Clusters
- Racing Sports
IWGA Member Federation since 1995.
Learn more about Orienteering on the IOF website and YouTube: Part 1 (the map), Part 2 (planning) and Part 3 (finding your way).
Orienteering – racing and route-finding in complex terrain
Discipline at The World Games 2025: Foot Orienteering
Orienteering is an outdoor adventure sport which challenges athletes in route choice and route execution, as well as being physically demanding. It has developed into an enthralling TV sport, where the action is followed through TV pictures from the terrain and GPS tracking trails on the competition map, also shown on a big display screen for spectators in the finish arena.
Using a very detailed map of an area of terrain, athletes run to a series of control points marked on the map, and at the sites with a flag and electronic ‘punch’, in sequence and in the shortest possible time. The route between controls is the athlete’s own choice, taking into account the contours of the area, the available paths and the ‘runnability’ of the vegetation, as shown on the map.
A Middle Distance race has a planned winning time of about 30 minutes, and takes place in a natural environment, e.g. a forest or a wild open area, whereas the shorter form of Sprint orienteering has courses set in urban and park areas and expected winning times around 15 minutes.
In the individual disciplines, athletes start individually at equal time intervals. For the Sprint Relay, with four athletes per team (at least two women), there is a mass start for first-leg runners. The winner is the athlete or team with the quickest time on the course.
