This is a friendly reminder to everyone to be aware of common Out of Bounds (OOB) areas on sprint maps.
Our permission to conduct events in many places depends on participants obeying the instructions of the landowner, and we do not wish to lose access to these wonderful venues.
Sprint orienteering is like T20 cricket: it's the shortest, fastest version of our sport - and it has some different rules to standard orienteering. In particular, what constitutes out of bounds or an 'uncrossable area'.
A standard summer series event will have OOB that regulars are familiar with: residential areas, anything marked with black-and-white or pink-and-white stripes, high fences etc.
At sprint level, where the navigation is much more intricate due to the often urban setting and larger scale of the map (1:4,000 for example), additional features are marked as OOB (click on the legend above for a larger version).
These are usually olive green sections (denoting garden beds or private property) and thick black lines (high walls). It is forbidden to cross these or lean over them to reach a control. Have a look at the Routegadget map from Sydney Olympic Park on Feb 1 to see how prevalent they are, especially bordering the Aquatic Centre car park and in the Abbatoir Heritage Precinct.
Now click on Toby Wilson's GPS route to see how he tackled control #10 - just beyond the olive section. Toby (the red line in the pic, left) goes straight from #9 to the inside corner, then realises he must go around the olive bit to punch it from the outside. Well done Toby.
We understand that this may seem arbitrary and picky, but continuing access to these maps depends on runners doing the right thing. Orienteering rules state that runners entering or crossing out of bounds areas are to be disqualified.
For a summary of the map symbols used in Sprint Orienteering, including the Out of Bound symbols, click here. For the complete International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps, click here.
