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WOC in the Future

Show Profile  Chris Forne Posted: 17 July 2012, 7:36 AM  
After all this excitement from JWOC and now WOC, I was reading some O related posts and saw an article about proposals for WOC in the future.

Scanning through the responses from different IOF countries I was very surprised to NZ was not on the list, especially after Carsten sent round an email asking for our views, which I replied to, that was to be forwarded to the NZOF as part of our response?

Anyway seems like they are now pushing for an alternating program between Forest WOC and Urban(Sprint) WOC, which I like much better and am generally supportive of, but am not sure about the lack of qualification races.

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 20 July 2012, 6:46 PM  
It's getting more crazy... voting on the proposals heavily favored keeping the Forest and Sprint WOC together every year,so nothing changes there, making a lot of people happy I suppose, but then they voted to go with the alternative proposal made last year, to which many athletes were strongly against, of which introduces more sprint formats than forest races by way of Sprint quals, mixed sprint relays, at the expense of Long and Middle qualification races, and introducing a mass start race.
It seem s voters aren't sure what they're voting for or there is quite a bit of free grog flowing at the conference.
Surely almost any form of qualifying method to run woc based on previous years woc results is not going to work for lesser nations.. ever!

Show Profile  Alistair Posted: 20 July 2012, 8:11 PM  
Yeah, I doubt anyone can come up with a fairer qualification system than the current one. Time to start pestering Mike Dowling (IOF Vice President) to get this one jumped on.

Show Profile  thomasr Posted: 20 July 2012, 11:41 PM  
Pretty gutting to hear about the changes. Hopefully by the time comes for them to happen a better idea has been put forward.

Also JWOC 2015 goes to Norway.

Show Profile  thomasr Posted: 20 July 2012, 11:42 PM  
Pretty gutting to hear about the changes. Hopefully by the time comes for them to happen a better idea has been put forward.

Also JWOC 2015 goes to Norway.

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 21 July 2012, 6:49 AM  
To me splitting woc to urban and forest had some merit with costs, locations and competitors focus. It also could potentially have allowed for some some great possibilities such as a STB model where there could be a 'Tour' style sprint series.
The forest woc, without having to include sprints could have really focused on great forest events with more runners from both greater and lesser nations able to compete, thus keeping more people happy while supporting global growth of the sport.
Qualification races could be retained by altering the number of heats and increasing the final numbers, along with reducing starting intervals and including spreading systems on the courses. Alternatively if no qual races were made then some work could be done as above to allow for a much larger Finals races (middle and long) with minimum runners from nations BUT allowing for a greater number for all, including more for the great nations, so to make it possible to go to woc.
A big focus is on tv suitability which is supposedly in order to attain Olympic status and grow the sport. I can't see how the sport can grow if hardly anyone outside of Europe/Scandinavia can get to a woc final.
Propsals for a Mass Start race, although they are good to watch, bother me because it will be possible for just the best runners to win using strategy. That's not the best Orienteer in the world. The other proposal was for Proloque and Chasing Start races, which is better imo but not ideal either as it means an extra race to fit in. There could be another option that may tick more boxes.. how about a Loops Race (one man relay). This could be very exciting for runners and spectators as well as being more fair. There could be a large starting field with the race not taking forever by having many loops. ie, if you had 5 loops then 5 people could start at a time. To make it worthwhile length of course should be longer than a middle , up to 1 hour, filling a void where races seem to be getting shorter.

Even without splitting up urban and forest woc something has to be done to make the current proposal work for all nations.

Anyway somehow someone needs to come up with a better proposal or small O nations could be doomed with out reasonable safeguards. What about the aspirations of the younger JWocers coming through, what would they like since the future is theirs?

Disclaimer: My thoughts are from the outside looking in, having never experienced what it is like at woc myself.

This message was edited by Paul I on 21 July 2012, 1:53 PM

Show Profile  Keith Posted: 23 July 2012, 12:04 AM  
Intresting that whilst these important issues where discussed NZOF didn't have a representative at the meeting. A number of people in Europe could've gone and 41 other countrries managed it. Where was NZOF?

Potentially the removal of quilification races is a bitter blow to NZ orienteering and global orienteering development.
I think the driving factor of the decision is to simplify organisation of the WOC week. Currently the qualification races attract little media intrest with significant organisationally requirements.
Now the decision has been made the best way forward is too try and influnce the changes. For example the size of the final (rumoured to be increased), and how the slot allocation system works. I think Aus/NZ are lucky that Blair is in a good position to deliver a sensible way forward.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 6 December 2012, 7:24 AM  
Could someone who knows summarise or link to the new format? I think one change that is in is a mixed sprint relay from 2014. We seem to have relatively good results in the sprint but never to my knowledge have we run a sprint relay. Time to now bring it into the programme. When and how?

This coincides with my thought that, when the middle came in, we ran two in one day. Possibly catering for the "I'm not coming all that way for 30 minutes orienteering" people. How much more so for the sprint distance? I'd like to see the sprint run as a double, or prologue/chase. It would also make the most of sprint mapping, which is heading down the slippery slope of more and more detail, larger and larger scales, therefore more detail, therefore larger scale...

Anyway back to the topic. Another way of making the most of a sprint area is to run an individual and a relay on the same map. WOC is going to be two men and two women I think, what would be best for us? Maybe 2 men and one woman would fit our fields better?

Show Profile  darren Posted: 6 December 2012, 9:15 AM  
The World Games has a middle distance and 4 leg mixed relay (middle distance length). In 2009 both were on a 1:5,000 map draw to sprint standards. Not sure if this is standard but it was great fun. So sprint maps don't just have to be for sprint length courses, middle distance with a map change/map flip can be another good use of these areas.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 10 December 2012, 2:59 AM  
Lets get specific. Add a sprint relay to the sprint day at Easter.

Show Profile  DMjunior Posted: 10 December 2012, 6:35 AM  
Or have it as part of the superseries?

Show Profile  Tane Cambridge Posted: 10 December 2012, 7:44 AM  
And have it as part of the Superseries?

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 10 December 2012, 11:45 AM  
The OA conference "agreed to encourage state associations to trial sprint relays from 2013, but perhaps experiment with formats such as 2 person teams running a F-M format over 4 legs to create more intense head to head competition."

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 13 May 2015, 9:18 AM  
It's back on the table. See http://orienteering.org/ and "Extraordinary General Assembly"

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