14 minute read
FAIR PLAY
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
It’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.
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 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. 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
position of a nearby control or feature. In the 2006 World Masters Final your Editor was followed for a good 200 metres by a Scandinavian fellow asking for directions. He got short shrift. In a minor event helping other competitors, particularly children and newcomers, is perfectly OK. Every experienced orienteers should be passing on their knowledge and experience by helping others in minor events – it’s an essential exercise in coaching – but not in a World Championship event. In a championship event these practices are foul play. At the 2006 Swiss O Week, on Day 3 at Trockener Steg, one fellow stood on a hill in open, tree-less terrain with many small gullies, screaming out various control numbers and positions to his mates. This was not an isolated incident – it happened quite often. In the Sprint Prolog event at Swiss O Week the Elite men were lined up in four rows. One fellow at the back took off on the “get ready” signal, pushing past competitors in front of him. Nothing was done to stop him. In Athletics he would have been given a ‘break’ and disqualified.
It shouldn’t be difficult to stamp out – orienteers are intelligent people and understand what is right and wrong. They just need to be told in no uncertain terms that asking for, or demanding in some cases, help when they are not sick or injured is illegal and risks certain disqualification in major events. The principle of the SILENT FOREST must be maintained. Many sports issue Red Cards for illegal misdemeanours. Orienteering doesn’t need to go that far … YET. Both the IOF General Secretary and the Senior Vice-President were asked how the IOF could ensure these illegal practices do not occur at major Championship events in the future. At time of printing no response had been received.
Out under the shadow of the Matterhorn in 2006, one Australian woman was about to punch a control when she was distracted by a man in a gully below asking what number it was (he could have run up and looked himself !!). Her concentration was so broken that she ran off without punching and only realised when the download at the Finish told her she had missed that control. So she was disqualified simply because some fellow was too lazy to climb up to read the control number. If he could have been identified he should have been thrown out of the competition. Is that harassment ? – Yes ! Is it fair play ? – No ! And it’s the harassment aspect which is of greatest concern – particularly harassment of women orienteers. No-one likes to have their concentration broken so that they miss a control or head off in the wrong direction. Some women seem to be more susceptible to this kind of harassment and can feel quite intimidated. For others it is the break in concentration – loss of contact with the map and the terrain – which does most damage. Having people screaming out control numbers and control positions can be quite disconcerting and certainly disturbs one’s concentration. Being asked to show other competitors where they are also breaks one’s concentration. At the World Masters 2002 in Australia there were many instances of visiting European orienteers waiting at controls which were not on their particular course. When a competitor came in to punch the control the person waiting would attempt to snatch the map away to find out the location of the control. This same type of harassment is happening at major European events.
What is to be done?
Let’s promote the principle of the SILENT FOREST and eradicate these unfair practices from all major events, from World Ranking Events right up to World Championships. The IOF must clamp down on these practices quickly and decisively. National federations should be told to devise and act upon procedures to ensure fair play is guaranteed in all championship and major events. Monitoring of fair play should be strict and effective – if it means placing referees in the terrain then do so. Those competitors who are caught flouting the rules should be told to play fair or get out of the sport. As it moves to create a higher profile for Orienteering amongst world sports, the IOF will have to work hard to demonstrate that fair play is an established principle in our sport and that it is guaranteed and strictly practised in all major events throughout the world. The principle of the SILENT FOREST would be a major step.
Why am I concerned?
The principles of Fair Play are of paramount concern in all sports. Use of performance enhancing drugs gets wide coverage in the press, but there are many other ways some competitors try to get an advantage. So, in Cycling riders’ bicycles must be at least a minimum weight; in Triathlon there is a maximum thickness for wetsuit fabric; in Track & Field the reaction time of sprinters off the blocks is measured (too fast and you have jumped the gun); in Football players who commit foul tackles are given a yellow or red card. In Orienteering it is all about outside assistance - terrains for Championship events are embargoed, coaches are not allowed in the forest, competitors who have finished cannot talk to those waiting to start, and competitors must not be harrassed by others in the forest. So when is our sport going to properly enforce the rule of the SILENT FOREST ?
Orienteering in Europe and Australia:
Playing by Different Rules?
Lisa Lampe (Uringa - NSW)
In 2006 I participated in the World Masters Orienteering Championships, a Swiss National event, the Swiss 6 Days and the WOC Tour events in Denmark. This was my first experience of European orienteering. I enjoyed myself, and was impressed with the scale of the events and the generally good organisation. The forests were often fabulous! I believe Australia could benefit from emulating some of the sponsorship approaches and arrangements that are made overseas. But out on the courses I had to ask myself: are we playing by the same rules? In Australia it is uncommon to be asked by another competitor to show them whereabouts on the map they are. Although it does happen, it is usually by children or juniors and, occasionally on very difficult maps, by competitors who have genuinely little idea of where they are and where their next control is located. Admittedly these latter could relocate to a track or fence, but these are often some distance away. In Europe there was rarely a track more than 100-200m away, yet there was scarcely an event where I did not get approached at least once during the event by another competitor. At WMOC in Austria it seemed that asking others where you were was often a shortcut to the control to spare the competitor having to look for it, or to avoid having to make a small detour to relocate from a line feature. I have no objection at all to two or three lost souls pooling their resources to try to find a control, which you do see not infrequently both at home and abroad, but my objection is to being disturbed while proceeding on my course, by others who are not seriously lost, but just looking for a shortcut when they haven’t found the control immediately. Out in the forests there was constant calling by one competitor to another of control numbers they had found. This is facilitated by the fact that members of a particular orienteering club are often given start times close to each other to facilitate transport etc. for the club. At a Swiss event, two men ran past me, the man running behind calling to the man in front, ‘What number are you going to?’ The other replied, ‘75’, to which the first responded, ‘Then I will follow you’. It was not unusual to arrive within sight of your control and see another competitor standing there. They were waiting to see if you punched the control and if you did, they would then stop you and ask you to show them where your control is on your map. I even had a man ask me where he was in the park race through the streets and surrounds of Zermatt! The scale of the map was 1:4000 and a river ran prominently through the centre of the map – he would have been no more than 150m from an easy relocation from a bridge over the river at the point where he asked me! It’s a kind of harassment, this frequent interruption to your concentration. In my case it is possible that the interruption to my concentration in the Zermatt park race contributed to my unintentionally missing my next control. You can choose not to help the other competitor, but it still interrupts your concentration. Others told me of having their maps snatched from their hands by competitors staking out controls. And it’s insidious – when so many around you are asking for help, it begins to feel like an option when you’re stuck. I was never going to win or even place at these competitions, and my main motive was to enjoy myself, which I certainly did. But I couldn’t help wondering how many of the competitors who beat me into the A final of the Masters did so ‘with a little help from their friends’ rather than by their own efforts? At the end of the day I don’t think anyone becomes a great orienteer by asking where they are at the drop of a hat, and I’m sure that none of those who are asking for help are ever going to win. So does it really matter? Maybe this is a question for the IOF. In the meantime, I think Australia should pursue its policy of not allowing interruptions to other competitors by asking for assistance because firstly, it will make us all better navigators and, secondly, it is in the spirit of ‘fair play’ to allow your competitor to proceed and concentrate without interruption.
