Welcome to Road to WOC

Welcome to Road to WOC. Series of articles, interviews, and analysis prepared by the WOC 2021 organizers together with O-news.cz. Every 14 days you can read new interesting facts about the highlights of this o-season and its preparation. 

We will take you behind the scenes, bring you interviews, interesting facts, tackle the history and inform you about all the news you need to know. 

The WOC comes back to the Czech Republic after 13 years. In these tough and uncertain times the Czech Orienteering Federation will organize the championships around the town of Doksy. It will start with sprint disciplines that were originally not supposed to be a part of this year‘s WOC. However, given the direction things have gone in 2020 and the postponement of WOC in Denmark to 2022, the organizers decided to accept the IOF request to add three more races. The whole championships will thus start with the sprint qualification and the finals in Terezín. Furthermore, the sprint relays will follow, that will be held directly in the event centre – the town of Doksy. After a spare day, the athletes will move to the Jizera Mountains which will host the middle distance qualification and the finals – both races within one day. Another free day will follow just before the grand finals of the championships – relays and long distance in the forests of Kokořínsko.

Doksy – Paradise for Orienteering

Doksy is one of THE venues for orienteering in Czechia. It is the place where teams are meeting for their traditional Easter camps and where everyone loves to compete. The place was chosen not just for its beautiful forests but also for a wide variety of terrains. In 2021 Doksy will host the WOC after almost 50 years. The very first WOC in Czechoslovakia took place in 1972 in Staré Splavy (part of the Doksy municipality). This year we will get back to this part of the town and the event centre will be the Hotel Bezděz: very close to Mácha‘s Lake – a large lake used for a number of water sports and other activities – and not far from the castle in the centre of Doksy. The castle area is not just an arena for one of the races but also the main place for the side events. On Sunday, July 4th, the opening ceremony will be held hereafter the sprint relay competition and the cultural events will follow. Next ceremony will be held in Doksy on July 7th followed by a concert. The entrance is free of charge for all events.

Experience the Arenas

If the circumstances allow, all arenas will be open for spectators. Entrance will be free of charge. Every arena will provide all you need to follow the races – attractive finish corridors, two big screens and a place for ceremonies. However, the arenas shall not be about following the races only, there will also be various possibilities of entertainment. To mention some: o-labyrinth, photo point or an original WOC store. You will be able to pay with your card at most of the places. One of the main goals of the organizers is sustainability which means to minimize disposable plastic materials (of course not where health would be compromised, the health of athletes and spectators is the main priority) and more.

TV production

During the last WOC in Czechia (2008 in Olomouc) the Czech TV director Karel Jonák established a strong o-crew who have worked on orienteering live broadcasting since then. The TV production and its possibilities developed a lot since then and the experienced team together with the organizers work to get the most out of the races and available technologies – GPS visualisations, trailers or the pre-race studios. There will be live broadcasting of each of the final races. So far the Scandinavian and Swiss TV productions have expressed their interest. All in all, you will be able to follow the live stream at IOF Live website https://orienteering.sport/event/nokian-tyres-world-orienteering-championships-2021/welcome/

WOC Tour
There are just a few last spots remaining in the WOC Tour capacity. WOC Tour offers six stages during the WOC week. Four of them are planned in the sandstones of Doksy and Kokořínsko, one will be held in the Jizera Mountains and one in Terezín. Out of the six stages, five best will create the result. As a starter pack, every participant gets interesting offers from the WOC partners, free or discounted entrance to attractive places in the region and after the Tour completion also an original gift. The organizers are working on different scenarios to make it happen even if the start field had to be divided to ensure proper social distancing. The final solution shall be announced during spring.

To Follow
Want to keep up with all the news? Don‘t forget to follow the WOC communication channels – our website https://woc2021.cz, for WOC Tour participants: https://tour.woc2021.cz/. To get the impressions as well as the information follow us on socials – Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/woc2021) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/woc2021czech) or Youtube, where you can watch all the episodes of WOC Insight. These give you a look behind the scenes of WOC preparations and much more. 

That‘s it for the start. Next time you will get to know more about WOC map preparation.