HOW TO ENTER AN ORIENTEERING EVENT

After your run

Please note that once you've started you must report to the finish (for events using conventional punching) or the download station (for events using electronic punching), even if you have not completed your course.

If you don't report in and the organiser cannot confirm that you have got back safely then search parties will be sent out.

If you get really lost during your run, make your way to a major path or road and walk back to the finish.

What you do at the finish depends on whether the event is using conventional or electronic punching.

At an event using conventional punching, hand your control card to the finish official.

At an event using electronic punching, make sure that you punch at the finish control and then walk back to the registration area and find the download station.  There, insert your dibber into the special download control box to download your information to the organiser's computer.  You will be given a print-out showing the "split times" for your run.  If you are using a hired dibber you should return it at the download station.

There will be drinks of some sort near the finish.  There will probably be a number of people gathered round the drinks area quenching their thirst and discussing their route choices, navigational errors, and why the map doesn't agree with the actual ground!

The results should be on display somewhere around the registration area.   At a conventional punching event the control card stubs are usually used to display the competitors' times on a "washing line".   At an electronic punching event the results come in the form of print-outs from the organiser's computer.

Go back to the main About Orienteering page.