WMOC 2013 - Medical Certificates

[madmike]

Just an early heads-up that the organisers of WMOC2013 will follow the standard Italian process of requiring medical certificates to compete. They will put a certificate on the website, which you will need to get signed by a doctor to be allowed to run.

I have pointed out that other WMOCS have accepted BOF membership in lieu and that not all countries require medical certificates. However, FISO (Italian O Fed) requires all competitive orienteers (i.e those who will have a time and appear in the results) to have a medical certificate and WMOC organisers intend to follow this process.

I have pointed out to them that Venice and PWT Italy have run competions without requiring medical certificates from "Foreigners"but the organisation is not for turning!

Please don't shoot the messenger! Latest reply below:



Buongiorno,

Per gli atleti stranieri sarà pubblicato un certificato medico che deve essere compilato da un medico.

Per gli atleti italiani sarà necessario il certificato medico agonistico.

Cordiali saluti.

WMOC 2013
Customer Service

[Big Jon]

You could always fake one - nice couple of made-up stamps and a name and address of a fake GP surgery - the Italians aren't going to check up, they just want to tick the box.
Maybe someone could start producing these and make some money.....

[AndyC]

Let's look positively at this - you're about to compete in a physically challenging event -you need to be medically checked that you're OK to face the challenge. Definitely better than "Orienteering is an activity where scouts with back packs walk around for a while stopping for lunch on the way"

[ianandmonika]

Maybe the competitors need a safety certificate from the organisers remembering what they expected Elizabeth Brown to do on the way to the start and the ultimate effect it had on her. She could not have expected to deal with the ricketry bridge at her age.

[Ali Wood]

Let's look positively at this - you're about to compete in a physically challenging event -you need to be medically checked that you're OK to face the challenge.

No you don't. It is H&S gone mad. You issue a disclaimer or summat.

[Jayne]

I've had a few Medical Certificates for races abroad - the GP has always just signed it, never a proper assessment.

[Homer]

I've had a few Medical Certificates for races abroad - the GP has always just signed it, never a proper assessment.

Same here. But if you don't have a friendly GP it'll cost you.

[EddieH]

It makes my blood boil. So the insistance of the certificate might cuse a heart attack

[DJM]

The WMOC 2013 Organizing Committee has approved a new medical certificate template.
It will be published soon on the official website http://www.wmoc2013.it
The organizing committee apologizes for any inconvenient caused by the old WMG medical certificate template previously published on our website.
The first deadline will be moved ten days after the official release of the new templates.

Today's announcement from the WMOC 2013 Press Office.

The previous medical certificate required, amongst other things, that each competitor should have an exercise ECG. Since the latter is not normally available here under the NHS, British competitors would have had to fork out around £300 for the test ...

... it's expected that the new certificate will be much simpler and easier to obtain

[EddieH]

AHAAA! I note from DJM's quote that it is the WMG that are insisting on this rather than WMOC.

Yet a further example of the disastrous linking of the events by an IOF body whose priorities are very definitely not that of providing what competitors want.

That is why I am not going and why I haven't had a heart attack over this matter

[simonbeck8848]

Blimey, didn't I choose the right night to check up on the O scene! I saw the event was at Turin, VERY close to where I own a ski apartment, then I saw "WMG", and I thought about Eddie and whether I should try to persuade him not to go, but not only has he taken that decision, but I appear to be the next to post!

Well done, Eddie, want to do some Via Ferratae instead? Stuff orienteering; I was vaguely thinking of going, being my first year in H55.

I wanted to enter the Piz Boe race a few years ago but didnt because of this medical nonsense.

Such a pity.

Simon

[JK]

I have competed several times in French and every time they wanted a medical certificate - this goes back many years. The earliest of these I managed to convince them that BOF membership would be OK. In subsequent years though they were stricter - including for me to do Trail-O at WTOC !?!?! TBH the drive from Aix-les-Bains to the event was harder work physically than the course and I wasn't even driving

When I lived in CH I ran oodles of times in Italy and never needed a medical cert so maybe it is something new, although I seem to remember it was mentioned for the Tour de Ski-O this year.

I suspicion that it'll be an insurance thing rather than H+S though.

[DJM]

After a good deal of negotiating between the relevant bodies, WMOC 2013, WMG 2013 and the IOF, the requirements of the medical certificate have been made much more accessible. Today's information from WMOC 2013 includes

a new medical certificate template is available on the website under INFO – Medical Certificate.

A related information release extends the "early bird" deadline:

Due to the delay caused by the issue of the Medical Certificate, the Organizing Committee extended the first deadline to the 31st of December 2012.
You still have more than 15 days to complete the registration process at the discounted price of 190 euro for the full ticket.

[aiming off]

Failed mine today.

6 and 8 minute mistakes at my last two events, so deemed not fit for competitive orienteering.

[aiming off]

Digging deeper, and more seriously, In Italy, school children at lower and upper secondary school are required to produce a medical certificate (certificato di sana e robusta costituzione fisica) from their school before participating in any sports activities.

The certification roughly translates as “Based on the visit I made, xxxx is of sound and robust physique and does not have, at present, or in the past, signs of mental and physical disorders such as”:

I am absolutely disgusted and appalled. No wonder you find Italy and France below the Peoples Republic of Iran in the Paralympic medal table.