Your SIAC at the finish

COLIN PRICE (AUSSIEOGEAR.COM)

The Sydney Sprints in March of this year were part of the NOL series and attracted many interstate competitors. This created some great racing and spectator opportunities. These National Sprint events were going to produce some very close finishes, especially in the head-to-head races.

standing there, slowly moving away, the next competitor ran straight past his finish unit, contactless. The same time was recorded for both competitors because the first runner had not completed the finish process. Have you ever ran into a control and your SIAC has registered (beeped) and it has registered again? This is because you are still near the control. Your time registers after you have left the control’s field, so to finish you must move out of the control’s field.

Quote by Sportident: “With BSF8/9 stations in timing mode the registration field is between 30-60cm. The athlete must not stop or slow down at this station in order to get his time, but just run close to this.”

So best practice is to run past the control if you are not punching it. Always remember to listen for the beep and/or look at the flashes after passing your controls.

The event organisers discussed the options for the finish line in the weeks prior to the event. We are all familiar with the standard punch finish control, even when the event is set with contactless controls in the field. The other options are to use the BS11 units that offer a larger contactless finish field (used at MTBO events) or to use our standard BSF8 controls set up as contactless / beacon finish units.

The BSF8 can be punched or just run past with no contact (within 30 cm but check that you have registered). This contactless method allows for close finishes to be separated by time registration.

I observed over the weekend a number of practises which concerned me, hence this article. You don’t need to touch or slap the control, you just need to be within 30 cm of the control and to check the beep and flash of the SIAC. Could you damage your SIAC by continually hitting it? I don’t know! Let’s go to the finish line where time and races can be lost. I saw an instance (admittedly just a heat so it didn’t matter) where there was clearly one runner who got to the finish in front of the other. He touched the finish control and while

If you have a question please ask and I will try to answer it. I was asked recently: “Could you please explain when punching with SIAC in air mode is needed and when contactless finish is used in foot races?” This detail is stipulated in the bulletin or information sheet issued by the event organiser.Most events in NSW are "Air" activated now but the finish can be punch-only or contactless. Most bush events choose to have punching finishes,but "sprint" events have much closer finishesand as such can choose to go contactless enabling runners to punch or run through. This was the case in the recent Sydney Sprints.

HANIA LADA

Quiz

1. The control description indicates that

A. The third control is a middle depression, south part

B. The third control is a southern depression, middle part

C. The third control is a middle knoll, south part

D. The third control is a southern knoll, middle part

Orienteering Crossword Puzzle

Use the clues to solve the puzzle. The numbers in brackets indicate that the answers require more than one word, with the number of letters in each word specified.

ACROSS

2. Orienteering event held in Australian Alps (4,1)

4. The control feature shown as “T” in control descriptions

5. A name of an orienteering club from South Australia

6. This was banned during Junior World Orienteering Championships in Portugal in 2022 (6,6)

9. Map that Day 1 Australian 3 Days 2023 was run on

11. A website where you can compare competitors’ splits (9,6)

13. Winner of M21E at Oceania Championships Middle Distance 2023 (5,3)

14. The colour representing very thick forest (4,5)

15. Winner of W21E at Australian Long Distance Championships 2022 (5,5)

17. From “You and Me” song: “If you want to be a champion you have got to use …” (4,5)

Down

1. The country organising 2023 Junior World Orienteering Championships

3. Orienteering magazine from UK (7,5)

7. A number of metres represented by 1 cm on a map with 1:5000 scale

8. Animal on the logo of World Orienteering Championships 2023 (6,4)

10. 2023 Australian MTBO Championships will be held there

12. A country in Africa, member of IOF

16. A feature represented by a brown dot on an orienteering map

Link to Quiz / Survey / Post-print Corrections

Follow this link to Quiz, Survey and Postprint Corrections on one form. Feel free to attempt some or all questions, provide data by completing the survey and check out what mistakes in the current edition have been discovered too late.

https://forms.gle/UfRyof7odZ5ujAMa7

The answers are on page 46