Final Reporttable of content
1/ INTRODUCTION
2/ VISION
3/ ORGANISATION
4/ COVID
5/ WOC PROGRAMME
6/ ARENAS
7/ SPORT
8/ BULLETINS
9/ TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES AND SELECTION RACES
10/ MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
11/ TV COVERAGE
12/ IT
13/ EVENT CENTRE AND EVENT OFFICE
14/ VOLUNTEERS
15/ SERVICES
16/ SUSTAINABILITY
17/ WOC CLINIC
18/ SPECTATORS
19/ ECONOMY AND PARTNERS
20/ RECOMMENDATIONS
21/ FEEDBACK

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1/ Introduction
The 38th World Orienteering Championships
took place in the Czech Republic from 3rd to
9th July 2021. The City of Doksy was the EventCentre. The Czech Orienteering Federation wasawarded the organisation of WOC 2021 during
WOC 2017 in Estonia. The preparation work
started at the same time. The vision of the organisers was „Back to the roots“, because theywanted to show the DNA of orienteering - quality courses, challenging terrain and to give firstpreference to athletes over other elements. The
organizers tried to fulfill this motto throughout
the preparations and during the championships.
However, they had to deal with several changes
during the preparations:• Global pandemic SARS-CoV-2• addition of two sprint disciplines in 2020
• cancellation of public races, PreWOC etc.
The global pandemic affected not only the preparations, but also the organization itself. Individual teams and organizers were in a special
bubble, there were several measures against
spreading of the disease and some activities
took place only online.
Members of 40 national teams (in all 300 competitors and 81 officials) took part. WOC was
carried out entirely according to IOF Rules.
All races took place in various types of terrain.
Organizers for Sprint Distance used a former

3

military fortress composed of a citadel and adjacent walled garrison town, Sprint Relay was in
the town centre of Doksy with its irregular street
network. Middle Distance took place in the Jizerské hory in challenging mountain terrain withbroken ground. Relay and Long Distance weresituated in Kokořínsko, in typical continental
sandstone terrain with massive rock formations.

Achieving high quality TV coverage, provided
by Czech Television (ČT), was a big success for
the WOC. Czech Television broadcast all the final races.
WOC was organised in accordance with IOF
requests for a high technical and organisational
level.

2/ VISIONBACK TO THE ROOTS
We organized the races in really demanding
terrain, despite some of the complicated logistics issues (there was basically no mobile
signal in the Kokořínsko). After adding sprints,
we tried to find a very interesting terrain in Terezín which is not very typical sprint terrain.
SUSTAINABILITY
Education via a mobile app, and we tried to build
arenas so that we polluted the environment as
little as possible. This is basically what we did.
Sustainability is perceived by other aspects aswell: new maps have been made for our clubs touse for their future activities, a team has been
set up to pass on our know-how, materials purchased and produced will be used further, andmuch more. We participated in several events
for tree planting and garbage collection in theforest, and we cooperated with our project “ČistOles”.
LOCAL SUPPORTThis goal has been achieved the most. We havecollaborated closely with the Liberec Region
and individual municipalities - not only in termsof sports and organization, but also, for example, in support of tourism. We often looked forpartners among regional companies and institutions, and we succeeded: the Kitl liqueur, theKonrad brewery, the Czech Mint, the Czech Er-

4gonomic Society and the Technical University of
Liberec are proof of that. Regional clubs wereincorporated into the entire World Orienteering
Championships and made up about half of allorganizers.
MODERN WOC
In many places it was possible to pay by card,a mobile app was created, and special animations of results and spaces for our partners werecreated for the big screen.
TRANSPARENT MANAGEMENT
Transparent management of the budget wasfrom the beginning the basis of the organization, which had access to all parts. All stakeholders such as IOF, Czech Orienteering Federationand local clubs were informed.
BENEFIT FOR ORIENTEERING
Covid reduced a number of things such as
events for partners and schools. But thanks to
WOC, new activities were born. New maps, areas with fixed controls and new partners. Orienteering was shown on a lot of different kinds ofmass media. Some activities were postponed tonext year such as the series “Běhej s mapou”
and school activities.
TELEVISION AS STANDARD
5 live broadcasts were produced by Czech Television and by director Karel Jonák. New jingles,

animations and a studio have been created fortelevision formats. Many activities can be usedin the coming years.
KNOW-HOW FOR THE FUTURE
Know-how created within the WOC will certainly
be used in organizing other events - World Cup
2023, JWOC 2024 and others. Especially in thefields of marketing, logistics and other activities.

3/ Organisation
WOC 2021 was organised by the Czech Orienteering Federation, which is the organization
responsible for orienteering in the Czech Republic.
Six local clubs (OK Chrastava, OK Doksy, SKOB
Roudnice nad Labem, OOB TJ Tatran Jablonec
n. N, OOB TJ Turnov, LOK-o Liberec, Slavia Liberec orienteering) participated on the technicalissues, maps and volunteering.
Organising committee was established in 2018
and no major changes have taken place sincethen.
Event Director & Economy
Jan Picek
Administration
Jana Kubátová
Sport
Daniel Wolf
ArenaMatěj Burda
Marketing & MediaDavid Procházka
HR & Services
Dominika PachnerováITJiří Řehoř, Lukáš König
Supervisor
Petr Klimpl
Organising committee was in daily contact via
internet or mobile phone. Regular meetingsfrom March 2020 were organised via ZOOM (online), and decided on various issues concerning
the overall concept of WOC as well as matterswhich crossed between more than one section.
Individual sections were further structured intosub-sections.

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Organizational chartSPORT

ADMINISTRATIONIT

MARKETING& MEDIAHR &SERVICES

ARENA

ECONOMY

Maps

Event office

Technology

Partner and
VIP careAccommodation

Arenalayouts

BudgetCourseSetting

Accreditation

SpeakerMedia andPR

Ceremonial

ServiceSupervisors

Training
camps

Accountancy

Internet

Socialnetworks

Volunteers

Catering

Czech
Orienteering
Federation

Controllers

COVID
doctorTV

WebsiteLogistics

Transport

Quarantine

COVID
officeGPS

Publicraces

IOF clinic

FinishGuarding
controls

VIP

Forestrefreshment
Start

MIX zone

Medical care

Infotent /fanshop

Antidoping4/ Covid
4.1/ The limitations during the
preparation
Since the end of summer 2020, we have kept aregularly updated overview of valid measures
within the WOC 2021 website. The reason wasthat most of the decisions of the Czech government were first communicated only in Czech,
so we translated and made them available here.
It was really helpful for the Teams.
It was also helpful to save all the previously valid documents and old Bulletins, for the reasonsof later questions asked by Czech authorities orTeams regarding rules and precautions.
All training camps organised in the spring 2021
had to be pre-registered in advance according to
the local health authority (TC leader contact information, address and date of stay). For compulsory C-19 testing after arriving in the Czech
Republic, the teams used a company cooperating with the organizers. All the tests necessaryfor entering and staying in CZE had to be sent
to the local health authority - for this, we had
one extra person (part time job). Organising of
testing was free of additional charge on the partof the organizer, despite considerable administrative demands.
These turbulent changes and cancellations caused organizational problems, financial costs
and a decrease in motivation for some organi-6

zers. The entire organizing committee (OC) had
to inform both the public and the volunteers
briefly but clearly.
Strict lockdowns and precautions for entering
the country during the winter 2020/2021 caused:• cancelling of Euromeeting 2020 2x (September, October),• closing of training areas due to unequal conditions for EU and non EU countries (between
22.10. - 10.12. 2020),• cancelling of Euromeeting 2021 for the thirdtime (February),• cancelling of spectators races WOC-Tour(April).

4.2/ The limitations during theWOC 2021 itself
The organization of the WOC was at the time ofa milder regime of measures (respirators inside,social distancing outside, easier arrival rules
from most countries, limitation of the number ofparticipants in a mass event) due to the situation at the turn of June / July, when the epidemic
stagnated.
Each accredited person had to provide a negative PCR test from a specific date to enter theWOC 2021 bubble.
Throughout the spring, in cooperation with the

IOF, the concept of measures for WOC 2021 wasplanned, including functioning in the so-called
bubble. Unfortunately, we received some suggestions so late that they couldn’t be included..

4.3/ COVID Bulletin
We created the COVID Bulletin for the event as
a separate document. We wanted to offer thisinformation to participants clearly and separately from the regular content of Bulletin 4, which
we see more as a sport’s perspective document.
From our perspective, this was a good decision.

4.4/Recommendations for future events• Anticipating a positive case in advance andhaving a backup plan for this situation is always better than believing that no positive
case will occur. It’s not good for the successof a race to hope that Covid avoids orienteering events.
• A person responsible only for Covid matters- a COVID manager - is necessary, who can influence all areas of the event from the beginning of the planning.
• The shorter the event – the safer the event.
• Mandatory PCR test before entering the
bubble is the right decision.
• Antigen test – mandatory self-testing of all
bubble members every other day, this shouldhave been done during WOC.
• Sufficient space in the arena, each team has

4/ Covid
its own tent, respect the space for the mixed
zone, consider not having ‘cheering zones’ - orhave ‘cheering zones’ with supervision.
• Each team should have accommodation ina different place. It should be a team’s responsibility to develop a safe environment (insist
on tested staff, dining rooms only for oneteam).
• Each team declares before arrival where they
will be staying in case of isolation or if quarantine is necessary.
• Are shared facilities, especially mobile toilets
a risk for the spread of infection?
• Consider using the team bubbles for startlists
to reduce mixing of teams. This was successfully used by the Test Race (300 participants,
zero C-19 cases). The WRE starting order has
to be used inside the Team bubble then.
• Avoid shuttle buses.
• Personal responsibility should not be just an
empty concept! Some athletes as well as organizers were not following basic rules despite being noticed.
• Recommending vaccination to all for future
events will greatly facilitate antiviral measures.

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5/ WOC Programme

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WEDNESDAY 30. 6. 2021		
14:00-20:00
Event Office

Staré Splavy

THURSDAY 1. 7. 2021
10:00-20:00
Covid Testing

Staré Splavy

FRIDAY 2. 7. 2021
9:00-15:00
Model Sprint Distance
16:00-18:00
Technical model + model Sprint Relay
18:30
TOM Sprint + Sprint Relay

Terezín
Staré Splavy
On-line

SATURDAY 3. 7. 2021
9:00-10:25
Sprint Qualification
14:30-17:10
Sprint Final
17:20
Flower Ceremony Sprint

Terezín
Terezín
Terezín

SUNDAY 4. 7. 2021
18:20-19:30
Sprint Relay
19:35
Flower Ceremony Sprint Relay
19:50
Opening Ceremony
20:20
Medal Ceremony Sprint + Sprint Relay

Doksy
Doksy
Doksy
Doksy

MONDAY 5. 7. 2021
18:30
TOM Middle DistanceOn-line

TUESDAY 6. 7. 2021
9:00-11:50
Middle Distance Qualification
15:50-20:00
Middle Distance Final
20:10
Flower Ceremony Middle Distance
20:30
Medal Ceremony Middle DistanceSmržovkaSmržovkaSmržovkaSmržovka

WEDNESDAY 7. 7. 2021
9:00-18:00
Model Relay + Long Distance
14:00-17:00
VIP and Media race
18:30
TOM Relay + Long DistanceTuhaňStaré Splavy
On-line

THURSDAY 8. 7. 2021
16:20-20:05
Relay
20:15
Flower Ceremony RelayHeřmánkyHeřmánky

FRIDAY 9. 7. 2021
12:50-19:50
Long Distance
20:00
Flower Ceremony Long Distance
20:05
Closing Ceremony
20:15
Medal Ceremony Relay + Long DistanceHeřmánkyHeřmánkyHeřmánkyHeřmánky6/ Arenas
6.1/ General information
TEREZÍN (SPRINT)
arena in the parking lot, area 8400 m2
DOKSY (SPRINT RELAY)
castle park and castle courtyard 13 700 m2SMRŽOVKA (MIDDLE)
flat meadow with a well-accessible driveway
uphill 19 100 m2HEŘMÁNKY (RELAY, LONG)
slightly sloping meadow with a poorer surface,
only one muddy driveway 25 700 m2

6.2/ Preparation of arenas
All arenas except the sprint relays were built
the day before. It was definitely necessary tospend the whole day building the arena. Afterbuilding the basics of the arena (mostly in theafternoon), some leaders of other organizing
sections came to get acquainted with the arena, and gave their comments and got details
in their background. The morning before therace, the necessary things were fine-tuned in
the arena. When dismantling the arena, the helpof volunteers from other sections proved to bevery effective, which greatly accelerated thedismantling and the removal of material.
Good to know: During sprint races it is necessary to accurately place the TV vans where there

9is enough space not to affect the courses andcompetitors.

6.3/ Problem in arenas
A missing bag in the event centre of the relay
competition was reported at the Event Office on
July 8th. The incident was reported to the police. On the next day, the bag was found by anorganizer close to the parking area. No contentsof the bag were missing. The bag was returned
to its owner. Police suspended the investigation.
As a consequence of the incident, the team‘s
area of the event centre was surrounded witha fence and controls at the entrance were reinforced.

6.4/ Security
The arenas were guarded by the security agency only at times when there were no organizers
in the arena (participation of two to three employees). During the day, it was always agreed
with the local police station that they were available if needed.

6.5/ List of arena equipment• 31 scissor tents 6x3 m• 22 scissor tents 3x3 m• 2 scissor tents 8x4 m• 2 big tents (10x15 m for media, 10x10 m for
VIP)• 1 dining tent
• 168 chairs• 79 tables• 8 VIP tables• 50 beer sets
• 120 “v” boards• 40 bins• 4 flagpoles• 1 podium 8x4 m• 1 podium 2x2 m• 30 mobile radios for communication• Electricity: 88 kW twin (broadcast), 48 kW (bigscreen), 22kW (sound system, IT), 22 kW (catering, volunteers, media, VIP)
• 10 pcs disinfection stands• toilets - up to 31• metal fences - up to 765 m (425 m for sprint
artificial barriers)

7/ Sport
7.1/ Maps
7.1.1/ Road map• December 2018 - Aleš Hejna named chief cartographer• March 2019 - meeting of WOC mappers - Zdeněk Sokolář, Jan Drbal, Matěj Klusáček, TomNovák, Jiří Vištejn, Aleš Hejna. 32 km2 of demanding terrain to be mapped.
• November 2019 - first half of terrains mapped(incl. areas for cancelled Euromeeting)• July 2020 - second half of terrains mapped• Autumn 2020 - additional sprint terrains mapped• Spring 2021 - revision of maps
• June 19th - 20th 2021 - last check of forest
maps and sending to printing company• June 26th - 27th 2021 - last check of sprint
maps and sending to printing company

7.1.2/ Crucial - Chief cartographer• Prepares, provides basemaps, assembles
maps. One symbol set for all!
• Cooperates with Event director, Sport director
and course planners.
• Manages the mapping team - mapping schedule, mapping, unified mapping style, generalization, adherence to norms (ISOM, ISSPROM),
general quality of maps, revisions.
• Negotiates with the IOF Map Commission and

10advisors (via Sport director).

7.1.3/ Challenges
Secrecy of maps - maps, basemaps distributed
via Google Drive, zipped with password. OCAD
encryption turned out to be useless. It is notpossible to edit encrypted files, also mappers
work on different platforms (different versionsof OCAD, Open Orienteering Mapper) that do notsupport encryption.
There should be a guideline on how to safeguard maps - there might be a growing risk of hacking of secret data that could affect fair play infuture WOCs.
SPRINT Q+F, SPRINT RELAY• Generally, the aim was to make these maps
fully in accordance with ISSprOM, having also
devoted much attention to the legibility check.
• SQ,SF: Entrance into fortress tunnels highlighted using white background to promote thereadability.
• SF: One of the tunnels leading under a private olive area was by intention marked slightly
against the ISSprOM – as the top layer was infact not runnable, it should be marked grey as
canopy. However, to keep the consistency thewhite diagonal stripes were used as everywhere else on the map. The issue was approved by

the SEA and head of the IOF Map Commission
and presented in Bulletin 4.
• SQ, SR: Some of the artificially closed partsof streets were marked on maps as common
fenced olive private areas – to promote the readability of course overprint.
• Instead of plain white, „semi-open open land“
was extensively used for all easy-runnablepark-style forest areas, to indicate that thesurface is as fast as on the grass.
FOREST MAPS
• A couple of extremely narrow sandstone passages were „blinded“ on maps and made transparently unrunnable in terrain (filled up with
branches and fallen trees).
• All sandstone passages possible to run through were broadened in the map for legibility reasons and optimization into a 1:15 000 scale
map. Aleš Hejna: “Generalization in sandstone
areas is tough. There is limited space on the
map and the mapper has to balance this all thetime. You can‘t always enlarge cliffs out of real
proportions (into ISOM proportions) because it would block passages between cliffs. If
there was a dispute between size of cliff andsize of passage, passage was given priority. All
sandstone passages on WOC sandstone maps
(long, relay) shall have on map at least 2,5 metres.”• IOF Map Commission has approved a deviati-

7/ Sport

11

on in colour of buildings - grey on long, middle
and relay maps. Aleš Hejna: „Buildings on all
WOC maps are in grey colour with a thin black
outline. This enhances legibility of maps. You
can easily tell the difference between rock features and buildings.“

7.1.4/ Print
All WOC maps were printed by Žaket Praha,
IOF certified printer cooperating with Czech high-level events for many years. Offset printing
on g-print paper was evaluated as the highest
possible quality and used in all WOC competitions (incl. test races organised by WOC organisers, 1:15000 scale training maps and both relay competitions). It was the first time we usedfull offset print for relay competitions as well (=unique printing plate for every variant) to ensure
highest possible quality. All WOC maps were sealed into a plastic bag.
WOC forest maps and courses were printed
2 weeks before the event. Sprint disciplines
were printed just in the week prior to the WOC
to capture as actual state of changing urban
areas as possible. During the final check ofprinted Sprint Qualification maps by SEA, it was
discovered that course overprint in one heat had
moved a bit, and a shifted purple out-of-bounds
area hid an allowed passage. Thanks to Zaket’s
flexibility, two men’s heats were quickly reprin-

Although all sandstone passages possible to run through were broadened in the map, as Daniel Hubmann
tested they remained quite narrow in reality. Photo: Lukáš Budínský
ted just before the race.
MEN’S RELAY “WET MAPS CASE”
Men’s relay race was unfortunately influenced
by heavy clouds and thunderstorms. Two athle-tes destroyed their map totally during the racewith impact on their performance. Plastic bags
were torn and wet paper crumbled. Complaint
about map and plastic bag quality received.
Plastic bags used were the very same as for7/ Sport
previous IOF high-level and national competitions organized in the Czech Republic, many times tested without any issue. The print quality
was even increased for this WOC by using offset
print for relay races as well. Unfortunately theweather and terrain was so extreme that it waseasy to fall down and break the plastic bag withthe map.
The case was discussed with the printing company and some tests were done. No general
mistake found. Print was OK and the ink andcolours should not blur when just wet. But very
wet g-print paper can of course crumble whenchafed.
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE PRINTINGCOMPANYTo avoid any blurring the printing should takeplace as long before the competition as possible. Maps need enough time to get dry. Printed maps should not be kept just in a sealed
bundle, but should be aired to support drying.
Maps should not be sealed into the plastic bags
immediately afterprinting (it makes the drying
process impossible), but instead just before thecompetition.
RECOMMENDATION FROM US TO FUTURE
ORGANISERS
Consider double waterproof protection andprint to waterproof paper instead of g-print.

12

Even though the quality can be a bit lower.
MAP EXCHANGE POSSIBILITY DURING THE
LONG DISTANCE
As an immediate corrective measure the organiser offered a map exchange possibility for thelong distance competition held on the following
day. Approx. half of the runners used this opportunity. But all thrown away maps were neither
destroyed nor wet, just dirty.
Note: the weather during the long distance race
was much much better: light rain and wet forest
just in the beginning of the race.

7.2/ Course setting
7.2.1/ Road map• December 2018 - first rough course conceptof forest disciplines on the old maps to define
the mapping scope• Spring 2019 - first SEA visit to evaluate terrains and planned arenas, forming of WOC 2021
course setting team
• September 2019 - first small parts of WOC
forest terrains mapped, first meeting of
WOC2021 course setting team: Daniel Wolf
(sport director), Jindřich Kořínek (chief control setter), Martin Janata and Michal Horáček(middle distance), Radek Novotný (relay, trainings), Petr Karvánek (long)• November / December 2019 - first draft cour-ses on WOC maps (middle, relay)• March 2020 - long discussion about relay
concept and how to avoid long dead runningparts => decided to move the arena Heřmánky
about 1 km to the north, a meadow with poorer access road, but much better location fromsport perspective• May 2020 - last forest map (long distance) fully mapped• Summer 2020 - WOC2020 cancelled - twosprint disciplines added to WOC programme,
looking for suitable locations (after negotiations with municipalities, Terezín and Doksy
were chosen), Radek Novotný agreed to set
the sprint relay, Daniel Wolf to cover sprint
distance• Autumn 2020 - first sprint draft courses on
old maps to define the mapping scope, urban
mapping in progress, concepts of all forest
courses finalized, Euromeeting + Training
camp 2020 cancelled (both in September andOctober due to Covid-19), loss of relevant testcomplicated the winning times estimation
a lot• March 2021 - postponed Euromeeting cancelled again• April 2021 - finally first training camp including
several timed sessions organized (sandstone
areas only)• May 2021 - fine tuning of all courses based on
various testing7/ Sport• June 2021 - last revisions and print

7.2.2/ Course overprint issues
SPRINT Q+F, SPRINT RELAY• SQ: A piece of a fence was hidden under an
uncut control circle overprint. This small error
led to time losses, fortunately without any crucial impact on participation in the final.
• SF: According to the maps, it should be possi-

Future champion Isac von Krusenstierna madea huge mistake in the very beginning of the qualification course, partly because of this uncut
circle. He started early in the final, but it did not
influence his great performance.

13

ble to pass through the arena during the race.
In practice this was only possible by running
through the corridors with a risk of crossing
the finish line. When thinking about the course, this „wrong“ route option was considered
as too long to be chosen, while during thecompetition some runners took it, including
later medalists, fortunately without any serious consequence.
• SR: Artificial barriers and forbidden areas weremarked using 5 different features, according
to the optimal map readability at each of the
spots and also according to the importance ofthe barrier. In principle, barriers with huge impact were made very transparent, while those
prolonging running time by several seconds
only were drawn usually as common fences
without any highlighting. The approach waspresented in Bulletin 4 as well as at TOM andat Technical Model Event.
• SR: Following the SEA decision, code numbers
were not printed beside control numbers.
RELAY• Due to the competition area shape the course
drawing was rather condensed and thus lessreadable. Teams we strongly alerted at TOM
and it seems that the course drawing was not
an issue during the race then.

7.2.3/ Challenges
SPRINT Q+F• Same arena and same quarantine zone andpre-start area used for both qualification andfinal. The same area was offered to the teams
for resting between the competitions. It wasa good decision; much easier logistics forboth organiser and teams.
• SQ: Long discussions on how to solve themiddle part of the courses. To offer a more
tricky fortress or easier urban orienteering
was a question. Finally it was decided to let
the runners taste a bit of fortress orienteering
using artificial barriers in a long moat.
• SF: First concepts considered “fortress” race
only, but there was pressure from the SEA
team to integrate the urban part as well. It was
not easy, as the town did not offer big orienteering complexity. Technical difficulty of thispart was increased by making all the grass inthe park area “olive green” and using artificial
barriers.
• Organisers succeeded in closing most of thearea for traffic and for pedestrians / spectators as well. It was very much appreciated by
the teams and made the race much safer.
• All uncrossable walls and areas were taped,
for fairness and safety reasons. Almost 60 people did all the taping and built artificial fences for many hours. Maybe it was too much

7/ Sport
and did not look nice on TV, but the race wasfair and there were absolutely no issues andcomplaints about crossing some uncrossable
object, as we face in almost every sprint competition.
• 175 segments of 2.5m wide artificial fence
used in terrain, partly wrapped in WOC designed nonwoven

14• over 10 km tape
• 200 metal stakes• SF: Many route choice challenges were offered and almost all variants were chosen (alsosome totally unexpected where the grass was
not cut). In the men‘s race, picking the correctroutes was key to the victory.
• SF: Winning times were 30-40 sec. fasterthan expected. Pace was expected to be a bit
slower on bumpy grassland. Probably it would be slower when wet. But no impact on thecompetition.
SPRINT RELAY• Due to the circumstances the map was available first in September 2020 and courses
were developed intensively during spring
2021, having ready the final version in May.
• The aim was to create courses with lots ofsplitting, many route-choice options and problem solving, but still even and tight. Situations where a small mistake could result ina huge time loss were avoided.
• To get on a sufficient technical level, many private areas were used: school yard, kindergarten yard, museum garden, retirement house
yard, and even a selected private garden in a
spot where we needed to find a control place.
• To combat the thorough theoretical preparations of teams, it was also necessary to change
the common structures using artificial barriers and areas.
• The crucial forkings offered tricky route-choice problems, where a wrong decision resulted in time losses of about 10-15“.
• Some controls even worked as a „bait“, to lure
the runners on to a wrong route.
• Same control was used as the public control
and the last control. Teams were properly in-7/ Sport
formed about that.
• (!) Forking distribution: When all 4 legs are
put into the same OCAD course-setting file,
it appears that OCAD is absolutely not able
to create a desired forking distribution. If wewere to use it without any intervention, therace would be completely spoiled. Eventually,
this had to be done manually, selecting a setof forking variants which were as different as
possible. (Fortunately the neighbouring alternatives generated by OCAD are mirrors of one
another, which made that job a bit easier.)• Expected fastest times were calculated, thecourses were never tested by any top elite
runner. The estimated winning time was 61´,
Sweden then won with 62´.
• All features supposed not to be crossed wereprecisely marked in the terrain and observed
during the race.
• The traffic was stopped during the race in thewhole area. As usual this decision had to beannounced by local authorities, meaning thatthe teams could find a list of closed streets inlocal media, as has usually happened recently.
• Originally a final loop in a chateau park wassuggested – then erased during the final course tuning as it was not sure if there would beallowed any spectators in the arena due to Covid. Courses were also a bit too long like that,and the orienteering in the park was extremely
simple. The decision was right.

15

MIDDLE• Wild and demanding area of Jizerské hory
was chosen for the middle distance to distinguish from the sandstone but still to offer
demanding orienteering. For many athletes
it was maybe even more demanding and therace was evaluated as very tough. Terrain wasvery variable from very fast grown beech forest to extremely slow with high blueberries,
fallen trees and rocky ground.
• Same arena and quarantine zone used for both
qualification and final. The same area wasoffered to the teams for resting between thecompetitions. It was a good decision, mucheasier logistics for both organiser and teams.
• MQ: Courses were shortened several times,
but still were some 2-3 minutes longer than
expected. Last 800 metres was just dead-running on the meadows towards the finish, butfinishing out of the arena was not an option at
WOC.
• MF: Winning times were longer than required.
After selection races we felt it might be slightly longer, but times around 36 min were expected. Unfortunately even the best ones mademistakes or did not perform the best route
choices. And also tired legs from morning qualification made it very tough.
RELAY• To be able to offer a real sandstone experien-ce, the arena of LD and R was moved from theoriginal spot to a location much closer to thesandstones and a new logistic solution wasdeveloped (March 2020).
• Still, as the most interesting part of the terrain
was the most remote part, one of the biggest
challenges was to provide a proper sandstone
experience even for women while keeping thecourse length inside the time frame of TV transmission.
• The expected winning times were calculatedusing input from recent top events in similar
sandstone terrain. Unfortunately there were
just a few such races (mainly WC 2018 andCzech team test 2018) and none of them included the relay effect, which always makes
courses somehow faster. Estimating the value of the relay effect was the key to the rightcourse-length. At the end, after an impression
from selection races, the average kilometer
speed was supposed to be set correctly, with
open possibility that final winning times ofteams can be slightly longer due to possible
mistakes in this demanding terrain type. Swedish men won with 113 min (37:40 per leg)and Swedish women with 106 min (35:15 perleg). Best leg times of the day: Kasper Fosser
35:20, Simone Aebersold 33:34.
• Longer winning times of men were partly influenced by the extremely bad visibility due
to late start combined with heavy clouds and7/ Sport
thunderstorms. Some of the top teams evenused headlamps on the 2nd and 3rd legs!
• The aim was to create intricate forkings, testing autonomous navigation, offering typicalsandstone route-choice problems, and still
very even. Based on GPS and split times it
seems that all forkings were about the sametime length.
• In forkings, a special attention was devoted tofinding control objects differing significantly
from each other, to prevent mispunching.
• Same control was used as public control andas the last one. Teams knew that beforehand.
• A few unusual control sites (e.g. cliff on top)
were demonstrated at a model event.
• An artificial fenced forbidden area was created at the bottom of one of the valleys to support the course-setting intentions. This area
was marked by double/triple tapes and manned.
• The forking distribution generated by OCAD
was considered to be suitable for the race.
However, the distribution was properly checked for top-10 teams only. Later when maps
were already printed we realized that somestrong teams with high start bibs got almost the same variants as top teams (e.g.
SWE+AUT). Fortunately the route choice problems separated those teams quite early –but definitely an issue to be handled carefully
at next WOCs!

16

LONG
• Area was limited by protected nature reserves (it was forbidden to enter such areas) andother parts of Protected landscape area Kokořínsko, with higher protection level, where it

was not possible to set controls. But still we
succeeded in finding sufficient and demanding pieces of forest for the long distance.
Many runners expected the race in different
parts of the forest.

Andrine Benjaminsen making a mistake on the southern route choice to cn. 2 which was tested as fastestand probably would be the fastest without this mistake.

7/ Sport• Overlapping with relay area was resolved
using longer, easier transfer legs and the last
loop offered different kinds of orienteering.
Last loop was rather short, but still offered atleast two route-choice problems at the veryend.
• Tactics of many runners was to avoid rocks
and deep re-entrants and to use tracks androads as much as possible. Many tested andexpected route choices were not chosen on
longer legs. Therefore fastest leg times wererun on variants which were tested as slower.
• Men’s start was moved 15 minutes earlier
compared to the schedule presented in Bulletin 4 due to bad experience from the relay raceand risk of darkness. Fortunately the weather
was much better and light conditions were
sufficient.
• Winning times were 3 minutes faster than expected in both classes. Both Tove and Kasper
performed outstanding runs and dominatedthe race.
• In the men‘s class all three medalists finishedtogether. They all met in the first half of thecourse and formed a very strong group. Kasper
Fosser was the strongest that day and performed an incredible race. It started discussions
on a longer start interval or splitting methodin the second part of the course. This is more
to evaluate at IOF level and adjust competition rules accordingly. But the splitting method

17

Northern (red) variant was tested as 1:30-2:00 min. slower than the southern one. And the race confirmed
it and many runners were taken in and lost time here. It seemed too easy just to follow the road, but it was
too long this time. Unfortunately nobody tested the straight route choice which was also expected to bevery fast.

7/ Sport
like a “butterfly” would not solve the problem
at all as the 1st and 3rd would still continue
together and the 2nd man would probably not
lose his position when running a few controls
alone.
• Some runners who participated in the race
did not have sufficient orienteering skills andwere searching for the first control longer than
the winning time on the whole course and organisers needed to help them out of the forest. There should be qualification or at least
more strict qualification rules to start in the
WOC long distance.

18

for the WOC relay there was a lot of pressure
from broadcasters to move the race as late as
possible (between Tour de France and EURO).
And in case of bad weather it causes huge issues with impact on a fair race. We already had
two examples: the WOC relay in Norway 2019
and Czech Republic 2021. We recommend to
future organisers to make the start earlier andconsider postponed broadcast or other opti-

ons. Always count with bad weather. Fortunately we were lucky in middle and long where it
would have been even more unfair.
• Never think that the route choice is so
disadvantageous that nobody takes it. As wesaw in sprint and long, there is always somebody who surprises you.

7.2.4/ Good practice and recommendations• Common arena and quarantine / resting zone
when 2 races in 1 day makes life much easier
not only for organisers, but for teams as well.
• Urban races: Always try to exclude traffic (incl.
pedestrians) or choose areas where it is possible to limit it. All uncrossable features should
be taped and manned even when it seems tobe obvious. It makes the race fair and safe.
• Relay: Test the forking distribution generated
by OCAD beforehand, compare the variants ofthe best teams, especially in sprint relay andstep in when not sufficiently different.
• Late starts can bring higher viewership in TV,
but are not comfortable either for athletes oron-site spectators and organisers. Especially

On transfer leg to the spectator control in the long distance Natalia Gemperle chose an unexpected route
choice through the village. She crossed the TV compound, steep uphill to the arena and finish facilities andcorridor in the opposite direction.

7/ Sport						8/ Bulletins

7.3/ Model Events

7.4/ SEA visits

Four official model events were set before WOC
2021:

1ST SEA VISIT
Date: 3rd - 4th February 2019

MODEL SPRINT
Control flags only, opened in dedicated time
only as the model was partly organized in private areas. Aim of this model event was to show
structure and mapping of the fortress area in
Terezín - height of the walls, moats, multi levels.

Goals: get together, first plans, visit sandstoneterrain.

MODEL SPRINT RELAY + TECHNICAL MODEL
Timed session from the Event Centre opened
in dedicated time only. Aim of this model event
was to present special control placing for sprint
and sprint relay and to show all types of uncrossable barriers.
MODEL MIDDLE DISTANCE
Control flags only in dedicated time, but themodel was opened and the map sent to teams
some weeks in advance. Teams were offeredanother small training area in the mountains forthe final preparations, it was highly appreciated.
MODEL RELAY & LONG
control flags + organized shuttle transport fromparking during the official model event time. It
was some 2 km from the parking lot to the start.
But the model event map was provided to teams
for the whole WOC week as well.

Participants: Daniel Leibundgut, Péter Molnár,
Daniel Wolf, Jan Picek
2ND SEA VISIT
Date: 23rd - 26th May 2019
Goals: Fix the terrains for WOC, visit to EventCentre, discussions on Bulletin 1
Participants: Daniel Leibundgut, Péter Molnár,
Adam Chromý, Jan Picek, Jana Kubátová (partly)
3RD SEA VISIT
Date: 17th - 19th July 2020
Goals: Discussions on bulletin matters, visits toall arenas and terrains including sprints, shortvisit to Event Centre
Participants: Jorgen Hector, Péter Molnár, ÁdámLengyel, Jan Fiala, Daniel Wolf, Jan Picek, MatějBurda
4TH SEA VISIT
Date: 13th - 15th May 2021
Goals: Course setting and mapping details,

19

arena matters, collaboration for the remaining
weeks until WOC
Participants: Jorgen Hector, Péter Molnár, ÁdámLengyel, Jan Fiala, Daniel Wolf, Jan Picek, Matěj Burda, Radek Novotný and Michal Horáček(partly)
In addition to the SEA visit, the organizers together with the SEA team communicated atregular online meetings (once in 14 days from
November 2020, once a week in June 2021) andalso via email.

8/ Bulletins
In accordance with IOF Rules, four bulletinswere issued:• 21st August 2019 		
• 2nd September 2020		
• 13th April 2021		
• 27th June 2021		

Bulletin 1
Bulletin 2
Bulletin 3
Bulletin 4

Bulletins were published on the WOC website
and on Eventor. The content of all bulletins was
as required by IOF Rules. We created the COVID
Bulletin also (see chapter 4).

9/ Training opportunities and selection races
9.1/ Training opportunities
The approach to Training Activities at WOC
2021 was very different from the traditional one.
Our system was supposed to deliver more thanjust good training opportunities. The aim was tofind such a set-up not only able to support our
cooperation with anti-Covid and nature reserveauthorities, but furthermore also making things
more fair, transparent and feasible for everyone– as WOC Training has recently been rather controversial in the international community.

