A Chinese orienteering team was disqualified after losing its moral compass and using secret paths and markings during the Military World Games in China.

The home team bagged some of the top spots in a middle-distance competition, which sees runners navigating their way across unknown countryside using little more than a map.

But organisers later discovered the mixed-gender team – all of whom were serving soldiers – had strayed from the straight and narrow.

Spectators had helped them by pointing the way and several “markings and small paths [were] prepared for them, which only they were aware of,” the International Orienteering Federation said.

The Military World Games bring together military athletes from around the world every four years.

China built an athletes’ village to host around 10,000 participating soldiers, coaches and officials for the games, which kicked off in Wuhan on October 18 with a ceremony attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China’s Ministry of Defence, whose People’s Liberation Army are joint organisers of the games, did not respond to a request for comment.