A team of student-athletes from Duke Kunshan University braved unfamiliar terrain to compete in the Mailanwei Cup, part of the 2022 Suzhou City Park Orienteering Challenge Series, on Nov. 13.
Led by PE instructor Quanwei Yan, the whole team successfully completed the race, held at the Suzhou Taihu Lake Garden Expo Park, with Yaoyun Qi, a member of the undergraduate Class of 2025, winning second place in the women’s 17-24 age group.
Ready to race. From left, top row: Jiahe Yang, Yaowen Zhang, Yijia Xue, Yaoyun Qi and Ruoxing Du. Bottom row: Yitong Su, Tinghao Zhang, Ningyuan Yang, Zihan Chen and Xiaofeng Huang.
Orienteering, which originated in 19th-century Sweden, comes in various forms. The most popular is trail orienteering, in which competitors must use a compass and map to navigate a designated course, arriving at checkpoints in a set order before reaching the finish line in the quickest time.
In the Suzhou race, competitors registered at checkpoints using an e-card puncher.
For most participating DKU students, the Mailanwei Cup was their first competitive orienteering race, and it proved both a challenging and rewarding experience.
“Orienteering requires more mental power than physical strength, which is different to what I’d imagined. It was pretty challenging, but I was happy overall,” said Ruoxing Du, an undergraduate in the Class of 2025.
Yitong Su, Classs of 2025, described the 4.4-kilometer course as a dual test of body and mind. He said, “It took me an hour to finish, but I felt a great sense of achievement.”
“Orienteering helps us develop the habit of thinking twice before acting,” added Zichen Wu, Class of 2026. “This way of thinking can benefit us in our studies and life.”
For novice orienteers, map reading and understanding how to utilize a compass are crucial skills. On this occasion, some students ended up taking a larger loop or arriving at the wrong checkpoints.
“I learned that it was very important to carefully read the map first and navigate with clear goals in mind. Otherwise, you can end up running away from the actual checkpoint,” said Xiaofeng Huang, Class of 2026.
“As soon as the race started, I took the compass and map and my mind went blank,” said Lingyi Shen, Class of 2025. “It took a long time for me to find the first checkpoint. I was so frustrated that I began to doubt I’d complete the race. But I got used to the sport and focused on navigating, running, and looking for the next checkpoint.”
Competitors used thumb compasses to navigate the course.
Exploring unfamiliar terrain is also part of the fun. Finding some checkpoints involved passing through waist-high grass, over slippery moss, and crossing shallow ditches.
“I walked through some thorny abandoned field with a bridge made of two wooden planks,” said Yaowen Zhang, an exchange student from Wuhan University in the Class of 2024. On the map, the area was circled in red and was denoted as an “easy-to-run-through,” she added.
The map used by the men’s 17-24 age group.
Despite the challenging conditions, the students all enjoyed the experience.
“Orienteering on a windy morning helped me release all my stress from during the week. Unlike other sports, a high level of freedom makes it enjoyable,” said Yuxin Wang, Class of 2025.
“It was like treasure hunting,” said Ziqi Li, Class of 2026. “The excitement of finding new checkpoints kept me going without realizing that I’d reached 10,000 steps. It was great fun.”
Hanyang Zhou, Class of 2026, added: “I began to explore the surrounding environment with a new perspective, which inspired me to leave the original planned route and find new paths by myself.”
Yaoyun Qi won second place in women’s 17-24 age group.
Qi, who finished second in her age group, said the experience had brought back nostalgic feelings of her childhood spent orienteering in different parks.
“This race was organized pretty well. It takes time and effort to organize an orienteering event like this,” she said. “Drawing an accurate topographic map is not easy and requires a lot of time devoted to surveying the terrain.”
Qi added that she hopes the race organizers and Duke Kunshan University can one day collaborate in hosting an orienteering competition in Kunshan.
