WOC in the future

[NeilC]

Great to see that so many people have strong interests in the future of GB orienteering. Shouldn't be too difficult to populate the new Events and Competitions Committee then.

[andypat]

I find that the challenge posed by the forest in terms of navigation is rarely coupled with the pressure of quick decision making.
Sprint and urban give me the challenge of making decisions at speed. I appreciate that superhumans such as Kitch get this type of challenge from forest orienteering as well, but some of us are not fast enough in terrain for this pressure to kick in.

But I think that is down to the nature of the forests and the planning. A good quality area with a well planned course should give you just that, whether you are as fit as Kitch or otherwise.

Nah - its down to me taking twice as long to run between the controls in terrain as the good guys -ergo my brain has twice as long to figure it out. I very rarely make signficant navigational errors as a result. If I was able to run faster (which I can in sprint) I can be all over the place!

[Gross]

Partly that is because the vast majotity of forest orienteering in the UK isn't particularly technical in nature !

[awk]

Partly that is because the vast majotity of forest orienteering in the UK isn't particularly technical in nature !

Agreed - which is one of the reasons, I suspect, that urban orienteering has started to develop here as strongly as it has. Certainly, in general terms, given the choice between a top notch race in terrain and one on the streets, I'd choose the former (Venice and London could be exceptions!), but over the past year or two there haven't been those clashes - the two have complemented each other well so far. However, I agree with Kitch and Graeme about the shortage of genuine long distance races (although Aire do try to contribute - shameless plug for the next Aire Valley Long-O next September).

[gg]

If we want to see all the best (present at WOC) in specific discipline than we should first rank all disciplines. As runners have their own preferences than I see only one solution and that is prize money. Give the 4x times bigger prize money for Sprint than for Long and you will have all the best in Sprint inlucluding TG.

4 times zero is still zero...

No prize money at World Champs (or most orienteering races)

[Spookster]

Latest consultation response from British Orienteering to IOF on WOC in the future is here.

[Kitch]

good

[greywolf]

looks like the IOF have deferred any decisions on changes

http://orienteering.org/woc-in-the-future-january/

a touch of bitterness in the announcement "As the opinions of the federations ... had changed significantly since last hearings...." ?

[graeme]

Funny, my browser doesn't seem to have picked up the vertical green stripes indicating "into the long grass", which surely should be there on that page

[Big Jon]

The IOF summary seems to be gloss over the fact that virtually no nation supported their proposals! Glad to see that IOF have seen sense at last and left things as they are - their constant tinkering in search of a panacea of events that will miraculously attract massive TV coverage is slightly embarrassing. I like the idea of getting the TV company that produced Czech WOC coverage to cover all WOC's - they did a fantastic job (and not just because GB won men's relay!!). We need to accept that Tv coverage of WOC is a specialised business and that most national broadcasters or independent companies do not understand enough about O to do it justice.

[madmike]

Latest position from IOF Council 21/22 Apr Meeting (from IOF Website):

Proposals from Italy, Switzerland and the Nordic countries

Three proposals to change the future World Orienteering Championships (WOC) programme were submitted for consideration of the General Assembly. Two of the proposals, from Italy and Switzerland, suggest changes to the current programme while one proposal, from the Nordic countries, suggests introduction of a completely new model for the WOC.

During its meeting the IOF Council considered the different proposals. The proposal from the Nordic countries, to have a “terrain” WOC and an “urban” WOC in alternating years, implies a radical change of the programme, the consequences of which are largely unknown at the moment. The Council is not prepared to support the proposal.

The proposals from Italy and Switzerland both contain a number of components which the Council believes would contribute to the development of the WOC. They take into consideration the interests of both smaller and bigger federations and make organising of the WOC easier. The Council therefore plans to suggest merging the two proposals into one for the consideration by the General Assembly delegates. An outline of the merged programme is given below.

Sprint individual
Interval start qualification + interval start final

Sprint relay
Mixed teams

Middle individual
Interval start final

Long individual
Interval start final

Relay
Separate genders

IOC Council not liking Terrain WOC, Forest WOC idea then - hmmmm

[andypat]

IOC Council not liking Terrain WOC, Forest WOC idea then - hmmmm

mmmmmm - thats a difficult choice

[Arnold]

So after months of discussion, we seem to be almost back to the current WOC schedule. Plus a mixed sprint relay and minus qualifications for the middle and long.

[Guest88]

Well, I don't really understand that as the nordic proposal seemed like a slightly improved version of the original IOF proposal.

Anyway.....what would be phenomenally better is if someone could do the 1 hr Jukola highlights with proper English commentary each year, and put on Youtube. Yes, it's not country vs country world championships, but then neither is the Premier League or Grand Prix motor racing.

What's important is how exciting it is to watch, and Jukola has a massive hook to begin with - the mass start, followed by what tends to be hours of exciting head to head racing.

[Spookster]

Latest installation of the story. IOF Council has approved the IOF FootO Commission proposal for the Long Qualification model. No mention of Middle though.

We'll see in a couple of weeks when it's published...