After you’ve read this article, it’ll be as plain as day: orienteering is a great adventure! Try it for yourself!

 

Orienteering is a sports discipline, in which participants have to cover an established route in a terrain (usually a forest) as fast as possible. The route is drawn on a map, which every competitor is given at the beginning of the race. The destination places that the participants have to reach after they choose their variant, are marked with circles on a detailed map. The spots indicated on a map are control points. Each point is a stand with an orange-white lantern and an electronic can. The competitors confirm their presence at the control point with the use of chips (SI cards) on their fingers. Confirmation of accessing a control point is obligatory and verified at the end of the race. Those who did not access all control points are disqualified. The route between control points is arbitrary. Choosing the proper variant is an essence of orienteering. Is it going to be faster if I go around? Or maybe I should run throughout the forest? The answers to these and other questions alike determine the choice of an optimal variant of a route.

 

Orienteering is for everyone, because physical condition is not always the most important factor in the race. Well-thought strategy and slower, but flawless coverage of the route is more effective than faster tempo, which results in missing control points and getting lost. Each race is a new, unique adventure. The route is revealed at the start of the race, at the first glance at a map. In the forest everything can happen. Sometimes a mistake at the beginning of the route does not imply bad result at the end, because it is highly possible that other participants get lost as well. Final results are not known until the last competitor finishes the route (everybody starts the race according to the list, in time intervals and therefore covers the whole route alone), which makes the competition even more exciting. Everyone can run! In orienteering there are categories for everyone, from children up to the elderly people. They all share a love of nature and physical activity.

 

LET’S START THE ORIENTEERING ADVENTURE TOGETHER AT MAZOWSZE GRAND PRIX!