Discussion: Recommendations for World Firefighter Games Orienteering Event

LAOC's been contacted to put on the orienteering event this August for the "World Firefighter Games". There's a new organizer doing it, and they have no data of past formats. My impression is that there will be a broad age range of adults, say 20 to 80, but that the majority will not have ever heard of orienteering before. However, there may be some who have.

I'm looking for helpful suggestions regarding formats/age classes, or actual facts regarding formats provided in previous years.

Thanks!

Check with Mike Minium. He handled this when the World Police and Fire Games was in Indianapolis, I believe. Remember that since this is the "World" games, some participants may have actually orienteered. When is it?

2013 world police and fire games were in Belfast, and they had sprint, middle and long courses, apparently. Results are linked below which show age group breakdowns (Google docs, apparently)... Maybe you can start with that?

http://www.2013wpfgfixturesandresults.com/results/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Police_and_Fire...

Even more reason to join my local fire company! Intriguing. And just look at the list of sports!!

http://www.2013wpfg.com/2013-sports

* Mountain Running
* Orienteering
* Cross Country
* Biathlon (Summer)
* Dodgeball!
* Stair Race
* Darts

It's like the "if I were king" alternate universe Olympics. Neat.

The WPFG first had orienteering in 1999 (Sweden). As the second host to do orienteering, we were encouraged to have IOF standard course length and difficulty. Being summer in Indiana, with thick vegetation, I eased that back a little, but the courses were still too tough. We extended the time limit to 3.5 hours to let 3 or 4 people get medals who otherwise would have been ovt, and we still had several who retired from the courses. Attendance was not large, but the participants seemed happy.

The games organizers made a big deal of professionalism - we had a nice budget and got some new control stands and flags, and a couple highway grade directional signs. They erected a scaffold stage with speakers and PA for awards ceremony, and arranged for us to get a modular floating dock to put across a large creek in case of high water. There were monthly planning meetings beginning almost two years in advance, and lots of paperwork, including the only event for which I ever had to submit a formal terrorism plan.

2001 WPFG results, Indianapolis (Same area that will be used for the 2014 U.S. Interscholastic Champs in a few weeks)

Photo of some of OCIN volunteers with WPFG Fire Truck

Everyone so far seems to be talking about the World Police and Fire Games whereas this is apparently something different excluding police - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Firefighters_Ga...

Last held in Sydney, Australia in 2012. Any of the Australians here know who might have been involved in making the orienteering events happen?

See if you can raise the cred by not having the host country win.

The cadets at West Point hosted the 2011 WPFG for the New York City Games.
It was relatively easy to run. It was scheduled on the day that Hurricane Irene came through, so was postponed a few days from the original plan. We had about 25 Red, 125 Green and just a few browns. You get a few really good orienteers, but the majority are inexperienced.
You can contact me and I can send you meets notes, maps, etc. There is a detailed set of rules for the games that I will look for.
michael.hendricks@usma.edu

Colm's link is pretty great!

I appreciate all the info.

This is different from the WPFG, and sounds like it's more casual. Frankly, it better be, they just contacted us. No 2 year's prior notice here.