9.1.1/ Goals• to offer highly relevant training opportunities(traditional one)• to make it more affordable = more fair for everyone• to limit the black market• to be able to give the requested data to local
authorities (nature reserve areas etc.)• to gain control over training areas occupancy
to obey the anti-COVID regulations

9.1.2/ Training maps and courses
To provide the most relevant experience, wehave provided not only the most relevant training maps available, but we have also asked our
WOC course-setters to set training courses.
These were offered for free along with all OCAD

files. Forest training courses were also marked
in the terrain to make it easier for small teams
and individuals without any supporting staff onsite.
The aim was to provide at least 2 relevant maps20

and 2 relevant courses per discipline. Preferably the maps to be done by WOC cartographers(this principle couldn´t be fully followed due tounavailability of fresh Euromeeting maps).

9/ Training opportunities and selection races
9.1.3/ Pricing
The teams could purchase a general ‘WOC licence’ for all training OCAD files. For 5000 CZK(200€) they have received about 25 OCAD files,
including all updates and permission to spreadthese files inside the national team, so that individuals could legally use them for their camps.
At the same time, a session fee of 50 CZK(1,90€) per person/session was applied. This
fee was due for athletes only, coaches wereusing maps for free.
As an alternative, we have also provided printed
maps for 30 CZK (1,2€)/session. Most of themwere laser printed at short notice right in Doksy.
Maps of 1 : 15 000 scale were offset printed in
Zaket, the same way as WOC competition maps.
The price of blank maps and maps with WOC
training courses was the same, to make it easierand to limit a temptation for cheating.

9.1.4/ Training Registration System(TRS)
To administer the session fee and gain the necessary training areas occupancy data for local
authorities, we developed a simple on-line app.
Teams were asked to register all their training
sessions in WOC training areas in advance –day, am/pm, area, number of athletes. This data

21

(filtered) was shared with various authorities,
instead of compulsory off-line reports.

at the same time.

After camps, this data could have been modified into real figures and served as an input for
invoicing.

9.1.5/ Experience

The registration was easy and could be doneby anyone who has created a personal accountunder his/her nationality. This way the TRS wasused by many individuals.
As a positive side-product of the TRS, the teams
could see the plans of other teams, which enabled better coordination – either to share courses or, conversely not to meet at the same spot

• By 90% of teams, the TRS was smoothly used
and thanks to their positive and cooperative
approach the system provided the desired
output.
• The general WOC licence was purchased by
18 teams = most of the big and mid-size ones.
Teams were happy to get all the files at once,
receiving updates and not facing any doubts
concerning the usage of files by national teamathletes individually.
• As a benefit, the system made it completely le-9/ Training opportunities and selection races
gal to join other teams sessions even without
having officially purchased OCAD files.
• Economic result: The income from training activities for WOC was about as expected (giventhat due to COVID the training period lasted
just some 2-3 months), while the distributionof payments among national teams was much
more fair – thanks to low price, all teams had
same chances to purchase the WOC OCAD files licence and payment of session fee is thenproportional to the number of athletes in the
team.
• The level of cheating (illegal OCAD file sharing) is estimated to be very low this time,
hopefully thanks to the pricing approach. The
transparency of TRS also ensures that theteams can somehow „keep an eye“ on eachother.
• To our surprise, the offset printed 1 : 15 000
maps were not used to such an extent as expected. Most teams simply did not consider
this feature as significant. Some bigger teams
made such prints at home using OCADs.
• Laser printed maps were printed in Doksy, usually at very short notice (1-2 days, sometimes
even hours). Teams appreciated this flexibility
a lot.
• Most of the training prints were maps with
WOC training courses. Blank maps made up
only about 3%.
• WOC training courses were very popular andthe teams would welcome new fresh courses
each time they came back for training. Our offer was kept the same during the whole spring
2021, just some selection races courses wereadded.

9.2/ Selection Races
Timed courses were offered to teams on the following occasions:9.2.1/ Official test races | June 5-6
2021• Middle distance in Tanvald - a new map by
WOC cartographers Klusáček/Vištejn, courses by WOC course-setter Michal Horáček.
104 women and 144 men from 27 national
teams entered. Winners Tove Alexandersson
and Gustav Bergman.
• Long distance in Srbská Kamenice - map 2020
by WOC cartographer Zdeněk Sokolář, courses
by WOC course-setter Petr Karvánek. Spared
area, not used for training. Due to the numberof participants, the classes were duplicated.
57 + 47 women and 75 + 70 men from 27 national teams entered. Winners Tove Alexandersson, Isia Basset, Kasper Fosser and Lucas
Basset.

22

9.2.2/ Alternative test races ordered by
SUI, NOR, AUT | May 29-30 2021
• Middle distance in Tanvald – another part of
the new map used for the official test race.
Courses by WOC course-setter Martin Janata.
31 women and 46 men entered. Winners Kamilla Steiwer and Eskil Kinneberg.
• Long distance in Dobřeň – revised training
map Supi hora (embargoed for all SUI/NOR/
AUT athletes). Courses by WOC course-setter
Radek Novotný. 31 women and 49 men entered. Winners Andrine Benjaminsen and Kasper
Fosser.

9.2.3/ Easter timed sessions | April 3-4
2021• Middle and long, both in Selska rokle training
area. 54 men and 31 women from 7 teams.
These activities were organised in a simple training mode, with respect to all current antiCOVID
precautions. Still, the runners could eventually
get a highly relevant competition experience
they otherwise lacked due to all COVID bans.
Moreover, these events have also brought someinteresting practical hints to organisers.

10/ Marketing & communication
10.1/ MediaIn total there were 43 accredited media representatives. The decline of journalist interest in
arriving on site compared to WOC 2019 is partly
due to the pandemic situation which imposed
first: travel restrictions (based on communication with some of the non-arriving-yet-interested
media) and second: the restrictions on-site thatwere somewhat harsher than the current ‘mood’in the country. And partly due to lower interestin the sport in Czech Republic in general.
Countries represented: Sweden, Switzerland,
Norway, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia.
Some of the media representatives chose tostay with the teams and thus were not includedin the numbers presented (France, Germany).
The vast majority of the international media
were photographers. Only SVT produced live
interviews, all of the others were recorded andsent later.

10.1.1/ Experience with media
The general feedback on the services was very
good. The interested media were receiving adaily schedule prior to each of the events including the essential information about the event(venue, terrain, a few words from the course
planners) via email and there was always a23press meeting held at the beginning of the day.
As most of the media were photographers, themain purpose of the meeting was to show theplaces booked for them. This got a little tricky
for the longer events or those with qualification
because the time of arrival to the arena varied
significantly.
There was a Media Centre only in the race arenas; due to the Covid restrictions there were noother places to meet designed for the media
representatives. We offered help to some ofthose who were experiencing low quality of internet connection at their accommodation. The
media tent offered working places with internet
connection for everyone, a printer, TV with live
broadcast and refreshments.
The event logistics made the media team-workquite tough in several ways. However, given thecircumstances, the IT team managed to ensuresufficient internet connection at all arenas. And
the arena staff always waited until the media
were done with their work before they put thearena down.
PHOTOGRAPHERS
With just a few exceptions, almost all of thephotographers were very disciplined and witha deep understanding of the sport. There wereenough human resources dedicated to ‘guide’
them to the controls as well as through thearenas (due to Covid restrictions and the needto keep them separated from the teams). The
organizing team spent a substantial amount oftime discussing photo controls in the race areasand had checked all the options that the courses offered several times.
However, there were discussions with the photographers about the attitude towards them andthe circumstances in the race area that would
actually suit them. All explained in a letter by
Rémy Steinegger (on behalf of the o-photographers) to IOF - though some would have beenin conflict with the Covid-imposed rules valid in
2021.

10.1.2/ Presentation of the event in the
media
There was very good coverage of the event in
the main national media thanks to the broadcasts and news by the Czech TV, Czech Radioand the Czech press office (which the most important news servers used). These brought international orienteering to the Czech public inhigh volumes.
Before the event, the two main focus areas wereactive runners (via an extensive cooperation
with the leading magazine for runners) and the
locals in the WOC region (via cooperation withthe local administrative bodies and regional

10/ Marketing & communication

24

usual primary functions:magazines and bulletins). Also a number of ads
in the partner magazines informing about theevent were published prior to the WOC.

of local and smaller media journalists without
access to the mixed zone.

10.1.3/ Media race

WOC 2021 marketing had different pillars withthe same goal: promoting a World-class sports
event in a beautiful environment to show its
attractiveness for all stakeholders (athletes, public, sponsors).

1. Competition info for elite athletes and national teams with training possibilities (including
WOC Bulletins).
2. Information for spectators and spectator races (separate web page - WOC Tour 2021)
3. News
4. Presentation of our partners and sponsors

Besides webpages, social media (Facebook,
Instagram, Youtube , WOC app) and events supporting WOC 2021 mentioned below, we haveadvertised the event in:• 86 articles + 70 important notes were published.
• During the WOC week we had 85 thousand
unique visitors making 165 thousand visits.

• Running magazines• Magazines with different topics• Discussion radio on WOC 2021 and orienteering topics• Leaflets and posters in the region of all competitions• Big advertising boards in Doksy and Liberec• Press releases and conferences prior to theevent• Cooperation with our partners on advertising• Distributing information and important content to Czech orienteering clubs• Newsletters of Czech Orienteering Federation

We established WOC 2021 Live Center alongside the IOF Live Center, mainly because of theconnection to WOC app and to service the broader public visiting just Czech web pages.

The VIP and media race took part on Wednesday, 7th July at the Event Centre - Hotel Bezděz.
There were three different courses prepared forthe competitors in a very beautiful area withpartly city race and partly sandstone forest. It
was a sunny day and the atmosphere was great.
Competitors could also refresh themselves after they got to the finish. Over 50 VIP and media
personnel took part throughout the day, some ofthem even ran all the courses.

10.1.4/ Press conferences
We experienced a decrease of journalists‘ interest in press conferences. We held press conferences after the Sprint with a low number ofquestions and interest from the journalists. Allof them reached the athletes in the mixed zone
and got all the information they needed. During
the next few days we always asked all the journalists if there is an interest in having a press
conference, with negative answers, so we skipped the organisation and focused only on photo-shoots of medalists with their medals. Our
experience is that the importance of press conferences increases if there is a higher number

10.2/ Marketing efforts

10.2.1/ Web Pages
The web pages were established to cover four

As an addition to standard informative content
we came with articles and interviews with organisers, to give as much information as possible
to the runners and spectators.
The biggest traffic was clearly during the WOC
week and always around the ‘specific’ orienteering content such as terrain information, maps
and especially results (selection races etc.). During the first WOC day we experienced problems
with server capacity, so we had to transfer thewhole website to another one between Sprint Q
and Sprint F to secure smooth processing,10/ Marketing & communication
which was accomplished and all the other days’
websites worked well.

10.2.2/ WOC app
The innovation deepening connection to theathletes and fans was the development of WOC
app. The main objective was to bring all the information closer to the runners and public. No
need for laptops and computers, all key information and notification in a pocket. Originally25

the main focus was on the public, but with manychanges we found out how to make it a useful
tool for the athletes as well. The biggest advantage of the app is sustainability and portability
to our other events in upcoming years.

