Which Events Suit Me?

Come & Try Orienteering

These are introductory events suitable for beginners and are perfect for family groups. Club coaches and other experienced orienteers are available to help. The events typically cost no more than £2, usually less. No special equipment is needed.

Local Events

These are events held by clubs in places such as local parks and forests. There are courses are suitable for beginners, kids, family groups and adults of all levels. There will be a local event in the vicinity on most weekends, offered by either CHIG or a neighbouring club such as HAVOC, DFOK, HH, LOK or SOS. Events offer “colour-coded” courses, which are graded on the basis of length and difficulty.

Park, street and trail events are popular with adult novices.

Schools League

These events give juniors a chance to compete for their school, running individually or in pairs.

Local League (SWELL)

This league includes 4 events hosted by CHIG and 4 hosted by HAVOC. You get a chance to compete against regular orienteers from other local clubs.

Regional Events

After building up sufficient experience competing at local events, regional events offer more of a challenge. You will be competing against orienteers from a wider area who are attracted by the higher standard of event with more challenging courses. These events may form part of regional leagues, such as the South East League, or regional championships such as the South East Score Championships.

National Events

These are mainly Championship events, such as the Southern Championships and the British Championships. These are attended by the top orienteers in the UK and CHIG is usually represented.

Where & When Can I Orienteer?

Check out the Fixtures page for a list of upcoming fixtures.

CHIG organises 8-10 events annually, including one Regional event (the ‘MITRE’). The events include four which count towards SWELL and at least four for the Schools League. Other events include those for our members such as the Gooseberry Fool and the Club Championships.

Courses

Courses are graded according to their length and technical difficulty.

The colours shown in the table above relate to the length and navigational difficulty of the colour coded courses offered at local and regional events. A youngster would be expected to start on either the white or yellow course, whilst an adult novice would begin with either the yellow or orange course, depending on their confidence. The organiser may also put on other courses to better suit the participants needs. e.g. A long easy course.

A competitor’s progression can then be made either towards longer courses with the navigation remaining the same, or on to courses with more challenging navigation, up to the appropriate length for their fitness.

White Courses (XS) are very easy with all controls on paths.  They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.

Yellow Courses (XS-S) use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams.  They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.

Orange Courses (S-M) progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters. Long Orange courses are used mainly by novice adults wanting a longer run.

Light Green Courses (S) are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and ‘point’ features.

Green Courses (S) are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.

Blue Courses (M) are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.

Brown (L) and Black Courses (XL) are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.

Training

To help you improve as an orienteer, CHIG offers training events at various points through the year, delivered by our club coaches. See the Training page for more information. Training is structured so that it is suitable for all levels, from beginners to experienced orienteers.

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply