EUOC is currently exploring gender equality within orienteering and has created a focus group to raise awareness about current problems and kick-start the changes we want to see.

The aim of this anonymous survey is to collect the views and ideas from as many orienteers as possible, no matter your gender, age or ability.

The first point we are focussing on is equalising the estimated winning times (EWT) of Long distances course for men and women. EWTs are guidelines issued by British Orienteering that course planners follow. They are an indication of how quickly the winner is expected to complete the course. This is not the same as equalising course distances. For example, if M21E and W21E EWTs are both set to 90 minutes, the Men's course would still be longer in distance than the Women's, but they would be competing for the same duration.

Before you begin, here's some information on the current situation with winning times in the UK:

For Middle races, M/W21+ courses are planned with winning times of 30-35 minutes and M/W18/20 are planned for a winning time of 20-25 minutes.

For Sprint races, winning times for all classes are 12-15 minutes.

For Long races, there is an unexplained discrepancy between the male and female EWTs.

See the table below to view the Long distance EWTs for all age classes.