Leinster League
Purpose
The Leinster Orienteering league is a series of orienteering events held over a calendar year. The purpose
of the league is to provide a range of courses to suit all ages and levels of experience. The short courses
provide introduction to navigation suitable for juniors and beginners. The long courses provide suitably
challenging orienteering for elite and other experienced orienteers. The courses in between provide
technical challenge for older orienteers, juniors and other improvers.
Events
The league runs for a calendar year. It consists of a variable number of events usually 10 to 12. It
depends on club availability to host events. Leinster clubs usually hold 2 events each. SEVO, DUO,
UCDO, and DFO have run Leinster League events also. While most events tend to be in Wicklow they
may be anywhere in Leinster or even outside, e.g., in Cavan.
The events are normally in the spring from January to May and the autumn from August to December.
They have always been held on Sundays with start times from 11.00 until 13.00. However there is no
reason why an event couldn’t be held on a Saturday or a Bank Holiday Monday or that the start time
window could be varied.
Courses
The required courses for a Leinster League event are Brown, Blue, Green, Light Green, Red, Orange, and
Yellow. Other colour courses such as White, Short Green, Black may be added at the organising club’s
choice. The colour course guidelines are currently being revised by Orienteering Ireland. They generally
compare with the British Orienteering colour course guidelines (https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk)
including Technical Difficulty (TD) rating. This is a rough guide for a typical Wicklow forest.
| Yellow | Suitable for juniors and beginners. Generally follows paths, controls on path junctions or other obvious features. TD2. | 2 to 3 Kilometres |
| Orange | Suitable for 12+ juniors and others who are not complete beginners. Follows paths or other linear features such as walls or streams. Controls on obvious features on or near linear features. TD3. | 3 to 4 Kilometres |
| Red | Suitable for older juniors and runners who want a longer course but are not experienced navigators. Follows paths or other linear features. Controls on obvious features on or near linear features. TD3. | 4 to 6 Kilometres |
| Light Green | Suitable for older juniors and seniors with some experience and navigation ability. Not physically demanding. TD4. | 3 to 4 Kilometres |
| Green | For experienced orienteers. Technical but not too physically demanding. TD5. | 4 to 6 Kilometres |
| Blue | For experienced orienteers. Technically and somewhat physically demanding. TD5. | 5.5 to 7.5 Kilometres |
| Brown | For experienced orienteers. Technically and physically demanding. TD5. | 7.5 to 10 Kilometres |
The courses will vary depending on the area. They will generally be shorter on open mountain terrain
with a lot of climb, or longer in a flat area such as the Curragh. These are not strict rules. It is up to the
planner and controller to plan and agree suitably challenging and enjoyable courses.
Scoring and prizes
The scoring system algorithm is automated on the orienteering.ie leagues webpage. It is based on the
average times of finishers on each course. The average is given 1000 points with faster runners getting
more points and slower runners getting less. The number of events to count for places depends on the
number of events in the league. If there are 12 events in the league the best 6 usually count for scoring.
Prizes are awarded to the first 3 male and female competitors on each course. In the (unlikely) event of a
tie score the placing will be decided on the runners head to head placings. The following age categories
are eligible for prizes on each course. Note this is just for prizes. Anyone is free to run any course.
| Brown | Any Male | Any Female |
| Blue | M45+, M18- | Any Female |
| Green | M55+, M16- | W45+, W18- |
| Light Green | M65+, M14- | W55+, W16- |
| Red | Anyone new | Anyone new |
| Orange | M14- | W14- |
| Yellow | M12- | W12- |
The league committee will be flexible and may decide to award additional prizes where deserved
particularly to juniors.
Planner, Organiser, Controller Points
To encourage people to plan, organise, and control events points equivalent to their best score will be
awarded the nominated planner, controller, and organiser of each event. This will count as one of the
events towards the events counted for scoring. Note that this is not part of the automated scoring on the
website.
