An Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) of the IOF was convened to discuss a proposal to have a ‘forest’ World Orienteering Championships (WOC) and a ‘Sprint’ WOC in alternate years, as a development from the annual ‘all-in’ WOC programme that exists at present. The proposal was carried.

The proposal, which had been circulated widely for debate within IOF circles, to national federations, athletes’ commissions and others in the past few months, was the focus for comment both in support and against from several of the national federation representatives at the EGA. When put to the vote, 24 nations voted in favour, 9 against with 3 abstentions.

A detailed proposal for the format of each of the new Championships, both of which are expected to cover a 5-day period, will be put to next year’s IOF General Assembly. The first ‘forest’ WOC will be in 2019 and the first ‘Sprint’ WOC in 2020, and a call for applications to host these events will be sent out this autumn.