IOF General Assembly

[tomtom]

Interesting reading the live feed from the IOF General Assembly right now:
http://worldofo.com/

Points so far..

"Orienteering shall be a truly global sport and included in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A technical officer from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) was present at the long distance yesterday and was impressed.

Have been discussions with Eurosport, EBU and others"

[andy]

WOC in the future is the interesting bit for us (2015), let's see what happens... Not sure we're going to get any conclusions today, though a bit more direction would be great!

[tomtom]

I really hope they don't decide that 2015 will be the first urban WOC..

[andy]

I really hope they don't decide that 2015 will be the first urban WOC..

The nice thing for us is that we don't have to adopt whatever is decided. Let's just say it won't be urban only in 2015 whatever is decided, too much has gone into preparation for that. We do, however, want to make sure we don't do anything silly and, if possible, adopt something that is in line with what the italians do and whatever 2016 have to do...

[andy]

Oh my, why did we agree with Finland!?

[mikey]

GB in favour of a split WOC - I am quite surprised by that.

[mikey]

No split WOC.

[Scott]

GB in favour of a split WOC - I am quite surprised by that.

SC presented the board with feedback from the survey of British elite athletes and coaches on the various different ‘WOC in the future’ proposals that are on the IOF Congress agenda. The survey showed a balance of opinion in favour of the Nordic proposal for alternative sprint/forest WOCs (particularly popular with the athletes) and against the other proposals.

Although I think it's fair to say that British Orienteering wouldn't support introducing a split WOC before 2016.

[mikey]

So WOC of the future is...

middle without qualifications
long without qualification
sprint with qualification
mixed gender relay (2 men + 2 women)
normal relay
no chasing start / mass start

[greywolf]

WTF? Did they understand what they were voting for? isn't that exactly the proposal that was rejected previously?

[andy]

So WOC of the future is...

middle without qualifications
long without qualification
sprint with qualification
mixed gender relay (2 men + 2 women)
normal relay
no chasing start / mass start

This is one of the options we've been planning for in terms of 2015, so expect to see it there. I guess Italy will adopt it too. Personally I quite like it!

[andy]

and Brian Porteous just got elected as IOF president, congrats!

[JK]

I am very suprised that Adventure Racing is now going to be an IOF activity.

Did they ask the AR community about this?

The closest that there was to this in the past was the World Marathon Orienteering Trophy:

• 1999: Hosted at the IGN Raid Francital in France (Mountain Marathon event)
• 2000: World Rogaine Champs in NZ + IGN Raid Francital (MM style) + Slovenian marathon orienteering (2 person team, but without rucksacks) - best 2 of 3 to count
• 2001: Checkpoint Marathon Orienteering (MM style) in Spain

It then faded away, probably due to lack of interest from the Nordic nations.

[tomtom]

I am very suprised that Adventure Racing is now going to be an IOF activity.

I thought it didn't get enough votes? ..65% and it needed 75%?

It's all a bit confusing as to what has actually been agreed

[Spookster]

I am very suprised that Adventure Racing is now going to be an IOF activity.

There was an agreement to undertake an activity (within the IOF activity plan for the next 2 years) to establish what the benefits would be of including adventure racing as an IOF format. There was no agreement that it necessarily would become a fifth format (which would have needed a change to the IOF statutes and 75% approval).

WOC 2016 and WTOC 2016 awarded to Sweden. SkiWOC 2015 to Norway. Both unopposed.

Regarding WOC in the future, the change from the current WOC programme is removal of the two forest qualification days (long and middle), and the addition of one urban day (mixed sprint relay). So as far as the potential impact on WOC 2015 organisation, not too different.