Newcastle Orienteering Club

Format and Rules

• The Series will consist of four (4) events. The first three events will be qualifying events. A competitor’s best two completed events (not including a mispunch or DNF)  in the same course will be tallied to produce a qualifying score. On the basis of this score competitors will be placed into grades for the final. (See Calculating the Grades)

• Disqualification will be recorded in a competitor's result if they are observed or reported to have crossed an impassable feature (as shown in the common sprint orienteering map symbols) at the discretion of the series co-ordinator.

• Scores for each qualifying event will be calculated as a ranking. 100 points for the first place, 99 for second, 98 for third and so on. The ranking method will apply to both the long and short courses. If a competitor mispunches, does not finish (DNF) or is disqualified (DSQ) they will be allocated 1 point.
The mini course is not competitive and will not be ranked.

• In the final event competitors will run in their allocated grade. Results from this event will determine the overall placing in each grade. Competitors that have not qualified for the final are still welcome to run, they will not be eligible for a prize.

• To encourage event officials (course setters and vetters) they will be allocated an average score of their successfully completed events for the event where they were an official. Thus they will not be disadvantaged by the scoring system.

• The courses will be line courses (point to point) so competitors must visit the controls in the order specified by the course setter. (However you still have choice on how to approach and navigate between controls).

• There will be two different length courses offered at each event. The short course will be about 1.5 – 2 km in length while the long course will be about 4 - 5km in length (where possible).

• Start times for the events are between 4:45pm and 6:15pm

• Course closure is 7pm. Please choose a start time to ensure you will finish by this time. (The organisers still need to pick up controls after this.)

• SportIdent timing is used for all Urban events, so remember to bring your SI stick. (SI stick hire available at all events.)

• All private property and any other areas so marked on the map are out of bounds. Competitors found not observing this rule will be disqualified.

• All competitors must report to the finish (so that search parties are not sent out!)

• Any queries should first go to the organiser for the day and then if necessary to the series organiser.

• Enjoy it!

Calculating the Grades

The grades for the Urban Foot Orienteering Series Final are determined as follows:

• The grades for each course (i.e the long course and the short course) are determined separately.

• After the conclusion of the qualifying rounds the competitors are ranked according to their best two results. From these rankings the competitors are then put into grades.
Note: Competitors must have successfully completed at least two rounds on the same course to qualify.

• For each course the number of grades used depends on the number of qualifiers as follows:

• The numbers within each grade will be as even as possible with the excess going into the lower grades first.

For example if the long course has 43 qualifiers, then there will be 3 grades, A, B and C, with 14 in A grade, 14 in B grade and 15 in C grade. If the long course has 44 qualifiers then the numbers would be 14 in A grade, 15 in B grade and 15 in C grade. And so on.