Site updated 18 Feb 08

Types of Orienteering Competition
	Introduction	At typical club events there will be various courses on offer to suit all ages and abilities from complete beginners, to experienced orienteers; from 8 to 80!
	String Courses	For the very young child, a 'string' course is often available where the child follows a string for approximately 1km and punches their control card when they get to each control.
	Colour Coded	At District events, colour coded courses are given colour codes to indicate the level of technical and physical difficulty. The information provided highlights the skills required for each colour and is useful in helping the progressing orienteer to choose a course of a sensible standard related to personal ability. Generally the darker the colour the harder the course.  The British Orienteering Colour Coded System Course White Yellow Orange Red Green Blue Brown Orienteer Novice Novice Inexperienced progressing from novice Inexperienced wanting a longer course Experienced Technical Level Very Easy, No compass required Easy, No compass required Easy/Medium, No compass required but might be helpful Medium, No compass required but might be helpful Hard, Compass Required Length(km) 1.0-1.5 1.5-2.0 2.5-3.5 4.5-6.0 3.5-4.5 5.5-7.0 7.0+ Time(mins) 15-40 25-45 35-55 50-80 35-55 50-75 60-85 Control Sites Clear line features: Path bends and junctions, fences, streams and other easy to distinguish features As for White/Yellow + raised point features near to line features. Controls may be off paths but fairly easy to find. As for Orange - Red courses are of Orange difficulty but longer. Technically hard: Point features, small line features, relatively indistinct features Planning Plenty of controls, virtually no route choice Plenty of control, but some simple route choice, e.g. follow stream or go by paths. Plenty of route choice over physically demanding terrain. Varied leg lengths needing good navigation skills. There may be variations on this basic theme, such as Purple (a very long course of Orange standard), and Light Green, a shorter course (3.0-3.5km) of Green standard. For any particular colour all ages run the same course. The results show positions in order of merit irrespective of age, but age classes are shown alongside so that comparisons can be made with other people in the same age class.
	Badge Courses	Badge (Regional) and National standard events use age classes. e.g. W35 (women 35 - 39), M55 (men 55 - 59) etc. They are not suitable for novices. A number of courses are used to cover all the age classes with distances up to 15km. Competitors in each age class will all run the same course and their times will be directly comparable. Competitors can claim a British Orienteering Badge Award depending on their performance over a number of events.
	Championships	For the very capable orienteer, there are also Championship events run in age classes sometimes over several days.
	Score Events	The aim here is to earn as many points as possible within a set time. Controls may be given varying points values depending upon their distance from the start or the technical difficulty in finding them. The competitor must decide which controls to find within the competition time. Maximising the points score therefore requires considerable planning skill as well as navigating ability.