. She and her husband Vince Laraia prepared and hosted an event dinner on the first day of the Trials.

Andrea is an accomplished mapper, and processes lidar data so much she is a resource for helping others get started with that difficult task. Andrea has also started a business, I Know My Way, LLC, providing educational orienteering programs to schools and other youth groups. As part of this work, she has used the abundant lidar resources of Minnesota, plus Kartapullautin, to create new maps—most of which could be used at future local events. As a result, Andrea has exposed hundreds of children and teens in both Minnesota and Wisconsin to our sport.

Andrea directs most of the local events for her home orienteering club, MNOC, handling the administrative end, while others—often her sons—plan and set courses. One thankless—and frustrating—task Andrea has taken on—often repeatedly—is requesting payment and other critical responses from JNT and JDT members, including taking orders for team uniforms as mentioned above.

Finally, despite competition from soccer and track, Andrea has managed to raise two (of three) sons who love orienteering and have been members of USA national teams.

2023 Golden Service Awards

The AGM is also the opportunity to recognize those individuals who have provided exceptional service to the sport of orienteering that extends beyond the local club level by presenting them with Orienteering USA Golden Service Awards. The recipients of this year’s Golden Service Awards are:

  • Captain Rex Settlemoir (USN, ret.), Orienteering Cincinnati (OCIN)
    • Nominated by Mike Minium, OCIN
    • Captain Rex Settlemoir (USN, ret.) is a 1974 U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, including duty during the Vietnam War, later serving further as a high school Junior ROTC Instructor.
    • Captain Settlemoir first became involved with Orienteering Cincinnati as a JROTC instructor. He regularly brough his cadets from Greenville High School and Hamilton High School to OCIN events. He advocated for inclusion of the sport of orienteering in the NJROTC curriculum. As the instructor, he also developed a passion for doing courses himself. Later, after retiring from instructing, he became much more involved with doing courses on his own, helping with event organization, and especially helping as the club’s photographer, taking dozens of photos for our website and social media pages at almost every event.
    • Captain Settlemoir almost always arrives at events early, helping to set up the start and finish, assisting with registration, giving instructional sessions for beginners and especially for JROTC and youth groups. Rex’s many photos provide lasting memories to the participants and he even frequently stops to take photos while out competing on his course! He has become a core OCIN volunteer, and is the club’s current Secretary. His organization skills are unmatched, and he keeps meetings on track, and almost always sends draft meeting minutes the day after the meeting.
    • On a national level, Rex has been a consistent and reliable volunteer with OCIN’s Flying Pig National Ranking Meet, helping with registration, starts, equipment transport, and of course photography, as well as whatever needs to be done. Rex has also done photography for neighboring club events, particularly Orienteering Louisville, and he is always ready to step in as a volunteer for anything orienteering-related.
    • Just this past month, Rex served as the primary Event Director for a large JROTC orienteering event with well over 200 starts. Due to several key OCIN volunteers being unavailable, Rex had to organize the few available volunteers effectively to keep up with the arriving cadets, keep the start organized, deal with a rude and verbally abusive JROTC instructor, and still find time to take several dozen of his signature photos! This event assuredly would have been much in chaos without Rex’s leadership, and OCIN has surely benefited from his help many times over at our other events.
  • Petr Hartman, Delaware Valley Orienteering Association (DVOA)
    • Nominated by Sandy Fillebrown, DVOA
    • Petr Hartman has been an exceptional volunteer for DVOA for many years. His work has been partly behind the scenes but it has been crucial to our national event program. Over the years he has scouted terrain; prepared base maps; field-checked and updated maps; and set and vetted courses for both local and national events. Most recently, he was the course setter for day 2 of our NRE in 2022 at Coventry Woods and he will be the chief vetter for the recently sanctioned SML event in 2024 at Nay Aug Park and Merli-Sarnoski Park.
    • Petr is a dedicated and outstanding volunteer. For his contribution to OUSA by supporting
    • many of DVOA’s national events, he will receive the Golden Service Award.
  • Matthew Robbins, Orienteering Cincinnati (OCIN)
    • Nominated by Bruce Moore, OLOU/Nash-O
    • As a BOD member of Nash-O I would like to submit my nomination for Matthew Robbins (OCIN) for the years of service he has put in not only with the local club (OCIN) but with other regional clubs as well. Matthew regularly helps with OCIN events and other events, especially in the technology area. He can often be found at the download station at the Flying Pig every year.
    • Matthew has also served on the National Board of Directors where he brings expertise with Juniors, Event Management, Technology, and Mapping. Matthew taught several mapping seminars in LiDAR processing for OUSA. He is also the number one person to support the Golden Service awards and encourage clubs to use this system to recognize their volunteers – both old and new.
  • Steve Durand, Los Angeles Orienteering Club (LAOC)
    • Nominated by LAOC Board
    • Steven is an LAOC member who has served as club treasurer for a number of years. In this capacity, he handled financial dealings for the 2022 OUSA Nationals. In 2017 Steven was the course setter for the OUSA Relay Championships hosted by LAOC at Camp Scherman. While most of Steven’s volunteer contributions have been behind the scenes, his willingness to help out with LAOC’s larger events and keep our finances in order have enabled LAOC to maintain a healthy schedule and have the financial resources to host NREs.

2023 OUSA Presidents Awards

  • Michelle Kastner (COC)
    • Michelle Kastner is recognized for her work with the Cascade Orienteering Club Youth League (WIOL), her work with Juniors, and her assistance with the Junior Team (JWOC and WUOC). She was instrumental in rebuilding the Winter League and WIOL after the COVID pandemic and is always looking for ways to improve the experience and training for the Juniors. The WIOL is one of the largest contributors of athletes to the OUSA National Team Junior Squad.
    • Michelle has traveled with the US junior teams to JWOC and WUOC, as chaperone, official photographer at all races, and has provided critical logistical support. She even fronted the competition entry fee for the entire junior team so they could compete in the 2022 WUOC sprint.
    • OUSA appreciates her tireless dedication to the Junior Program both locally and Nationally.
  • Gavin Wyatt-Mair (BAOC)
    • Gavin Wyatt-Mair is recognized for his persistence and hardwork directing the 2023 CalOFest and events leading up to it. CalOFest was Gavin’s vision to build a large orienteering festival around two high-level international events on consecutive weekends: the North American Orienteering Championships (NAOC) and the World Rogaining Championships (WRC). Overall, CalOFest included ten events (5 National Ranking Events, 3 NAOC World Ranking Events + relay, and the WRC), bringing together nearly 800 orienteers and rogainers from 29 countries. Gavin’s tireless, hands-on leadership and endless enthusiasm were absolutely pivotal to the success of CalOFest. Gavin assembled the leadership team, led them through countless hours of detailed planning, and himself contributed hours of his time to mapping, course setting, equipment transport, and many other thankless tasks.
    • This is even more impressive when considered in the context of the pandemic. CalOFest faced numerous challenges, starting with the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the event to be postponed twice. The event was initially scheduled for 2020 but was first postponed to 2021 and later to 2023 due to the pandemic. What started as a 2-year project in 2018 turned into a 5-year project, during which Gavin took on the additional responsibility of organizing the U.S. Orienteering Championships twice: 2019 at Big Basin in the Bay Area and 2021 at Lake Tahoe. He also organized the 2021 U.S. Rogaining Championships. Gavin’s leadership in organizing these events provided valuable experience for the CalOFest team in preparing for a large multi-day event.
    • All three events were successful and served to move the National schedule in OUSA forward. Gavin’s efforts are greatly appreciated.
  • Nathan Ohrwaschel (DVOA)
    • Nathan (Nate) Ohrwaschel is recognized for his long-term board service as the OUSA liaison to our Insurance broker. Nate joined the board in 2017, when OUSA was still trying adapt to life without staff. He took on the task of handling insurance issues for the Federation. In this position, he works with our insurance broker every year to renew the insurance policies and he handles questions and issues that arise from the clubs. Nate’s largest challenge came in 2021, when our standard policy would no longer cover Mountain Bike events. Nate worked tirelessly with the broker to find a way to cover Mountain Bike events for that year and to work with the board and clubs on how to handle the funding for the extra policy. Nate has just been reelected to the board for another three year term. We appreciate his continuing service and look forward to working with him into the future.

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

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.