Trail orienteering

Trail orienteering

Trail orienteering logo
Highest governing body	International Orienteering Federation
Nicknames	TrailO
Characteristics
Contact	No
Team members	Individual
Mixed-sex	Yes, with paralympic and open classes
Type	Outdoor
Presence
Olympic	No

Trail orienteering (TrailO) is an orienteering sport that involves precise reading of an orienteering map and the corresponding terrain. Trail orienteers must identify, in the terrain and in the presence of decoys, control points shown on the map. TrailO involves navigation skills but unlike most other forms of orienteering, it involves no point to point racing and little or no route choice. It is conducted usually on trails and because the objective is accuracy, not the speed of physical movement, the sport is accessible to physically disabled competitors on equal terms as able-bodied.

TrailO is one of four orienteering disciplines sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF). European Championships in trail orienteering have been organised every year since 1994. The first ever World Cup in trail orienteering was held in 1999, and the inaugural World Trail Orienteering Championships were organised in 2004. The World Championships are now organised every year ^[1] and were held in Vuokatti, Finland in 2013.^[2]

TrailO has been developed to offer everyone, including people with limited mobility, a chance to participate in a meaningful orienteering competition. Because control points are identified from a distance, and competitors are not allowed to leave the trails, participants with and without physical disabilities compete on level terms.^[1]

Unlike other forms of orienteering which involve the competitors physically visiting the control and punch it, trail orienteering is done in form of multiple choice questions, where all questions are in the form which flag is placed at the control on the map, and the possible answers are one of the flag (A, B, etc.) seen from the decision point, or none (Z).