ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 March;38(1):75-9

Copyright © 1998 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Training and injuries amongst elite female orienteers

Creagh U., Reilly Th.

Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Back­ground. A ­study was car­ried out on the pat­terns of ­injury ­amongst ­elite ­female orient­eers.
­Methods. A ret­ro­spec­tive ques­tion­naire was admin­is­tered ­which con­tained ques­tions per­taining to ­training prac­tices ­such as ­quality, quan­tity and ­type. ­This was fol­lowed by a sec­tion inves­ti­gating gen­eral to spe­cific ­injury prob­lems, ­regarding ­their occur­rence and ­effect on ­training. Mem­bers of var­ious ­national orien­teering ­squads (­elite ­group; n=19) and com­pet­i­tors of an ­elite ­level in ­Great ­Britain (sub-­elite ­group; n=9) com­pleted ­these ques­tion­naires. As ­this was a descrip­tive ­study, no inter­ven­tion was car­ried out.
­Results. The sub-­elite orient­eers ­trained ­less ­than the ­elite ­during the off-­season (p<0.01) but ­there was no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in the dis­tri­bu­tion and/or ­likely ­cause of inju­ries ­between the ­groups. ­Only 32% of the sub­jects did ­their ­training pre­dom­i­nantly on the ­road ­while the ­others ran on ­either off-­road ter­rain or a mix­ture. Inju­ries ­occurred in 68% of the respon­dents. ­Only 4% of ­them suf­fered ­upper ­body inju­ries. ­Ankle inju­ries ­were the ­most ­common inju­ries. The pro­por­tion of inju­ries to the ­knee (16%) and ­ankle (43%) in orient­eers was the ­reverse of ­what is nor­mally ­found in run­ners.
Con­clu­sions. Orient­eers ­suffer cer­tain ­sport spe­cific inju­ries ­such as ­ankle ­sprain. ­This is ­likely to be ­related to ­their ­training pre­dom­i­nantly on ­rough sur­faces.