Trail Orienteering

Trail orienteering (trail-O, also precision orienteering or Pre-O) is an orienteering sport that involves precise reading of an orienteering map and the corresponding terrain. Trail orienteers must identify, in the terrain and in the presence of decoys, control points shown on the map. Trail-O involves navigation skills but unlike most other forms of orienteering, it involves no point to point racing and little or no route choice. It is conducted usually on trails and because the objective is accuracy, not speed, the sport is accessible to physically disabled competitors on equal terms as able-bodied.

Trail-O is one of four orienteering sports sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF). European Championships in trail orienteering have been organised every year since 1994. The first ever World Cup in trail orienteering was held in 1999, and the inaugural World Trail Orienteering Championships were organised in 2004. The World Championships is organised every year and was held in Fife, Scotland, UK, in 2012.

Trail-O has been developed to offer everyone, including people with limited mobility, a chance to participate in a meaningful orienteering competition. Because control points are identified from a distance, and competitors are not allowed to leave the designated course, participants with and without physical disabilities compete on level terms.