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Amendments to foot orienteering competition rules
At its recent meeting in Helsinki, the IOF Council decided to make some amendments to the Competition Rules for IOF Foot Orienteering Events.
Independent navigation and fair competition are key characteristics of orienteering. To this end, the definition of the sport in chapter 1 was refined. The rules now clearly state that the competition course shall not be revealed to the competitors before start (rule 1.1). Further, two new rules were introduced to distinguish between individual interval start events and events with mass or chasing start. In individual interval start events the competitors are expected to navigate independently (old rule 26.2, now modified in new rule 1.2). In mass start and chasing start events where competitors often run in close proximity to each other, navigational skills shall still be a major factor in determining the finishing order (new rule 1.3).
In addition, the start interval in the Long distance at the World Orienteering Championships was increased from 2 to 3 minutes (rule 12.14).
The amended version of the Competition Rules for IOF Foot Orienteering Events will be published on the IOF website and circulated to the member federations by the end of February.
