Orienteering is a sport that engages both body and mind, at any age. A competition is intended to test navigational skills, concentration, and running ability. The goal of orienteering is to use a map and compass to find controls listed on the map.

The objective is to follow the fastest route between controls. The fastest is not always the shortest route, and can depend heavily on route choice.

There are diffrent types of courses that test each competitors' ability: 

Course Name	Distance	Difficulty	Winner’s Time
White	2-3  km	easy	30 minutes
Yellow	3-5  km	easy to medium	40 minutes
Orange	4-7  km	medium	55 minutes
Brown	3-5  km	hard	50 minutes
Green	4-7  km	hard	55 minutes
Red	6-10 km	hard	65 minutes
Blue	8-14 km	hard	75 minutes

Each competitor is responsible for his own safety. There are no rules, but there are guidelines, which should be followed. The basic safety check is the stub check. The competitor hands in his stub at the start and his control card at the finish. Event officials match the two and any unmached stubs represent a missing competitor. With electronic punching event officials can request a 'did not finish' report. All competitors must report to the finish whether they have completed the course or not.