Training and competition events are available from Friday 21 – Sunday 23rd Feb as the Adelaide Sprint Camp organized by our coach in residence Evalin Brautigam. Adelaide Sprint Camp will be a weekend full of orienteering training and races. We invite everyone to come out for all or part of the weekend. There is a lot happening so if you can’t do it all, then just sign up for the races. This still lets you compete for prizes. The highlight of the weekend is the Knock-out sprint on Sunday which is a series of 4 short races where you shuffle up or down groups depending on how you place. We will also be using SI-Air+ for all the races during the weekend, and even if you don’t have one you will have the chance to rent one for free. Full details in the event bulletin here, with the program as follows:

Friday 21- AM – Training 1 and 2 at Flinders University

Friday 21 – Evening – Final event in the Snap Sprint Series at Stirling

Saturday – AM – Training – Botanic Gardens

Saturday – Early PM – Training – Eastern Adelaide CBD

Saturday Evening – Competition Event – Semaphore Park

Sunday - AM – Knockout Sprint – 4 short races at Trinity College

The following weekend is the final event of the summer sprint season, the SA Sprint Championships at the Waite Campus of Adelaide University on Sunday March 1st. Course setter is Dante Afnan.

And for your assitance - here is the legend for Sprint maps

The Snap Sprint Series starts on Friday 31 Jan at Flinders University, with events on the following 3 Friday evenings.  The last Friday event on 21 Feb is on a new map at Stirling. All events are listed in the event calendar.

On the weekend of 21 – 23 Feb, additional sprint opportunities are offered. These are a Saturday evening race at Semaphore Park, and with a “Knockout” Sprint at Trinity College on the Sunday morning.  . Plus some morning training activities on the Friday and Saturday.

So what is “Sprint” orienteering – it is a shorter form of orienteering with traditional line courses, generally held on small urban map areas such as campuses and parks, and with a lot of detail. A smll snippet from Adelaide University si shown below.

For the serious orienteer, sprint orienteering is about thinking and racing hard simultaneously, focusing on quick decision making.  The courses are fairly simple to navigate at a walk or a slow jog for the less serious orienteer, but the task is more demanding at higher speed, especially when faced with constant changes of direction and route choice. If you run fast then make sure it’s in the right direction!

Courses are line format, where you must find all the controls in a set order, in the fastest possible time. Course lengths vary from 2 km to 3.5 km, if you choose the best route!  These events use the Sportident electronic timing system which enables you to compare the time it took to get to each control with others on your course.

Entry is by three age groups, and you can choose the short or long course for all age groups.

• Junior – 16 and under
• Open – 17 - 44
• Veteran – 45 and over

However for the less serious you can enter either course, plus a shorter easier course.

To help you get started – here is a full legend for sprint orienteering maps. An small example is hown below. In sprint orienteering some features are forbiddent o be crossed to make the event fairier - these inlcude high fences and walls, and areas that may be temporarily out of bounds due to construction work.  See the legend for all the forbidden symbols.

A new symbol to show two level situations where you can run underneath or on top is shown below.  As well as the traditional canopy/pass through symbol where you run under the "canopy" but not on the top of it.