The outbreak of the Corona (Covid-19) virus has played havoc on the scheduling of both national and international orienteering events in 2020. This has led to a large number of questions from organisers, IOF members, athletes and orienteering fans about the future event schedules for IOF events. This was one of the key items that the IOF Council discussed at its digital meeting this past weekend. Council made a number of decisions about principles for future event scheduling and these will now be passed on to the respective discipline commissions who will have the responsibility for working with organisers to revise schedules for the next 1 – 3 years programs.
The principles cover:
Orienteering
- World Orienteering Championships
- European Orienteering Championships
- Junior World Orienteering Championships
- European Youth Orienteering Championships
- Orienteering World Cup
- World Masters Orienteering Championships (Following the Council meeting it has been confirmed that the World Masters Games 2021 in Japan, which includes the WMOC, will be organised as planned. This means that the World Masters Orienteering Championships 2023 has been offered to Slovakia)
MTB Orienteering
- World MTB Orienteering Championships
- Junior World MTB Orienteering Championships
- European MTB Orienteering Championships
- European Junior and Youth MTB Orienteering Championships
- World Masters MTB Orienteering Championships
- MTBO World Cup
Trail Orienteering
- World Trail Orienteering Championships
- European Trail Orienteering Championships
In preparation for the Council discussion the IOF sent out a consultation to member federations and to the FootO Athletes Commission regarding their views on the scheduling of events in 2020 and 2021, as this has presented the most challenges. Council would like to thank members for their quick and complete responses. In total 33 different responses were received and gave very good input for Council to make decisions on principles. Council feels that the decisions made balance the requirements and possibilities expressed by members and organisers.
In addition to the consultation questions and scheduling principles discussed for IOF events, Council noted at their meeting the importance of also considering the schedules of partner events, most notably the postponed World University Orienteering Championships, and The World Games which prior to the weekend meeting was confirmed to have been re-scheduled from July 2021 to July 2022.
The Summary report on Member Federation consultation regarding 2020 and 2021 event schedules and the Council decisions on the principles for re-scheduling events are published here.