QOC Points System

If you do not have a category listed below, please email sidneysachs at juno.com with your gender and year of birth

Orienteering Points for 2026 Year

For the 17 QOC's non-National events in starting in January 1, 2026 the points awarded to date are as follows: by finishing better than others; for helping at events; and by entering one's route in RouteGadget. With the closest of several persons, the final order may change. For the next six months, we will have another point system for points earned for 12 months starting with July 1, 2026. Earlier results (from 2018) are linked below.

In the year 2025 we had 4772 starts of which 792 were group starts. 1057 persons either run a course solo and/or helped at as least one event. That include 193 persons that helped at as least one and 169 persons placed as least one of their courses on Route Gadget in 2025.

This is the 22th year for this system. The rules for this year are the same as we used for the last eight years except that the meet director and coursesetter will be given as least the same number of points as the highest person that is on any of the courses and people who enter their route in RouteGadget within 6 days after the event will get 5 additional bonus points. The only change is that we now have two points system per year starting with the points for the previous 6 months.

In the late 70's, the Quantico Orienteering Club had a point system and I was the point keeper. It was designed with known biasses. The male US Elite Champion then was not the top orienteer on the list. The top person was not even on the hardest course. The most yearly winners only run Green. This was because the points were accumulated over every event. With more events, the higher the point total. Also, the larger event, higher the points. Score events created the high number of points. The purpose of the system was three folds, for fun, getting you to come to more events and getting you to help at our events. The system also awarded people who do not finish.

The system is very simple. The last person of White is given 1 point, on Yellow 2 points, on Orange 3 points, Brown 4 points, Green 5 points, Red 6 points and Blue 7 points. Then the person that finish just above would get an additional point. This will continue up the list to the top person. Since all the points are total together from all the events from all courses, it will be unfair not to compare times between courses. When a runner on a harder or longer course has relative faster time than someone on an easier or shorter course, that former runner should get more points. Therefore in comparing times, 5 minutes will be added for each lower courses differ. This would increasing points for the higher courses when then had fewer runners.

For example, if a green runner received 15 points for a time of 60 minutes, then all persons on red with a faster time of 65 minutes and all persons on blue with a time less than 70 minutes will get as least 16 points.

People that are in groups do not earn points. Only people listed alone are tally. If a person run several courses at an event, the higher score is use only for that event.

Again this year there is an additional goal - getting more persons helping at our events. This year we had about 21 persons helping at each event, about 1 helper for every six starters. Therefore there are additional bonus points for helping. 50 points or the highest number of points gathered by any runner of the day for both the meet director and the course setter. 25 points for other helpers that did not run and 10 points for helpers who did run. Positions include registration, timing, teaching, hanging or remove controls, etc., etc., etc. (Persons who help and run will get as least 25 points for an event.) [Notes: Bonus points are added after they are listed on the web with the results of the event.]

There is an easy way to download your course into RouteGadget using a free app for an I-Phone call “Orienteering GPS Logger” by Robert Peterson. After upload the app to your I-Phone, when you start your course, start the app and stop the app when finishing. When you get home, you email the data to your email account. The email will have an attachment with the date and time of your start. If your course is available on RouteGadget, you only have to tell the name of the downloaded attachment, and your course will be downloaded on the map.

I will like to add your gender/age category in the listing so you can compare your results with others in your category. To do so I am asking you to e-mail me the following information:

• Name (the way you want it listed on this page)
• Year of Birth
• Gender

Sidney Sachs

For Point System 2018 - 2026 results, click here (CSV format) or here (Excel spreadsheet).