SOL Competition rules and guidelines-Scottish Orienteering

SOL Competition rules and guidelines

The Scottish Orienteering League provides a series of high quality events throughout Scotland throughout the season. High quality venues, maps and quality courses are the key aims. Other key objectives include: elite development and selection, encourage national level competition, act as a flagship and publicity vehicle, to create continuity of quality, and coordinate with other high-quality BOF events. Updated Sept 2009.

Rules

Except where noted below, events shall be run under the
British Orienteering rules for Regional (Level 2) events. Organisers should familiarise themselves with these rules.
Course/Colour/Age combinations are shown in the table below.
The courses shall be numbered in descending order of difficulty with Black (M21L) as course 1 and White as course 12.
SOL points will be awarded to the following system: This is based on the old Scottish 6 Days formula that are detailed in a separate article (SOL Scoring system by Trevor Hoey).
A competitor’s total SOL score from the season will be the sum from the best 4 events. All entrants who are members of SOA are eligible. Non-SOA orienteers are also able to compete provided they notify the Competitions Convener (?) and finish at least 4 events.

Guidelines

Organisers are encouraged to include a white course if the area permits it.
Maps for courses 11 & 12 shall be collected at the car park/assembly. It is the competitor’s responsibility to collect his or her own map before proceeding to the start.
Junior competitors must state both their age class and course when entering an event.
If the event is combined with a UK-level competition (National event, Future champions cup, British elite championships etc.) some variation in course length and/or course combinations may be permitted.
Pre-entries may to be required by a maximum of 15 days prior to the event but clubs may set shorter deadlines if they so wish. In addition, SOA encourage clubs to adopt a flexible approach to late entries and EOD for SOL.
All pre-entered competitors shall receive pre-marked maps.
Only one map scale shall be used per course. Normally 1:10,000 shall be used for junior and over-45 courses and either 1:10,000 or 1:15:000 for courses 1 & 2. Course planning must not be compromised for printing convenience.
The map shall be accurate and recently-surveyed. Map corrections should be included on the competitor’s map either by overprinting or updating the electronic map file.
Results shall be displayed by course (not class) but shall show age class in an additional column.
Every effort must be made to issue published results within 7 days.
Only IOF pictorial descriptions shall be available for all courses. Where possible these should be available with the online or posted final information; otherwise they shall be available for collection on the day at assembly or before the prestart.
Final event information must be published at least 7 days prior to the event.
Final information for events shall state “Competitors take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety.”
The organising club shall make arrangements for first aid cover and be prepared to assist any competitors who get into difficulty or who become overdue for whatever reason.
Competitors from the same club on the same course (not just the same class), shall start at least four minutes apart.
Electronic timing shall be used. Split times from this may be used to determine the final result (e.g. excluding legs around a misplaced control), at the discretion of the controller.
A start list shall be provided and competitors should start at the assigned time: punching starts shall be possible but should only be available to some competitors (e.g. event helpers, split start parents, those missing their start through no fault of their own) at the discretion of the organisers.
SOL events must be registered with the SOA Fixtures Secretary by 31st March of the year of competition.
A 12-month embargo shall be observed by those wishing to be “competitive” in the SOL Series within a named area.
The award of SOL status to a club will be made by the SOA Fixtures Secretary in consultation with the Competitions Convenor at least one year prior to the competition season.
Entry fees for all non TD5 courses should be charged at the lower/junior rate (entrants are likely to be juniors, newcomers or injured).

Shadowing

Parents are reminded they should declare if they are actually helping a Junior competitor as opposed to following.

Additional

Additional extracts from BOF rules that may apply. Some aspects are already mentioned above.

For Level 2 events, the Organiser may vary or supplement existing Rules to meet particular local requirements, subject to approval from the Controller and the SOA (Competitions convenor).

Prior to the date of the event the Organiser shall obtain full permission for orienteering (preferably in writing) from the landowners for any land likely to be used in the event.

There shall be no smoking in the competition area.

All competitors in any event to which these Rules apply take part entirely at their own risk. Competitors shall take into account their own ability to compete safely.

The Organiser shall ensure that appropriate first aid is easily available.

The Organiser shall ensure that sufficient help and equipment is either available, or can be easily summoned, to mount a search for a missing competitor.

The Organiser shall take responsibility for deciding what action should be taken (e.g. delaying or cancelling the event, shortening the courses) in exceptional circumstances such as adverse weather conditions, total loss of the car park etc.

All events shall be registered with the National Fixtures Secretary.

For all events the organising club shall take financial responsibility unless prior agreement has been reached with BOF or SOA.

For all events the Organiser or a person appointed by the organising body shall keep accounts of all income and expenditure.

Forbidden routes shall be shown by a chain of crosses.

Uncrossable boundaries (ones which it is forbidden to cross) can be indicated by overprinting the mapped feature with a solid line.

The control banner should be visible from all directions of approach unless the control description indicates otherwise. Control banners should be sited so that the absence or presence of another competitor does not affect the difficulty of location the control. The banner must not be hidden nor the control excessively isolated (no “Bingo controls)

Course/Colour/Age mapping table

Course	Technical	Corrected		Age Classes
No.	Difficulty	Crse lgth	Course	Junior		Adult
		Ratio		Men	Women	Men	Women
1	5	1.00	Black			M21L
2	5	0.85	Brown	M18 M20		M35L M40L
3	5	0.69	Short Brown			M45L M50L M21S	W21L
4	5	0.56	Blue	M16	W18 W20	M55L M60L M35S M40S	W35L W40L
5	5	0.45	Short Blue			M65L M45S M50S	W45L W50L W21S
6	5	0.39	Green		W16	M70L M60S M55S	W55L W60L W35S W40S
7	5	0.33	Short Green			M75 M80 M70S M65S	W65 W70 W75 W80 W50S W55S W60S W45S
8	4	0.30	Light Green	M14	W14
9	3	0.50	Long Orange
10	3	0.25	Orange	M12	W12
11	2	0.22	Yellow	M10	W10
12	1	0.14	White

Photo of author Posted on 27th Sep 09
by Graeme Ackland - Competitions Co-ordinator

Filed under: Fixtures/Events • • Scottish O League

Scottish Orienteering