WOC in the future

[graeme]

You mean the 2007 Middle Champion?

Yes. That guy whose name used to get trotted out by people claiming the long/middle/sprint "disciplines" are really different and that we need multiple champions because we have specialists.
I'm not a particular enthusiast for keeping changing the disciplines, but since the top guys win anyway it doesn't matter. What I don't like (as a spectator) is structuring the competition so the top runners can/must avoid racing each other.

[Kitch]

What gets me is the failure by the "powers that be" to realise/recognise/accept that no form of orienteering is ever going to be spectator friendly to anyone other than an orienteer.
Yes you can bastardise/prostitute the sport and have people running round town so you can film them doing it - but they will always appear slow and ponderous as they run about.
If you looked at the sprint finals objectively the only time that anyone looked to be moving quickly was down the run in and mostly that was not an impressive display of athleticism, but an over the edge flailing and grimacing as the runner dived into total oxygen debt.
Sure as orienteers we appreciate how hard people are actually running, but it is simply not conveyed by the camera, it strikes me as wholly uninspiring to anyone outside the sport.

Equally you can put in the tech and have your GPS trace, but again it looks slow. It will also be utterly meaningless to anyone other than an orienteer.

To appreciate the sport you have to have experienced it.
So outside of the sport and its participants there will never be an audience.

Why does the IOF want in on teh Olympics so badly that it is prepared to muck this fundamentally superb sport around so much ?
Egos and junkets most likely

[awk]

I think the reason behind the mixed relay concept is as much about the number of medals/events allowed. Well established sports seem to be allowed as many medals as they like (swimming jumps to mind - just how many different permutations of styles and distances can they come up with?!). Others not so - part of the problems for cycling was that they couldn't increase then number of events, so when they brought in kiddies bike racing (sorry - BMX), something else had to give. Don't the cross-country skiers vary which styles at what distances from year to year too?

Yes you can bastardise/prostitute the sport and have people running round town so you can film them doing it

Whatever one's thoughts on sprint, as it exists at WOC it didn't replace anything - it was added to the programme, leaving the other disciplines intact.

Just as triathlon developed an 'olympic distance', surely the IOF could/should work on developing an 'olympic format', without messing around with untried/tested formats at its premier competition. Maybe use the World Cup instead as the testing ground?

[Oldman]

What gets me is the failure by the "powers that be" to realise/recognise/accept that no form of orienteering is ever going to be spectator friendly to anyone other than an orienteer.
...
you can put in the tech and have your GPS trace, but again it looks slow. It will also be utterly meaningless to anyone other than an orienteer.

To appreciate the sport you have to have experienced it.
So outside of the sport and its participants there will never be an audience.

I agree. And even the existing displays are not understood by many experienced orienteers who know what the map and its colours and symbols mean: what hope has Joe Public got? None!

[Ant W]

Have to say that whatever the merits (or otherwise) of a mixed sprint relay - it strikes me as a nice gala event to close the champs - I am baffled by the idea of it replacing the proper relays.

[graeme]

they will always appear slow and ponderous

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottish-o ... 4919500850

Can be done, you just need to think about it. Yes, watching people run slowly past a spectator control is dull even for orienteers. Almost as dull as watching cars drive round one behind another in those F1 tyre-changing competitions they have on TV. What we want to see is people making errors or getting lost.

[EddieH]

I've always loved maps, and am certain that I'd have no difficulty whatsoever in understanding the event if I had watched today having never heard of the sport before. I agree that the running LOOKS unimpressive and I'd not really have a clue just how hard they are working and how fit they are.

I am sure that with a knowledgable commentator orienteering would be appreciated by many. However it is only in the Olympics, and if people believe that GB can win a medal, that people will watch sports they know nothing about. I cannot see an audience for a WOC outside of active orienteers.

[Gnitworp]

What we want to see is people making errors or getting lost.

You mean people that can't orienteer. Better film the local colour-coded event

[Mrs H]

Not necessarily - we saw plenty of people making errors and getting lost today in the most graphic of terms on the gps and I must say it was extremely gripping

[mappingmum]

I concur!

[mappingmum]

I'm watching BBC2 Olympic Countdown programme. It includes a mixed relay triathlon.

[229]

,

[Big Jon]

"Why does the IOF want in on teh Olympics so badly that it is prepared to muck this fundamentally superb sport around so much ?
Egos and junkets most likely"

I agree wholeheartedly wit this comment! Realistically orienteering has no TV income therefore the Olympics won't ever be interested in orienteering. Olympics = money and orienteering never = money.

[fish]

Ditto to Kitch/Jon's comments on the olympics.

What I dont understand is why so much focus has been on live tv broadcasts, is it because that's waht the buyers want, or is it that the sellers are presuming it's the appropriate option. Of all sports, orienteering seems to offer an ideal format for 'highlights' based packages.
Appeal will be limited, but sports of limited appeal have often gained limited time on tv channels in the past. Which could be nice.

[Scott]

Another revision of the "WOC in the Future" consultation document has appeared here. The good news is that it now seem as if the Relay will survive in its current format.

The latest proposals are:

• Sprint - unchanged
• Middle - scrapped
• Long - qualifier scrapped, new system of allocating places based on past WOC performances. Final unchanged.
• Relay - unchanged
• "Chasing Start Middle" - new format introduced
• Mixed Sprint Relay - new format introduced