Selection for British teams usually takes place each Spring for the forthcoming Championship events. These are usually the European TrailO Championships (ETOC) and the World TrailO Championships (WTOC). The next selection will be for WTOC 2025 taking place in Hungary and Slovakia in August 2025. In June 2024 the selectors issued a statement providing guidance for potential competitors on their likely criteria for selection for WTOC 2025 - see: Selection for WTOC 2025 (Hungary and Slovakia, 26-31August 2025) – Advance Notice. This is expected to be updated in early 2025 with the full selection policy and selection of the team is likely in May or early June 2025.
For further details about TrailO selection, including the British Orienteering Appeals Procedure, see the main British Orienteering website Selection page.
Following applications from event organisers, each year the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) designates various events as 'World Ranking Events' (WRE). Competitors attending these events are then awarded ranking points based on their performance and taking into account the status of the competitors taking part. The method used to allocate points changed in the Summer of 2023 and now results in the best competitors getting scores close to 1000 with those lower down getting decreasing number of points. Actual scores depend on the current ranking of the competitors at the event.
A competitor's points from their best 6 WRE events in the last 18 months is then calculated to give a competitor's total score. The top ranked competitors therefore have scores close to 6000. The list is updated after each WRE.
For the current World Ranking List, see: Trail Orienteering World Ranking List. Further details about the operation of the scheme are contained in the IOF document covering the ranking schemes of all 4 orienteering disciplines. This can be accessed from the IOF page: TrailO Competition Rules. A simplified summary of the new scheme appeared in the August 2023 Newsletter and is available as a separate document - see: How to Estimate your World Ranking Points
Most WREs are elsewhere in Europe. The last WRE events in the UK were the PreO and TempO events at the JK in 2019.
[Note - The British TrailO Ranking list was suspended during the COVID pandemic due to a lack of events. The information here has been retained for possible use when a decision is taken on reinstating the List]
The TrailO Steering Group operates a Ranking List that may be used to assist selection decisions. An explanation of how it works is given below.
Links to the latest Ranking List and the points scored from the individual Ranking Events held up to now this year are to be found at the foot of the text.
1. Who gets ranked?
The Ranking List was originally developed to assist the Selectors make their decisions, so it only contains the names of those trail orienteers eligible for selection for the GBR team. BOF Members (except those from NI) are included in the ranking calculations. Since many/most NI orienteers compete for Ireland rather than GBR they aren't automatically included, but if they declare an interest in selection for GBR only rather than IRL then they can be included from that moment onwards.
2. Which events provide ranking points?
Only events selected in advance by the TrailO Development Steering Group (TSG) are included in the rankings. These will usually be the British Championships, the JK and the Irish Championships. When overseas events are included which take place over more than 1 day, then the results are combined. Only Elite classes earn Ranking Points.
3. How are the points calculated?
The full calculation details are provided in Brian Parker's Technical Note http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IOF-TrailO-TN-10-01-Ranking.pdf
4. How long do scores stay on the Ranking List?
The Ranking List is basically a rolling 2-year list, so events "fall off" the list on the 1st January following the date the event happened OR when the event is replaced by its 2-year successor. So, for instance, BTOC 2012 fell off the rankings on the 1st January 2015 (as there wasn't a BTOC 2014 in 2014 itself) whereas BTOC 2013 fell off on the weekend of BTOC 2015.
5. How are the points combined into a ranking?
Only your best X scores are combined. At the given date when rankings are considered for selections, the total number of qualifying events are added up. If there are only 5 events then it is best 3 to count, if it is 6-9 then it is the best 4. 10 and above it is best 5.
6. What is the "Planner's bonus"?
A significant number of the Ranking Events are planned by a subset of the contenders for WTOC and ETOC places. In order to encourage people to plan and control Ranking events, planners and controllers of Ranking events during the qualifying period, who therefore do not have enough qualifying results, will have the ranking points from their lowest results doubled up. Those who have planned/controlled (or otherwise given up on a competitive run to enable an event to take place) are allowed to double up their 3rd score (if best 4 to count) or 4th score (if best 5 to count). If it is best 3 to count then the 2nd score is only doubled if the competitor does not have the requisite 3 events.
Historic Ranking Points Data