Final WOC Agenda

Final WOC Agenda

Recently, the International Orienteering Federation IOF passed the new structure of the WOC program. Also, since all authorizations are available in writing, the agenda of the 20th Orienteering World Championships is all set. Between the opening ceremony on Tuesday August 5 and the closing ceremony on Saturday August 9, 2003, four finals will take place within only five days. The whole WOC timetable can be found on the “Program” page.

The sprint competition will be held in the old-town district of Rapperswil. In its first appearance last WOC 2001 in Tampere, Finland, the final took place in a city forest. When the first set of medals will be distributed in the year 2003, it will hence be the first time for a competition in a completely urban terrain. Also the first time at a world championship, the opening ceremony will take place in a closed hall - immediately before the sprint race. Right afterwards it will be in the very same stadium of the ice hockey club Rapperswil/Jona where the finalists will finish with an anticipated winning time of only some twelve minutes in front of a crowd of 5000.

The competition over the long distance is going to take place in the area of Eschenberg-Kyburg. It will be held in form of loops such that each runner can be cheered at several times in the finish area.

The middle-distance competition as the successor of the short distance run will take place in the landslide area of Trin west of Chur. After a qualification run in the morning, this technically most challenging competition of the 20th WOC is going to be decided in the afternoon during the final of the best ones.

The highlight as well as the conclusion are the relays during the last day of competition. The world’s best Orienteers will fight for the “race of the nations” in the Chlosterwald near Rapperswil/Jona. With a big closing ceremony as part of Rapperswil’s annual celebration at the lake, the world championships will come to an end.

Mode and Number of Participants of the Competitions

The aim of the IOF is to reduce the duration of every single competition and also to increase the number of participating nations. This strategy has an impact on the mode and the conditions for the number participants for the individual races.

Sprint: Every nation gets one guaranteed entry. Ten to fifteen entries are to be given according to well-stated performance criteria, which have yet to be defined. Each nation however will be able to field maximally two runners. Hence crowd of 51 athletes can be anticipated for the final.
Middle and long distance: Only three runners per nation will be eligible to start. The crowd of the final has also been reduced to 51 runners.
Relays: The race of the nations on world championships will go over three legs only instead of four as used. (Until the 8th Orienteering World Championships in 1979 the ladies, however, did also compete over three legs.) With this measure in place the circle of nations with intact chances for medals should be substantially increased. Note that the relays at the European championships and in the World Cup were also staged with teams of three up to now.

In all of the three individual events the current world champions will get a guaranteed personal entry. With the two world champions Simone Luder and Vroni König Salmi the female Swiss team has an excellent starting point for the title fights of 2003.

Federal Councilor Samuel Schmid takes over the chairman of the patronage committee

The organizing committee has successfully hired federal councilor Samuel Schmid, the Swiss minister of sports, for the Orienteering world championships. Federal councilor Schmid takes over the chairman of the patronage committee. Members of this committee are, among other prominent individuals, the retired national councilor Ulrich Bremi and Heinz Keller, the director of the Swiss federal bureau of sports.

Swiss Television produces recordings from all of the four finals

Similarly encouraging is the co-operation with the Swiss television. After a positive basic decision of the SRG, television SF DRS has been ordered to produce pictures from all of the four finals of the WOC. Planned are daily recordings of fifteen minutes duration.

Action of the Swiss Army

Despite the fact that the Swiss Army will reduce its action for third parties in the future, the WOC 2003 will receive precious assistance. About 500 soldiers will substantially support the 700 heads of the volunteers’ staff from the local Orienteering associations, mostly by assembling and disassembling of the five WOC finish arenas in Zug, Rapperswil/Jona, Winterthur and Trin. However, they will also be of assistance during the Swiss O Week, the event for the non-WOC Orienteers that takes place during the same time. In addition there will be guard and communications assignments.

Posted: 2003-02-01 15:32:55