Sunday, October 28, 2012

Mountain bike orienteering- the newest "thinking sport"

Mountain bike orienteering- the newest "thinking sport"
By: Sheila Ascroft
Rating: ***

This article tells the reader about the newest kind of orienteering; Mountain Bike Orienteering. It introduces the sport to the reader and informs them about the sport and events in the Ottawa area.

Mountain bike orienteering is a sport based on endurance, mental agility with a "thinking" component. Racers bike through harsh terrain and navigate by compass and map, through the course hitting all the checkpoints along the way. Fastest racer wins. This type of orienteering is different then traditional orienteering because racers must stick to the trail. Like traditional orienteering, racers go to each checkpoint, marked with orange and white flags and use either a punch control card or a chip card electronically.The courses are usually from six km to as long as 30 km. There are separate classes depending on the age and gender of the racer.

I chose to read this article because we are currently orienteering in class. I now realise how popular orienteering is and how many types there are. orienteering is a great sport, it gets your brain thinking while exercising  biking and map reading are the perfect combination. I hope to be able to go mountain bike orienteering sometime in the near future.

Ascroft, Sheila. Mountain bike orienteering- the newest "thinking sport". Roger Bird. Summer/Fall 2010. Ottawa Outdoors. Ottawa. Brown, Dave. n.d. Page 6.

By: Hailey Bell



2 comments:

  1. Feedback provided to your gmail account.

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  2. Hailey, you are dead right, this is a fantastic sport, did you ever get to go?

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