10.2.3/ Social MediaWe have been building the marketing and flowof the information on the two biggest social
media platforms in the Czech Republic (Face-book, Instagram). We started to present through our social media almost two and half years
before the WOC 2021, to bring the new followers
in decent numbers, soon before getting to the
key events and information announced by WOC
social media. Social media proved to be an
essential instrument in turbulent pandemic years, and helped us a lot with informing the audience promptly when there was any change.
From the very beginning we decided to have ourown social media so we could plan, post andpresent partners according to our needs (we are
not against joint WOC accounts, but it will needbigger planning and a little bit different structure to fulfill the needs of organizers). In current
circumstances we find it as the best way. On
side of cons is starting from scratch with zero
followers. For planning of posting the content
we used Business Suit, working well for Facebook but struggling with losing IG text. It seems
that it is currently more reliable, but in case ofcontinuing problems we will have to search foranother external platform.
Generally our focus was on strong attractive
WOC 2021 brand and interesting and interactive
content. We stood on high quality pictures fromthe WOC environment and we tried to bring innovative features in presenting orienteering. We
came up with several formats of video content.
First one was an irregular podcast WOC Insightwhere we presented terrain, preparations and10/ Marketing & communication
also the background of our partners. So the
WOC Insight became a channel bringing multiple information to competitors and spectators
as well. Another video tool was a WOC interview
where we talked to the favourites from various
national teams. The goal was to get orienteering fans closer to the athletes during the time
before the event. The WOC interview was done
online. The most difficult but the most innovative activity in the field of video making was workon WOC Course previews. In all it cost a lot oftime and money, but according to the feedback
from fans and TV viewers they showed orienteering in a way they could not see before andsignificantly helped everyone to understand thesport.
We have created more than 40 videos all together.
FACEBOOK
Facebook was a channel which mostly suitedfor posting the basic information, presenting
the partners and also for the online cooperation
with region and local municipalities. We haven‘t
used paid ads except boosting a WOC teaser aweek before the start of the event. Otherwise
we aimed to have organic reach thanks to cooperation with our media but also non-media
partners.
During the WOC week we reached about 30 to26

40 thousand hits per post without advertising
the content. To have all the content we planned
to present we had 5 people in the social media
team, using as well our 5 photographers and video team (6 people) as an important resource.
Also the tight cooperation within the social media team played an important role in reaching all
the fans around the World.
INSTAGRAM
The core of our Instagram presentation lay in
top pictures and videos from WOC areas. We
got very good feedback on the attractive natureof the WOC 2021 IG channel which helped us to
put in more practical information-type content
once or twice a week. With the pictures we had
support from Liberec region and its sources, videos were made by our WOC video team. Total
number of followers reached 3.5 thousand before the WOC week.

10.2.4/ Course Previews
See the whole WOC 2021 Course previews
breakdown.

10.2.5/ Logo, branding and the wholeconcept
See the whole story.

10.2.6/ Fulfilment of our ambition
Our goal was to present WOC 2021 and orienteering as a modern progressive sport which
can be attractive also for the non-orienteering
public. We believe we achieved to satisfy theorienteering fans with all the information andservices we have offered with addition in theform of broader attractive video content thanusual. We have also received positive feedback
from the public watching TV production. The
audience appreciated our efforts to “explain”
orienteering with new tools and we believe we10/ Marketing & communication
helped more people to understand what orienteering is about. Thanks to that
we believe we can continue with strengthening the position of orienteering insociety, even though we believe we could do more for example in the way of
online advertising of our selected content so the effect described above could be stronger. In this and almost every other situation the pandemic situation did not help us, by bringing uncertainty about the crucial facts such asdates of the competitions and possibility of having spectators in the arenas.
On the other hand the situation placed more attention on online marketingand showed its importance in current years. WOC 2021 also showed that theorienteering community (especially the Czech one) likes to visit big events
when they can also perform and try the terrain by themselves. So the absence of accompanying WOC Tour competitions resulted in lower numbers ofspectators in the arenas.

10.2.7/ Events supporting WOC 2021BĚHEJ S MAPOU
Series of orienteering competitions open for broad public presenting orienteering and WOC 2021 - website.
WOC PHOTO TOURAs a reaction to Covid restrictions, the organising team together with local
municipalities created the WOC Photo Tour, an orienteering game based onmaps and photo controls.
SPORT EXHIBITIONS
We have visited several cultural and sport events with our WOC 2021 presentation tent.
All the activities highlighted became the most efficient tools in how to present orienteering and inform local communities about WOC 2021.

27

11/ TV coverage
11.1/ TV concept
The principle idea was to ensure that all medal
races were covered by the live TV broadcasting
conducted in accordance with the IOF TV manual. As the local producer, the Czech TV waschosen and respected Karel Jonak was hired as
the head director. His experience combined withperfectionism was a good guarantee of the highlevel TV product we were aiming at.
Resulting 5 live products were offered to broadcasting companies - finally TV spectators in
7 countries could watch the live broadcast• Finland (YLE),• Sweden (SVT),• Norway (NRK),• Switzerland (SRF),• Austria (ORF),• France (TV8 Mont-Blanc),• Czech Republic (CzT).
The final product was endowed with both English and Russian commentary and became astandard IOF live stream available for standard
fee on the IOF website. Due to the Covid problems, all foreign commentators were working
remotely, only Czech commentators were on-site.

28

11.2/ Preparation
11.2.1/ On-site meetings
First on-site meetings took place in October
2019, when the feasibility of TV production was
one of the aspects for the choice of the arenas.
Daniel Wolf, the sport director, was already experienced enough to help course setters employ
TV splits that correspond to the TV manual.
Some minor comments to the TV splits were
given by Karel Jonak already in 2019. Therefore the course setting process was fluent andnot disrupted by unexpected change in requirements from the side of TV.
The preparation work then followed the prepared schedule. Karel Jonák lives some 30 km
from the Hermanky venue, which made extra visits to the competition area easily possible.

11.2.2/ Clash of perspectives
Since we (as the LOC) were preparing the WOC
for three years, whereas for the TV squad, WOC
was simply one of many events, some questions were targeted later than we would prefer.
Another aspect was that unlike what was originally planned, two big sports events (football
Euro and Olympic Games) were held in 2021,
which occupied the key TV production personnel during the last preparation weeks and WOC
itself as well.

11.2.3/ GSM signal coverage issue
Since the sport quality was put as the most important aspect of WOC 2021, one had to deal
with complications with insufficient GSM coverage of the long+relay terrain, which would makethe online GPS tracking impossible. Finally, inall competition areas the signal was strengthened by the national provider using a mobile BTS
station (even though almost all available BTS
stations were moved to South Moravia to ensure
basic infrastructure after a tornado hit). Anotherconsequence of giving sport quality highest priority was that in both forest venues, the TV compound was located in rather remote places fromthe arena. This is another aspect that complicates the TV production.

11.3/ Responsibilities
Czech TV was responsible for the TV production as a whole. Two sets of OB vans and two
production groups were used for covering the
WOC - squad A covered the races in Terezin andSmrzovka (Sprint F and Middle F), while squad
B operated in Doksy and Hermanky (Sprint R, Relay, Long).
Main producer in squad A was already acquainted with orienteering live production, the main
producer in squad B was not; at least she had
an active orienteer as an assistant. Anyway, it
is important to emphasize that most members

11/ TV coverageof the TV squad are used to more simple productions at more standard venues (football stadiums, sport halls, ...).
The TV compound consisted of 2 OB vans (onefor the production of the “international” signal,other one for the Czech version, each associated with own independent SNG.
Karel Jonak was the main director and finally
he also engaged some of his co-workers (withexperience from previous WOCs) - cameramen,
technicians. Radim Hosek was appointed as the
LOC coordinator of the TV production. Two running cameramen were brought in - experienced
Carl Magnusson and a Czech elite o-runner Jiri
Vales, both of them performing a great job.
GPS tracking for the broadcast was operated directly in the OB van by our squad of 5 operatorsthat were trained directly by Pekka Varis, authorof the Seuranta program. They were also responsible for the GPS tracking as a whole. The
complete agenda of the GPS team is describedin the next chapter.

11.4/ New inspirations, new warnings
11.4.1/ Prepared video materials
We wanted to enrich the product with professionally prepared video materials (terrain preview,
course preview), which were described in detailin previous sections. This was a big success -29

despite the fact that it is always difficult to introduce the orienteering course to a lay spectator,
at least we succeeded in transferring the imageof orienteering as a fresh, modern sport.

through a shared folder. Of course all of the participants had signed a special NDA.

11.4.2/ Cooperation with foreigncommentators - risks and advantages

Nevertheless, one has to warn that a strong sense of fair play by all commentators is necessary
to make such sessions possible without threatening the competition. Such a strong fair play
attitude may not be standard in some countries
that may soon become the broadcasters of highlevel orienteering events. We recognize this asa huge risk that puts the whole event at stakeand the NDA is not much helpful, since in prac-

We met the demand of commentators to introduce the courses to them in advance. We organized 3 online sessions where the courses
were presented by the course setters or the
sport director; all pre-prepared materials for thebroadcast were presented and made available

These sessions were thorough, exhaustive andvery much welcomed by their participants.

11/ TV coveragetise it is impossible to investigate who is the sinner that violated the NDA.
We also had to deal with the fact that for acertain TV company, the announced expert
commentator was a WOC accredited athlete.
We refused to grant permission to this person,
as luckily we were aware of the name. While it isabsolutely clear with accredited athletes, someguidelines from IOF would be useful, to unify
the standards. It could be that any IOF licensed
athlete for a given year cannot be granted thispermission and the LOC is obliged to compare
the list of commentators with the list of licensed athletes.

30

11.4.3/ GSM signal issue - practicalpoint of view
Even though GSM signal was strengthened in
the arena, not all mobile providers had sufficient signal strength, which complicated the TV
production (the director was given a special SIM
card just for this two-day operation).

11.4.4/ TV squad COVID bubble ruptures
The TV staff had some extra jobs in the restdays, which resulted in multiple ruptures in theCovid bubble. The ideal situation (where thecovid bubble is fully respected also by TV staff
and all of them are paid by LOC for these missed

opportunities) is far beyond the possibilities ofthe WOC budget.

11.4.5/ Drone issues
The drone TV camera was operated by a third
party and the quality of their work was unsatisfactory. They failed to fly in Sprint F at all, inother races their approach was too defensive
and the shots were less attractive than intended. Special agreements and prior testing arerecommended.

11.4.6/ TV coordinator in organizing
committee
The LOC TV coordinator was not a member ofthe organizing committee, since formally, ‘TV
operations’ was a part of the IT section. This decision should be revisited for the future.

11.4.7/ TV squad’s interactions
The TV squad should be educated in order thatthey know that any interaction between themand the athletes is undesirable. We want to emphasize that we are not aware of any incident.
Nevertheless, in discussions with the (eveno-experienced) TV squad members we were asked several questions that revealed these deficiencies.

12/ IT31

12.1/ GPS tracking
The GPS tracking service was operated in all 7
WOC races.

12.1.1/ GPS tracking provider
After rather lengthy discussions we had chosena GPS service provider from 2 options, GPS Seuranta and TracTrac. Finally GPS Seuranta wasselected because of more experience within the
IT team with this provider, although TracTrac
was cheaper and preferred by the IOF.

12.1.2/ GPS tracking equipment
All runners were equipped with GPS units. The
tracking service was provided by GPS Seuranta
from Finland (Pekka Varis), who worked in close
co-operation with the TV production team (seeTV production). Runners should use their own
vests; for those who had no own vest, they wereable to borrow one from the organizer.
The GPS units Queclink GL300 were used,around 150 with Vodafone CZ SIM cards (equipment of Czech Orienteering Federation) and 40
with Finnish SIM cards (two different providers
Telia, Elisa) using roaming. This was the setting
for sprint disciplines; for the forest races all the
Vodafone CZ SIM cards were replaced with O2
CZ (this was the provider that strengthened the
GSM signal in race areas).

The GPS signal was tested in advance, its quality was surprisingly good even in rather deep gorges of theHermanky area.

12/ ITSpecial testing session was performed on Restday (Monday, 5.7.) in order to compare the quality of the GSM signal for devices with various
providers. See above the illustration of the test
outcome. All providers had satisfactory results,slightly poorer Finnish SIM cards were used forearly starters in Long race.

12.1.3/ GPS tracking team
As has already been mentioned, the GPS team
was a part of the TV operations and was subordinated to the LOC TV coordinator, despite thefact that the TV operations covered only 5 of 7races, while GPS tracking covered all of them(including the qualification races). The activities of the GPS team included:• Physical preparation of the GPS units,• handing them over to the start crew,• taking the units back from the finish crew,• taking care of the recharging process,• launching a new race in the Seuranta SW,• taking care of all the connected security requirements,• providing data about the tracking to IOF Live
service;• suggesting and preparing the GPS tracking excerpts for the TV broadcast (replay, live, replay
to live, sync...),• playing the tracking excerpts in the broadcast,• fixing the inadequacies of the GPS tracking for

32

the final comparison in the TV broadcast;• communication with Pekka Varis (GPS service
provider) about troubleshooting and suggestions,• changing the SIM cards in the units (for reasons described above).

