Designing a sports orienteering contest : physical versus cognitive skills in rogaining
- Author
- David Van Bulck (UGent) , Joonas Pääkkönen, Benjamin Jacquet and Dries Goossens (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Rogaining is an orienteering running sport where participants need to decide what control points to visit and in which order. The objective is to collect the largest possible score associated with the visited controls, without violating the time limit. While extensive literature exists on the orienteering problem from a participants' point of view, there is limited understanding of how to design a rogaining contest where physical abilities do not dominate over cognitive skills in influencing the race outcome. To create these contests, we propose a heuristic bilevel optimization approach where at the upper level organizers assign scores to candidate control points, while at the lower level participants solve the classic orienteering problem. The simulation of the selected courses by the participants results in a provisional ranking that allows to evaluate the score assignment as determined by the organizer at the upper level. We apply our methodology to the 2023 World Rogaining Championships, demonstrating the necessity of thoughtful score allocation to ensure a balanced emphasis on both skills.
- Keywords
- orienteering problem, rogaining, bilevel optimization, human behavior in problem solving
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text (Published version)
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 4.28 MB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JMYYWSDZE2N0PSG557CJG38V
- MLA
- Van Bulck, David, et al. “Designing a Sports Orienteering Contest : Physical versus Cognitive Skills in Rogaining.” INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, vol. 33, no. 1, 2026, pp. 68–89, doi:10.1111/itor.13591.
- APA
- Van Bulck, D., Pääkkönen, J., Jacquet, B., & Goossens, D. (2026). Designing a sports orienteering contest : physical versus cognitive skills in rogaining. INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 33(1), 68–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.13591
- Chicago author-date
- Van Bulck, David, Joonas Pääkkönen, Benjamin Jacquet, and Dries Goossens. 2026. “Designing a Sports Orienteering Contest : Physical versus Cognitive Skills in Rogaining.” INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH 33 (1): 68–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.13591.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Van Bulck, David, Joonas Pääkkönen, Benjamin Jacquet, and Dries Goossens. 2026. “Designing a Sports Orienteering Contest : Physical versus Cognitive Skills in Rogaining.” INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH 33 (1): 68–89. doi:10.1111/itor.13591.
- Vancouver
- 1.Van Bulck D, Pääkkönen J, Jacquet B, Goossens D. Designing a sports orienteering contest : physical versus cognitive skills in rogaining. INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH. 2026;33(1):68–89.
- IEEE
- [1]D. Van Bulck, J. Pääkkönen, B. Jacquet, and D. Goossens, “Designing a sports orienteering contest : physical versus cognitive skills in rogaining,” INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 68–89, 2026.
@article{01JMYYWSDZE2N0PSG557CJG38V,
abstract = {{Rogaining is an orienteering running sport where participants need to decide what control points to visit and in which order. The objective is to collect the largest possible score associated with the visited controls, without violating the time limit. While extensive literature exists on the orienteering problem from a participants' point of view, there is limited understanding of how to design a rogaining contest where physical abilities do not dominate over cognitive skills in influencing the race outcome. To create these contests, we propose a heuristic bilevel optimization approach where at the upper level organizers assign scores to candidate control points, while at the lower level participants solve the classic orienteering problem. The simulation of the selected courses by the participants results in a provisional ranking that allows to evaluate the score assignment as determined by the organizer at the upper level. We apply our methodology to the 2023 World Rogaining Championships, demonstrating the necessity of thoughtful score allocation to ensure a balanced emphasis on both skills.}},
author = {{Van Bulck, David and Pääkkönen, Joonas and Jacquet, Benjamin and Goossens, Dries}},
issn = {{0969-6016}},
journal = {{INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH}},
keywords = {{orienteering problem,rogaining,bilevel optimization,human behavior in problem solving}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{68--89}},
title = {{Designing a sports orienteering contest : physical versus cognitive skills in rogaining}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1111/itor.13591}},
volume = {{33}},
year = {{2026}},
}
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric
- Web of Science
- Times cited: