Discussion: Orienteering pace and road pace

What would be the pace of a top orienteer on an average classic blue course? And what would their pace be on a flat 5K or 10K road race?

5mins per k orienteering
3mins per k (road) running

at least that's what one of the top brits does

The best runners in the world of orienteering I guess is just under 30' on the 10k. I don't know about the "classic" blue course since it is heavily dependent on the terrain type. I guess that in open and quite hard terrain 4-5'/km is not impossible, but in scandinavian terrain where it can get both hilly and really soft in the ground the top athletes usually end up arround 6-7'/km.

wehy not ask Hanny Alston from Aus. She just won the New Zealand Marathon. She should have a fair comparison of road and forest speed.

To a certain extent, this is a meaningless question. Because the orienteering distance is always greater than the road distance (no one runs on the purple line for an entire race).

Hence the orienteering pace will always be less than the road pace. And how much less will be dependent upon the terrain, more than the runner.

And why, in the US anyway, the "gnarliness" of each course is quantified before awarding a ranking to the finishers.