12.2/ Timekeeping
As timekeeping software we used OB2000, anold, but very stable and very powerful system.
It was used in many IOF competitions before.
Card readout and split times print was done on
one main computer with real time synchronization to backup computer.
Punching system was from SportIdent. Control
stations (BSF8) and radio control stations (BSF8-SRR) were from Czech federation, as BS11-LA(6 meters long) was used at the finish line. Every control station was in beacon mode and only
SIAC was used.
For finish time backup in case of a SportIdent
card failure we had 2 cameras at the finish - onewith front view and second with finish line view.
Both signals were merged into one picture withtime and recorded to harddrive. We didn’t need
to use this backup finish time - every finish time
was in SIAC or the runner didn’t finish.
After some discussion with IOF and SportIdent(with experience from previous IOF events) we
decided to use 2 SIAC per runner. Primary wasborrowed directly from SportIdent to be surethat the battery will be in perfect condition.
As secondary card runners should have usedtheir own, or in case they had no SIAC, organizers loaned them one. How to wear SIACs was
described in Bulletin 4, Section 11.1 Punching.
We notified teams many times via email andweb news before the event to check their SIAC
for battery strength, or to send them for battery replacement if they have a battery older than
3 years or with lower voltage than recommended by SportIdent.
Only the primary card was read in cases where
runners had punching OK. In other cases the secondary card was read and punching was merged and again evaluated.

12.2.1/ Some statistics for backup card
readout
SPRINT QUALIFICATION• 180 runners in startlist• 21 of them were disqualified• 2 runners were OK after secondary card readout• note: we read backup card for 23 runners, but
only 2 had all controls in merged punching, so
the remaining 21 stayed disqualified
SPRINT FINAL• 91 runners

12/ IT• 2 disq• 2 OKSPRINT RELAY• 104 runners• 3 disq• 0 OK
MIDDLE QUALIFICATION• 185 runners• 4 disq• 1 OK
MIDDLE FINAL• 114 runners• 6 disq• 0 OK
RELAY• 162 runners• 2 disq• 0 OK
LONG• 127 runners• 8 disq• 0 OK
TOTAL• 963 runners• 46 disq• 5 OK

33

NOTES• We asked teams many times to check their
SIAC’s battery and replace when met with arecommendation from SportIdent.
• As there were no problems with SIAC, we
didn’t use backup timing solution.

sets (2 for GSM cameras from forest with public IP (max. 50/10), 2 for media as backup(max. bandwidth 50/10 Mbps), 1 for IT as backup (max. 30/6))• Own internet connection via mobile ISP (O2,
Vodafone, T-Mobile) as backup

12.3/ Internet

We decided to use bandwidth (QoS) per user not
per stream (LAN). Reason was we mostly had
more than one provider for one stream and it
was technically easier.

Totally in all arenas we used these internet connection types:• ISP Starnet (https://www.starnet.cz/), local
provider, in Terezin and Doksy they had fiberconnection near arena, last mile done by wireless, in Smrzovka last mile (about 3km) was
done by 60GHz wireless); they were able togive us in all these locations 350Mbps/350Mbps• ISP O2 (https://www.o2.cz/), Czech mobile
operator; in cities we used their modems andSIM cards; in Smržovka and Heřmánky GSM
signal was boosted by mobile BTS; in Heřmánky they prepared fibre optic connection fromlast fixed point about 400 m away to arena.
They supported us with:• 		200 SIM cards for GPS devices,• 		3 GSM modems,• 		
20 data SIM cards (unlimited data,
30/30Mpbs).
• Satellite connection INTV (https://intv.cz),
Czech satellite company, we had 5 satellite

LAN TV was always done by fibre – connection between arena and TV truck (from 150m to400m). It was done via VSDL technology through regular CAT 5E cables. In Smržovka (TV truck
was 1.6km away) we connected to optical fibers
used for sending signal from TV cameras to TV
truck (adapters from ethernet to fibre optics
needed on both sides).

12.3.1/Internet in arenas
TEREZÍN 3.7.2021
Internet service provider (ISP):• ISP Starnet – 350/350Mbps• ISP O2 – 30/30Mbps – GSM (LTE)LAN separation:• LAN Media – Media only, QoS 15/12 Mbps peruser12/ IT• LAN IT – IT section, QoS 20/20 Mbps per user
• LAN TV – for GPS team in TV truck, QoS 10/10
Mbps per user
• Public wifi – realized as separate line from ISP
Starnet – total bandwidth 100/100 Mbps
Totally used 108 GB (both down and up), connected about 250 devices (ntb, mobile phone,modems …).
DOKSY 4.7.2021
Internet service provider (ISP):• ISP Starnet – 350/350Mbps; we used public
IP address for TV stream from GSM camera(primary we want to use satellite, but this waseasier way and satellite connection was only
tested)• ISP O2 – 30/30Mbps – GSM (LTE)• Satellite – 50/10, public IP, only tested
LAN separation:• LAN Media – Media only, QoS 15/12 Mbps per
user• LAN IT – IT section, QoS 20/20 Mbps per user
• LAN TV – for GPS team in TV truck, QoS 10/10
Mbps per user
• Forest camera – separate line from ISP Starnet with 100/100 Mpbs QoS (used only 20/0)
used for transfer signal from forest camera
connected to internet by GSM module• Public wifi – realized as separate line from ISP

34

Starnet – total bandwidth 100/100 Mbps
Totally used 98 GB (both down and up), connected about 250 devices (ntb, mobile phone, modems …).
SMRŽOVKA 6.7.2021
Internet service provider (ISP):• ISP Starnet – 350/350Mbps• ISP O2 – 140/140Mbps – mobile BTS; GSM(LTE) and fibre connection from mobile BTS
LAN separation:• LAN Media – Media only, QoS 15/12 Mbps per
user• LAN IT – IT section, QoS 20/20 Mbps per user
• LAN TV – for GPS team in TV truck, QoS 10/10
Mbps per user; used ISP O2 connection• Public wifi – 100/100Mpbs, realized as separate LAN from ISP Starnet
Totally used 133 GB (both down and up), connected about 330 devices (ntb, mobile phone,modems …).
HEŘMÁNKY 8.-9.7.2021
Internet service provider (ISP):• ISP O2 – 140/140Mpbs; fibre optical connection from last mile about 400m away from arena• ISP O2 – mobile BTS; GSM (LTE); not stable,quite far away, used by public• Satellite INTV – 2x 50/10Mpbs with public IP,
1x 50/10Mpbs
LAN separation:• LAN Media – Media only, QoS 12/8 Mbps per
user• LAN IT – IT section, QoS 15/15 Mbps per user
• LAN TV – for GPS team in TV truck, QoS 10/6
Mbps per user; fibre from arena• Forest camera – 2x 50/10Mbps; used Satellite
INTV 2x 50/10Mbps connection with public IP• TV Internet – Satellite INTV 50/10Mbps for TVcrew• Public wifi – 2/2Mbps per user; realized as separate LAN from O2 connection
8.7. totally used 107 GB (both down and up), connected about 418 devices (ntb, mobile phone,modems …).
9.7. totally used 98 GB (both down and up), connected about 516 devices (ntb, mobile phone,modems …).
NOTES• 8.7. afternoon we turned off Public wifi forbetter connection for LAN TV.
• Satellite connection in bad weather is verypoor.
• Fibre optic connection from ISP O2 – they
deliver and configure their Cisco router, but
8.7. there were problems with full NAT table12/ IT(16.000 records) and during night we needed
to restart and update firmware for 80.000 records NAT table.
• Internet connection for GPS team was also
used by TV crew; so in Heřmánky we decided
to use separate satellite connection as free
wifi for TV crew – there were about 40 devices
connected.
• Media wanted connection very long after endof race – recommendation is prepare spare
GSM modem or other mobile device and giveit to Media team when IT team need to leave
arena (during the race Media will get internet
connectivity from IT team).
• Also it is not good idea to fasten network
equipment to construction which will be disassembled very early after race.
• For very important lines we used only fibre connections (CAT 5E), for not so important lines(Media internet, Public wifi) we used wirelessconnection.
• CzechTV sent after every event directly fromarena to server shared with foreign productions “production summary from event” in fullvideo quality - about 5 minutes, about 15GB.

35

13/ Event Centre and Event Office13.1/ What was the Event Centre at thetime of the covid?
The Event Centre, which was located in HotelBezděz in Staré Splavy, had a relatively small
function during WOC 2021.
There was the Event Office, some teams stayedin this hotel, also a separate lockable room foronline Team Leaders Meetings (TOM) and map
packaging was located in this place. Due to theepidemic measures, there was no centre forjournalists, nor were there any meetings or conferences that were originally planned.
All the Covid facilities arranged by the Organisers (Covid testing, information point) was placed in the building or it’s surroundings.

13.2/ How the Event Office went
Event Office (EO) had two separate groups oforganizers - administration team (6 people) and
Covid team (3 people). At all times, one member of the administration was always in chargeof email info@woc.cz, and one member of theCovid team with covid@woc.cz. There was also
a separate phone nr. (SIM card) and cellphonewith the WhatsApp application for each section.
EO started its activities on Wednesday, June 30,
2021 - i.e. 3 days before the official start of theevent. This day was mainly about finding a routine for each EO member, preparing accreditation36

and other material.
On Thursday, July 1, a large C-19 testing took
place and most of the Team members were accredited. Due to the fairness issue, it was notpossible to train with a map on this day. Thiswas really a long day for EO.
Testing and accreditation continued on Friday,
July 2 and lasted until Monday, July 5 to reduce
the necessary time of stay in Czech Republic forparticipants to a minimum. This step was verymuch appreciated also from a sports point ofview (competitors could train until the last moment at home on their own).
In the following days, EO worked on a normal
programme (managing entries in Eventor, solving questions and problems of Teams, providing meals in arenas - see point below). On
Thursday and Friday, the leaving C-19 tests wereorganized, covid team helped with the EO work
after that. It ended on Saturday, July 10, at noonwith the handover of the room to the hotel reception.

13.3/ Event Office agenda in C-19 times
Due to the epidemic measures and the bubble,
the competitors could not do many common activities (shopping, cheering with the spectators,
food in the arena). For this reason, in addition
to the usual tasks, EO also provided a complete
service for teams in the arenas. This category

included purchases of sports equipment, carrying lunches from the spectator zone, and preparing fruit and soft drinks in the Team zone.
The Covid team continuously monitored compliance with the set rules, answered questions
on the topic, and provided testing in arenas or
accommodation.

13.4/ Accreditation Cards
Every team member (athlete or coach), organizer and invited guest had to wear an accreditation card at an event arena all the time. An
accreditation card contained information about
its holder - name, areas of access and a flag of
country in case of a team member. The otherside described current Covid rules & restrictions
for team members and invited guests, and alist of important phone numbers for organizers(section chiefs). All cards were laminated.
Accreditation cards were created making useof the IOF accreditation tool. A few flaws wereidentified when preparing the cards - e.g. sizeof PDF file might be too large to be received via
servlet. Nevertheless, the whole IOF team wasalways ready to support and all accreditation
cards were finished right on time. A special
thank you goes to Henrik Skoglund, who spent
a lot of hours supporting and developing newfeatures of the accreditation tool.
To improve the IOF accreditation tool, the EO13/ Event Centre and Event Officeteam offers help with identifying flaws and discussing improvements. Therefore we suggest a
joint teleconference of the organizers of WOC
2021 and the organizers of WOC 2022 responsible for the accreditation cards, together with the
IOF representatives, in the beginning of 2022.
Accreditation cards were printed out only a few

37days before the event, because the list of allattendees had been often modified. Therefore
it is a good idea to have a few default cards
with no information on them so that they canbe finalized in an event centre with a permanentmarker in no time. There was also a printer anda laminator machine in the Event Centre, so that
additional cards could have been printed in a

few minutes.

