Part 1 – Basic principles and forest relay races

Definition

An orienteering relay race is a competition where each member of a team runs an individual course, one directly after the other in a pre-determined order. The result of the race is judged according to the total time taken by each team, however in closely contested competitions, the winning team will be the team whose last leg runner crosses the finish line first. The reason for this variation to individual orienteering races that use interval starts (with timing to the second) is that sub-second differences can be accommodated (see IOF rule 23.9 and OA rule 23.7). 

What about one-person relays? Well a “one-person relay” is not really a relay race, it’s a mass-start individual race designed to minimise runners simply following the leader, but it will be discussed in part 2, along with sprint relays and other options for team races.

Relay orienteering has the following characteristics:

• A mass start – all first leg runners start at the same time.
• Different courses (variations) will be set for each competition class and runners in that class will not know what variation other teams will be running, however the total course run by all teams will be identical.
• Relay races can be held in forested terrain or urban areas (Sprint Relay). Forest relays are normally for teams of three, and sprint relays are generally for teams of four (two men and two women, with the first and last legs run by the women team members).

The following article from John's December 2008 O-Know Controllers Corner has been slightly edited to make it more up todate but does contain some useful reminders.

Certainly, the quality of events and course setting remains in a much healthier condition than the economy! We continue to prosper, and I believe the quality of course planning and event management are on a steady increase.  Of course we can’t go on expecting better and better standards – there are limits to what all of us (as volunteers) can be expected to attain.  And we do tend to be rather harsh critics when things do go wrong.

So OK – what are some of the things that have gone wrong this year? And what might we have done about them?  I’ve chosen three issues: