FA I R P L AY
At WOC 2008, Czech Republic, in the Women’s Long-distance qualifying race an Irish woman reported being stopped by a Bulgarian woman asking where she was. At JWOC 2008 in Sweden a competitor in the Start quarantine area of the Sprint was observed using a mobile phone. Both these activities are illegal.
They’re still at it..!!! Michael Hubbert
I
t’s Long-distance Qualification race #1 in the World Masters Orienteering Championships at Pataias in Portugal. I’m just leaving control #9 when I hear this anguished cry behind me. “Please hjelp me ….. please hjelp me”, in a distinctive Russian accent. I turn around, expecting to find a woman who has just broken her leg, or fallen down a cliff, or both. What I see is a perfectly healthy woman running up to me and pointing to her map. She’s asking me where she is. I point to the control in a very open and distinctive little sand gully; I point to the wide sandy track just 15 metres away and I point to the open sandy area right next to us. At least she had the decency to say “thank you” as she ran away far faster than I was travelling. In the comprehensive Handbook for WMOC 2008 there is a section on Fair Play. In bold type it states:- “During the races athletes are forbidden to speak to each other.” This is a fundamental Rule of Fair Play in Orienteering (the Silent Forest) but the European orienteers just ignore Rules like that. Time and again Aussies would come in from their courses complaining about the people who had stopped them to ask where they were, or about those who were having animated conversations about the map and controls out in the terrain. I was approached many times. I helped some and ignored others.
major events and would certainly never happen in a World Championship. Well, I’m here to tell you that it does and it has. I was asked not to print an article suggesting the practices were widespread, so I didn’t. The practices are rife in major European events and World Masters Championships and instances were reported at the past two World Championships for Elites – at WOC2007 in Kiev, Ukraine, and at WOC2008 in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In the Ukraine last year it was reported that some competitors were being called in by control ‘watchers’. In Czech Republic this year an Irish woman reported being stopped by a Bulgarian woman asking where she was in the Long-Distance qualifying race. Then there is the mobile phone incident in the Start quarantine area at JWOC this year. These are clear instances of cheating. It’s high time the IOF initiated a crack-down on these and similar practices. Not only are these practices contrary to the principles of Fair Play but stopping someone in the forest is also harassment. It breaks your concentration and puts you off your navigation, particularly in complex terrain where it most often occurs. Here is some of what I wrote in 2006:
Quest for a SILENT FOREST The principle of the Silent Forest seems to be lost on a large number of orienteers, particularly Europeans, who have no hesitation in shouting out control numbers and the whereabouts of controls to their friends, harassing other orienteers by asking for directions, or even snatching maps from passing competitors. These practices, which are tantamount to foul play, happen in major championships, including the World Masters, as well as other minor events. Unless the IOF can put a stop to it, our wonderful sport will suffer in the clean and green comparisons with other sports. I saw these practices two years ago when I last competed in Europe and I saw them again this year. Helping people in minor events is fine by me, but these are World Championships. Two years ago I raised the issue with Orienteering Australia and with the International Orienteering Federation (IOF). I was told that it hardly ever happened in
16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Australians who toured Europe (in 2006) were appalled at the lack of fair play they found at major Orienteering events. We knew of some of these practices from earlier visits to Australia by Europeans for events such as the World Masters in 2002. But this year (2006) it seems to have gotten worse. At major championship events competitors were harassed, their concentration distracted, by others demanding to know the