13.5/ Good practice• Separate lockable room for online TOM, where all the equipment could remain. Race maps
(top secret material) were packed and stored
in the same room. The keys were kept either
by the national controller or the head of the
EO.
• It is very sensible to keep the same EO opening hours throughout the event.
• Free fresh fruit and vegetables available in theteam zone. There was also a coffee maker inthe EO in arenas available. This was very popular, yet it has not affected the budget much.
• Separate phone number (SIM card) and cellphone for EO. Before the Event the head of
EO had the EO SIM card in her private phone.
During WOC there was a separate WOC phonewith EO SIM card, which was used by different
EO members according to actual needs.
• Enable later accreditation if possible, especially for the reunited forest and sprint WOC.

14/ Volunteers
305 VOLUNTEERS FOR ALL 7 DAYS
• Administration 14• Arenas - building, parking, catering, service 78• HR - accommodation, volunteers service,
drivers for athletes’ transport 45• Sport 86• Technology 33• Marketing + Media 42• Organising Commitee 7
Local clubs as main source of volunteers +others from all regions of Czech republic (99%orienteering runners). Approx. 10% of volunteers
cancelled their participation within the final twomonths (Covid reason, health reason, change ofplans, etc.) - it is needed to have some replacements.
Volunteers got T-shirts or O-jerseys (also possible at a reduced price for buying), specially tailored bags from remains of clothing, produced
in a sheltered workshop, and some sponsorshipproducts (syrup, ham, magazine, reusable cup,etc.). Volunteers had accommodation, cateringand transport paid. Because of Covid-19 nomass transport could be offered.
ACCOMMODATION
All together in one holiday resort (half-board).
In the Arenas tent for volunteers - all that volunteers need during the day - catering, accreditation, information, relaxation zone, place for bags,

38

lost properties, special things - like sun lotions,raincoats, walkie-talkies, Covid protective tools,
etc. offered. Catering offered from early morning to night (self-managed, only dinners/soupbought from external catering). All volunteers
had their own cutlery, bowl, bottle/cup - ecological reasons.
COMMUNICATIONS WITH VOLUNTEERS
One year before the event - each month mail withsome news, curiosities, then closer to the event
more frequent communication. E-mail as main
source, secondary sources - Facebook group,
Whatsapp groups for smaller groups of people
in one section. Two online meetings before theevent for all volunteers, two more for heads ofsections. Handbook for volunteers - all information together - accreditation, accommodation,transport, food, maps of arenas, important contacts, staff distribution, etc.

15/ Services
15.1/ Accommodation
15.1.1/ Accommodation of competitors
during the WOC
Already at the time of the candidacy, the centre of the race was considered with regard topossible accommodation. When choosing theDoksy location, the Bezděz hotel in Staré Splavy
is basically the only hotel with sufficient accommodation capacity and conference halls. There
are a number of smaller guest houses, several
smaller hotels and then two larger hotels, which
are more exclusive, and therefore significantly
more expensive. The intention of the organizers
from the beginning was to offer accommodationthat is affordable even for smaller teams with alimited budget. At the same time, the organizers
wanted to make sure that in the area around theBezděz hotel, where there are many other guest
houses and hotels, something like an Olympic
village is created, where competitors can meeteven after races or on days off. Unfortunately,
this idea completely disappeared due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Because the WOC took place at the time when
the school holidays begin, and there are also
two holidays, it is as lucrative a date for the accommodation owners as New Year‘s Eve in themountains. Therefore we booked the Bezděz
hotel a few years in advance.

39

For the period before the World Championships (Euromeeting, training camps), we offeredaccommodation directly through the organizing
team, for the World Championships we chose the Sivek agency as a service partner. Theybooked sufficient capacity, both in the pre-arranged Hotel Bezděz and in other hotels and guest
houses in the area. Competitors were asked tomake an early reservation, the unoccupied capacity was then returned in the first months of2021 to the landlords, who immediately offeredit to ordinary vacationers. We assumed thatsome teams would arrange their own accommodation according to their habits and financial
possibilities.
At the beginning of 2021, the capacity of theBezděz hotel was sold out, including the dependence building. However, due to the coronavirus
pandemic and related measures, some reservations were cancelled in weeks and months
shortly before the WOC - some teams cancelledtheir participation in the WOC, some opted forother accommodation only for their team (strict
bubble). Another cancellation came from delegates of the IOF conference, which was to takeplace during the WOC, but was cancelled due tothe pandemic.
During the World Championships, food wasoffered in buffet form (unlike previous stays
within training camps), which the competitors

evaluated positively. Some teams lacked a freeof charge offer of water jugs during lunch anddinner. However, this service is not a common
custom in the Czech Republic.
On some race days, the competitors returned tothe hotel very late and at first it was difficult tocatch up with dinner. The organizers operatively agreed with the hotel to extend the time forserving dinner, but for many competitors it was
not comfortable to eat at such late times (dueto the race schedule). The possibility of booking
packed lunches was used only minimally.
The hotel also provided meals for the IOF clinic participants, which was originally intended
to allow them to meet other competitors fromother teams, but at the time of the Covid pandemic, this was not desirable.
The organizers tried to compensate for the weaker internet coverage in some parts of the hotel
by offering an open conference hall with stableinternet.
This hotel also provided facilities for an Event
office, Covid testing, technical model and IOF
Family and Media race.
In addition to the hotels contracted by the Sivek agency, the organizing team also provided
short-term accommodation according to therequirements of the teams in the Jizera Mountains or Terezín.

15/ Services
15.1.2/ Accommodation of competitors
before the WOC (Euromeeting, training
camps)The original intention of the organizers was touse the Bezděz hotel for accommodation ofteams also during Euromeeting and training
camps. As these activities were planned outside the main recreational season, very favourable prices were negotiated.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic did
not allow us to organize the Euromeeting in theoriginal or on alternative dates. It should also
be noted that accommodation services forrecreational stays were banned in spring 2020,
dismantled for the summer of 2020, and fromautumn 2020, most hotels and guesthouses
were closed until spring 2021. We thus negotiated an exception for accommodation within training camps, when their accommodation was legal on the basis of a confirmation of preparation
for the WOC. However, the problem was to find aworking accommodation, because until the government‘s dismantling, it was not worthwhile
for accommodation providers to put their facilities into operation to be able to accommodatea small group. Initially, for example, it was notpossible to use the Bezděz hotel, which wasvery expensive to operate due to its size. However, based on the requirements of the teams,
we always managed to arrange accommodati-

40

on, although it was sometimes just before theplanned stay (either because the teams decided
only at the last minute whether to come or not,or because the accommodation providers were
waiting for a change in government Covid measures to re-open their facilities).
However, this difficult situation allowed us tofind new local accommodation providers and,for example, the accommodation in one large
apartment house with higher standard in Staré Splavy was evaluated very positively by thecompetitors, where they had the opportunity tocreate microbubbles within the team and thus
minimize the risk of infection. We managed tosecure better prices here and many teams took
advantage of it.

After the cancellation of the WOC Tour and ina situation where one of the planned facilities
for volunteers was closed and the owner wasforced to sell it in a difficult economic situation caused by the Covid, it was decided to movethe accommodation of volunteers to the Poslův
Mlýn complex. Last but not least, this should
minimize the financial loss of the organizer for
the unused area.
After the limited participation of spectators in
the World Championships was allowed, the capacity of the complex was also offered for theaccommodation of spectators. However, only asmall number of spectators arrived from outside the region, so the capacity was used only toa very limited extent.

We provided other smaller accommodation capacities in the localities of the Jizera Mountains
or the Bohemian Paradise.

15.2/ Logistics

15.1.3/ Accommodation for volunteers

One of them was the provision of a sufficientamount of material that was either provided
by our partner Suninvent or borrowed from theclubs involved in the participation. This was possible with a reserve, because the clubs havesufficient material facilities.

Accompanying WOC Tour races for several
thousand competitors were originally to takeplace during the WOC. Unfortunately, we wereforced to cancel these races again due to thecoronavirus pandemic. Accommodation in thelarge recreational area Poslův Mlýn in Doksy
was provided for the participants of these races
several years in advance. Volunteers were thento be housed in two adjacent smaller areas.

There were several key issues for the successful logistics of the entire WOC.

Of course, in addition to the material provided
by the partner or clubs, it was necessary to purchase a lot of other material. And this material
was provided on the basis of the requirements

15/ Services

41

set in advance by the heads of each section. In
some cases, the requirements were considerably undersized, so it was necessary to procure some material operatively (e.g. tapes for
attaching banners or tapes for marking an entryban).

also carefully prepared in advance, the minibus
drivers always drove the transport routes ontime, so there was no problem here either andthe drivers managed everything without the slightest problem;it was not necessary to use theprepared backup drivers even once.

Another challenging task was to ensure asufficient number of vehicles for the transportof material to each of the event arena. Thesevehicles were quite easy to secure thanks to thepartnership of TUKAS. A bigger problem was securing the necessary capacity of minibuses for
the IOF Clinic and especially for the transport ofcompetitors from the quarantine to the pre-startpoints. The minibuses were managed to be provided literally at the last minute, both by renting
from commercial car rental companies, but also
by using the private vehicles of members of thelogistics team.

The logistics team also provided transport oflunches and, in some cases, dinners for volunteers to the arenas.

The third key factor is the composition of thelogistics team. The entire logistics team harmonized to near perfection in a short time. They all
worked very selflessly and in more difficult moments they were able to substitute each othervery quickly in all activities performed. Thanks
to this, it was always possible to get all the material to the arenas in time, and after the end of
the race to pack everything again very quickly
and transport it back to the warehouse.
The schedule of transport of competitors was

Two of the vehicles were slightly damaged during the WOC and although the organizers hadtaken out insurance, these damages could not
be covered. This is certainly a lesson for us forthe next event.

15.3/ Banquet
Organizing a banquet is one of the sad chapters of WOC. Although everything was prepared
until the last detail, in the end everything became useless. The location was chosen fromvery prestigious places – Bezděz castle, ship,
sailing on the Mácha lake or Houska castle. In
the end we chose Doksy castle, mostly becauseof an important partnership with the town‘s government and the castle itself during the Sprint
relay race. Its origin, Renaissance age, contributed to a theme of the banquet selection. Together with catering company KNL Liberec, weplanned to offer traditional Bohemian meals.
Performance of one of the most praised Czech

renaissance bands, Bohemian Bard, was arranged and as a midnight surprise, dancers with fireshould have arrived. Generally, our plan was tomake it different from classical banquets, so wethought about unconventional entertainment as
well. Guests would have had an opportunity to
try middle-ages disciplines like for example archery. Few numbers to sum it up: 50 organizers(about half of them volunteers) were supposed
to take care of around 250 guests. Our budget
was supposed to be around 150 000,-CZK.
What we regret the most, is not appreciating people‘s wasted energy. According to IOF, having abanquet was inconceivable from the very beginning. Our organizing team did not receive thiskind of message, so we kept the preparation
going until the final decision on 17th June, only
21 days before, where almost everything was
already prepared. Reasons for the cancellation
were of course serious. The risk of COVID-19
spreading among runners was obvious, but on
the other hand, according to the Czech government, this type of event, outdoor and under 500
guests, was legal and an interest from runners
was not marginal. The decision came from IOF
presidium directly and our prepared scenario
with bigger gaps between guests and other preventive measures went unheard.
But all the preparation brought to our three-person team at least several new and interesting15/ Services
experiences. We planned the budget, dealt withcatering company, planned an entertainment
programme and so on.

