What is a head-to-head sprint?

We have thought hard about, what it is orienteers enjoy about an event: sprints; mass starts; contact with their opponents; sprints to the finish control; “…if I’m travelling this far, I want to do several runs.”; and short waiting times.

From these observations, we have developed the concept of a head-to-head sprint, based on the knockout sprint…..but without the knockout. Each runner gets to run in all three sprint rounds!

Each category will be divided into groups of 5 or 6 runners. The group will start at a set time. The group winner of the first run will receive 1 point, the 2nd will receive 2 points, continued up to the 6th who will receive 6 points.

For the second and third runs, the point system continues but, the category groups will be changed again, so that you get to run against different runners in your category (although this depends a bit on the total number of runners in your category). The runner with the lowest combined score from all three sprints wins.

If there are more than 10 runners in a category (what we hope for and expect), there will be a final 4th run, between the best 4 of each category. The 1st to the finish line is the winner of the head-to-head sprint and qualifies for the prize giving!