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The Control Card
Control cards can take various forms, but all include numbered
boxes for punching in at successive controls as well as spaces
for the name of the competitor, the course
and class, the start time, the finish time, and the elapsed
time. At most orienteering events, starts are staggered so
that no two people on the same course start at the same time.
The intention is that each individual does their own navigation
since following others is prohibited by the rules.
The standard orienteering event is a point-to-point race with the
controls numbered on the map and connected in the order the competitor
is to visit them. Upon reaching each control, the orienteer
punches a pattern in the corresponding
numbered box on the control card. This allows the event organisers
to later verify that the correct controls were visited by that orienteer.
Sometimes an orienteer may accidentally punch in the wrong box on the card; if
this happens, the correct procedure is to punch in the correct box
and/or to punch in any of the boxes on the card that would not
normally be used (for example, a correction box or box #20 could be
used if the course has only 12 controls) until punching in the correct
box can be resumed. At the finish, the orienteer would then be expected to
explain which box corresponds to which control.
The control card shown above was used at a local event here.
Notice that two of the punches, #3 and #4, are not entirely within
the appropriate box on the control card. The rules state that the entire
punch mark must be within the box (or within an appropriate
'correction box') so had this occurred at a major event where
the rules are more tightly enforced, the orienteer would
probably have been disqualified.
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These pages were last updated during May 2000 by Conor Creedon.
Comments and suggestions to conorcreedon@bigfoot.com.
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