The Finnish Orienteering Federation and organisers of the European Trail Orienteering Championships (ETOC) which were scheduled to be held in Lohja, Finland from May 12-16, 2021, have informed the IOF that they are unable to conduct the event due to Covid-19 restrictions. The event had previously been moved from 2020 to 2021.
Based upon the recommendations of the Finnish Orienteering Federation and the IOF Trail Orienteering Commission, the IOF Council has decided the following regarding ETOC 2022 and 2024.
- ETOC 2022 will be held in Lohja, Finland in the time period May 25-29. The event will have the same organisers as the cancelled ETOC 2020/2021 event.
- ETOC 2024 will be held in Turku, Finland with the preliminary dates May 8-12. The event will be organised by the previously appointed ETOC 2022 organiser, i.e. simply moved 2 years forward.
In additional Trail Orienteering event news, the Trail Orienteering Commission has made a proposal to Council to organise World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC) only every second year (in odd years). There has historically been some difficulty in finding WTOC and ETOC organisers and in the recent past there were no applications submitted for either WTOC 2023, WTOC 2024 or ETOC 2024 at the application deadline. Council supports the overall concept presented by the commission and has therefore made the following decisions.
- The Trail Orienteering Commission should focus efforts on finding an organiser for WTOC 2023.
- WTOC 2024 is cancelled and further applications will not be sought.
Furthermore, Council will discuss the full proposal from the Trail Orienteering Commission at its upcoming meeting on March 26 and determine if the proposal requires a decision or confirmation by the IOF General Assembly in 2022.