NAOC Relay

Read about the relay terrain.

Background

• First and foremost, relays are exciting and fun.
• At the club level, having important relay events helps to build stronger clubs by having common training and competition goals. Relays provide the camaraderie of a team event in a mostly individual sport.
• At the national team level, relays are important to Canada and the USA, as it is a good opportunity for a top-16 finish at the World Orienteering Championships (WOC).
• The new WOC format is an alternating-year forest and urban format, with corresponding forest and urban (sprint) relays. As such, incorporating either a sprint or a forest relay into the North American regional championships is important to build athletes’ experience and capacity with both relay formats.

NAOC 2018 Relay Format

• Classic 3-person forest relay.

Events

• National team relay
  • Senior Men’s & Women’s relays, counting toward the BK Cup.
  • Junior Men’s & Women’s relays, counting toward the Future Champions Cup.
• Club relay
  • Participation is open to everyone.
  • To be eligible to win the club championship, all team members must be from the same North American club.

Event Structure

• National team relay to mass start approximately 10 minutes earlier than the club relay mass start.
• Recommended Winning Times (RWT) are such that the club relay will substantively finish before national team relay finishes.

Location

• Grey Mountain Biathlon Range
• Arena at Yukon Biathlon facility.
• Map scale: 1:10,000 and 1:7,500

National Team Relay

• For North America teams only
• Teams entered by National Federations
• Up to 2 teams per country in each of the four relay categories.
• 3-person relay teams as per IOF rules.
• Scoring for BK and Future Champions cup will be described elsewhere.

Club Relay

• 3-person relay teams.
• Each team must have three competitors (each competitor may only run one leg).
• Categories based on a points system (see below).
• The team has the option to 'move up' to a more difficult category, i.e. a category with fewer points than your team has. Note that a more difficult category will have more difficult courses!
• It is NOT possible to register a team in a more difficult category than Club Expert, nor is it possible to substitute different leg codes.
• Some form of forking may be included.
• Eligibility:
  • Everyone can participate
  • To be eligible for the club championship, all team members must be from the same North American club
  • Non-eligible teams are welcome, and will be recognized in the awards ceremony if they win their category.

Club Championship Relay Points System

Relay Course & Category Structure

Youth Courses

The relay is not suitable for children 14 years old and under. Two individual courses will be open for those not participating in the relays. To run these courses, sign-up and pay for the relay with your individual registration.

• Beginner and Novice level orienteering courses, with lots of fun surprises that will make you want to run the courses again!
• 1:7,500 scale map.
• SI-timed, but self-start after the relay mass starts.
• Complete one or both of the courses, as many times as you’d like. Go alone or in pairs.

Registration

Sign-up and pay for the relay with your individual registration. Once signed up for the relay, individuals can be assigned to teams as follows:

• National team relay: Teams to be submitted in writing by the national federation representative 24 hours prior to the race.
• Club relay: Online registration of teams is closed.

For anyone running the youth courses: just check in at the start on the day of the relay.