15.4/ Transport
A special team responsible only for competitors’ logistics was set up for WOC. This team
was involved in both logistic and also sport
sections, to have all needed information and to
be able quickly react in case of any problems
during WOC transportation. This set-up seems
to be useful and recommended also for future
events.
Team responsibility was focused only for competitors’ (and coaches’) transport during races.
Main tasks were to provide transports:• quarantine - prestart• prestart - arena (coaches)• arena - quarantines (and back after the race or
between Q and F races)
This was the standard for all individual races.
At relays (both sprint and forest), all the flow
was held only in the competition centre and thetransport was managed without cars, only bycarrying luggage between quarantine and teamzones.
All the transport was provided via small teams
working on their line with detailed information
about their routes and times:

42• quarantine - prestart / arena - quarantine: provided by vans (9-person cars), 6 vans in theschedule + 1 back-up van + 1 back-up personal car• prestart - arena (coaches and baggage transport): provided by 3 cars, mainly 4x4 personalcars able to travel on terrain tracks, also in a
wet conditions• 1 extra car for Covid transport if needed
For each race, a detailed time schedule was prepared, also with special rules for replacementby the back-up car in case of any problems. All
drivers were briefed in a detailed programme
every day and all the courses between quarantine, prestart and arena were tested by the wholeteam the day before the race.
Approx. half of the cars in this section were private cars of volunteers, the second half was ensured via car rental. In the future, all cars (vansfor people transport) should be ensured via car
rental to have the same standard and one image-line of WOC transport.
The requested Covid rules (face masks for everybody in the car etc.) were followed during thewhole WOC.
There were no major issues during WOC in thecompetition transports.

15.5/ Ceremonies
First of all, we would like to thank the spectatorsfor enduring and creating a great backdrop for
all the ceremonies, despite the late time of theirholding!
Only official IOF medals and diplomas were presented during the medal ceremonies. During theflower ceremonies, in addition to flowers thatwere grown organically, unique medals were
presented, which carried the tradition of glassand metal typical of our region, and the prizes
from WOC 2021 partners. The prizes and flowers
were handed over during the ceremonies by representatives of the IOF, representatives of the
Czech government, local governments, partners
and also guests who were former successful representatives of the Czech Republic at previous
championships. Thanks to the improvement ofCovid‘s situation, the opening ceremony washeld with a traditional flag display.
Flower ceremonies must be tuned to the television in advance if they are to be part of a live
broadcast - accurate timing is very important
here, but this did not always succeed, for several reasons.

15/ Services

43

CEREMONIES SCHEDULE:
July 3rd - Sprint Q+F, Arena Terezín		

5:20 p.m. Flower Ceremony

July 4th - Sprint Relay, Arena Doksy		

7:35 p.m. Flower Ceremony

July 4th - Arena Doksy				7:45 p.m. Medal Ceremony Sprint + Sprint Relay

			

			

8:00 p.m. Opening Ceremony

			

			

8:45 p.m. Concert

July 6th - Middle Q+F, Arena Smržovka

8:20 p.m. Flower Ceremony						

8:30 p.m. Medal Ceremony

July 8th - Relay, Arena Heřmánky		

8:15 p.m. Flower Ceremony

July 9th - Long, Arena Heřmánky		

8:00 p.m. Flower Ceremony

				

8:15 p.m. Medal Ceremony Relay + Long		The original plan was somewhat different, as it was planned to combine the WOC and WOC Tour ceremonies. For example, the Middle Medal Ceremony was originally considered for a day later (rest day) withan accompanying concert in the park of the castle in Doksy. After the cancellation of the WOC Tour, theprogramme was modified.

15.6/ Medical care
Medical care was coordinated with the regional hospital who knew the information about the races.
During the sprints, first aid was provided by 2 paramedics from the organizing team and a total of 15 treatments were performed (mostly wound treatments). An ambulance with a doctor and an ATV for off-road
driving were also present in the arenas for the forest disciplines. 24 treatments were performed on the
middle distance, 22 treatments during the relay and the long distance. A total of 61 treatments were performed for WOC 2021, 3 wound sutures, 2 infusion therapies. Two competitors were sent to the hospitalfor examination. Competitors appreciated the scope and quality of care provided.

15.7/ VIPIn the VIP section (big tent with wooden flooring) organisers installed several bar tables, 5 big tables

and around 40 chairs. 2 functional TV screens
were enough for the GPS tracking and live results. Also there was a variety of snacks: different
kinds of sandwiches, muffins, pies, dried meatand syrups from the sponsors, fruits, coffee machine, hot water and tea. During the day there
were a maximum of 30 guests (sponsors, IOF family, delegates) and 3-4 people were enough toserve all of them. Unfortunately, Covid restrictions were not kept properly by some of the delegates, especially the IOF President, even though
the organisers had provided masks, respiratorsand disinfection right next to the entrance.

16/ Sustainability
During the races, the organizers tried to carryout as many activities as possible in a sustainable way and the spectators were also motivated to behave in a sustainable way. Waste
was sorted (paper, plastics, biowaste, residual
waste), returnable back-up cups were used forrefreshments, and vegetarian and vegan dishes
were also offered. Many printed materials wereprinted on recycled paper, many of which were
only available in digital form (web, mobile application WOC 2021). Drivers were asked to fill
their cars, and the possibility of using public
transport was offered. A number of reusable
materials were used during the races (signposts, tent marking, advertising). Flowers from anorganic florist were handed over at the flower
ceremonies, and the volunteers received back-packs made from old fabrics, which were provided to us by Czech orienteering runners themselves and which were sewn in a local shelteredworkshop. After the races, everything was always perfectly tidy to the satisfaction of us andthe landowners.

4417/ WOC Clinic
The WOC Clinic is a project of the IOF to help
smaller and newer orienteering nations withparticipation at the World Championships, toteach them how to achieve excellence and thenecessary steps to provide support services toathletes during peak events.
The WOC 2021 clinic was attended by 10 participants from 8 nations. Some of them with noneor limited experience with forest disciplines.
Zoran Milovanović was the head of the WOC
Clinic, while the organizers provided a women‘scoach Martina Čečková, who was in charge ofthe agenda of IOF coach Ingrid Okkenhaug.

17.1/ Division of tasks and responsibilities
Before the event: Julie Mokrá (WOC team), wasresponsible for all communication with Zoran
Milovanović from IOF and on-site arrangements,
including accommodation selection, transportand mediating communication with authorities(visa invitation).
Zoran Milovanović (IOF) was responsible fororganising the selection of candidates, communicating with them and assisting with the
preparation and application of the visa and thenecessary administrative procedures in Eventor.
The years 2020-2021 were heavily impacted by
local and international restrictions due to CO-

45

VID-19. Impact on the preparation of the IOF
Clinic:Two selected candidates from Colombia wereunable to enter the Czech Republic.
Complicated transport and additional costs forseveral participants and organizers (testing).

17.2/ During the IOF Clinic and WOC
event
The group arrived on 29 June and stayed inJestřebí near Doksy. They attended various training sessions, often twice a day, and evening
sessions with coaches throughout the two days
before the official WOC events.

17/ IOF WOC Clinic
The IOF clinic programme is the subject of a separate IOF report.
From 3 to 9 July, all athletes participated in all
WOC individual events. They left Jestřebí in themorning hours of 10 July.
The WOC IOF Clinic team had three members
throughout the event, as several participants
had no previous experience in forest disciplines
and for safety reasons the organisers provided

46

assistance during the training sessions. In addition, the team provided general assistance (firstaid, laundry, equipment purchases, etc.) throughout the stay due to the restrictive measuresof COVID 19.
The organisers of the 2021 WOC were obliged tocover the basic costs during the stay in Jestřebí,namely food, transport and half of the accommodation costs. The WOC IOF Clinic organisers

were also responsible for communicating newly
emerged issues throughout the event with theother WOC sections.
The original idea of the organizers was that theywould provide accommodation, food, transport
to training and event arenas for the participantsof the IOF clinic. However, we did not anticipate
that we would have to provide coaching supervision, analysis after training, etc. We originally
expected this from IOF representatives. However, we responded to the situation and provided
everything necessary for the participants.
The participant evaluation questionnaire is the
subject of a separate IOF report.
Recommendations for future WOC organizers
where simple preventive measures can be taken:• Pay attention to the different experience levels of the participants. Every athlete has adifferent main discipline and the performancein other disciplines can vary significantly.
• Be prepared to provide basic equipment for
injury prevention - taping, minor injuries, etc.
• Be aware that some participants cannot use
credit cards and are only able to use cash,
which they occasionally need to exchange.
The same applies to mobile phone communication - no roaming or limited services wereavailable for several participants.

18/ Spectators
Originally, the arenas were planned for the participation of 5,000 spectators, of which about
2,500 would be participants in the accompanying WOC Tour races. Due to the need for li-

47

mited entry to the arenas (1 spectator per 4 m2
agreed with the Regional Hygiene Station in
Liberec, which corresponded to the capacity of1000 spectators for sprint and 2000 spectatorsfor other races), the entrance fee to the arenas
was introduced at CZK 100/spectator/day (children up to 6 years free). The TicketPortal.cz sales portal was used for this purpose, where wewere able to follow the current development ofticket sales well.
At the entrance to the arena, the validity of theticket was checked using a mobile app, andfor each day, the spectator received a marking
bracelet of a different colour so that he could
return to the arena without having to check theticket. Total sold:• 443 tickets for sprint• 719 tickets for sprint relay• 549 tickets for middle distance• 641 tickets for relay• 344 tickets for long distance
The spectators could cheer right next to therace corridors, watch the big screen with a TV
broadcast. Catering was available, there wasa fan shop with souvenirs, other sellers ofsports equipment, orienteering maze, WOC photo frame.

19/ Partners
The title partner of WOC 2021 was Nokian
Tyres, which is an IOF partner. The organizers
collaborated with two different partners andpartnership:• state institutions• commercial partners

19.1/ State institutions
State institutions were essential partners fororganizing WOC 2021. Their support was not
only financial, but absolutely crucial in organizing the race in technical matters, cooperation
with the police, permission to race or providing
an accompanying programme. The main state
institutions were:• National Sport Agency• Czech Tourism• Liberec Region• Towns: Doksy, Dubá, Terezín, Smržovka,
Jablonec nad Nisou• Other: Technical University of Liberec

19.2/ Commercial partners
The commercial partners cooperated in securing
various activities - arena production, logistics,
media activities, ensuring a drinking regime, butalso in the promotion of the entire championships. The aim was to work with companies in theregion, which in many cases happened.

48

MAIN PARTNERS
Kitl, Konrad, Czech Mint, Czech ergonomics
association
MEDIA PARTNERSČT sport, RUN, Deník.cz, O-News.cz, Svět běhu,Čtyřlístek, Český rozhlas Sport, Český rozhlas
Liberec

OTHERS
Tukas, O2, O-RUN, OCAD.com, Sportobchod.
cz, Lucifer, Mountent, Starnet, ČEZ Foundation, SportIdent, Minerals 70, NoVinárna, Sivek
Hotels, Toi-Toi, SunInvent, Žaket and Dřevodělci.

20/ Economy

49

The budget has been changed several times.
This was caused by several important factors:

Expenses			
Incomes			

• adding sprint disciplines• increased costs of Covid measures• cancellation of Euromeeting• cancellation of WOC Tour• increased costs for providing accommodationand meals for the organizers
All items were refined during the years 2019 2021.The biggest intervention in the budget was
the Covid and everything related to it (especiallythe cancellation of the WOC Tour).

EXPENSES
Organizers

2%

12%

Arenas

15%

IT

19%

22%

Marketing and media
Maps and map printing
Insurance, fees, damages, …

6%

2%
7%

1%

9%

5%

Health security and COVID issues
Material and technical issues
TV production
Sanction fee IOF
Accommodation

20,50 mil. CZK
18,28 mil. CZK21/ Feedback
Most teams very much appreciated the possibility of training camps and especially reasonable
prices of training maps. We think that this step
greatly reduced the „black market“ with OCADs.
The vast majority of teams bought them, extremely small teams usually participated in training camps of larger ones.
A big thank you from the teams was also given
to the Covid team, which all the time tried to reduce the organizational difficulty of the preparation of training camps and the arrival of theselection races and WOC 2021 itself. All the procedures connected with the arrival to CZE were
demanding, however according to the participants it was realistic to come and do quality training almost without limitations (from the sport
perspective) even in times of hard lockdown.
The online Team Officials meetings, which saved the coaches time, were rated as comfortable. According to the responses, the numberof questions were the same (sometimes more)than usual. When looking for a solution fora question, the organizers could simply takea break, consult with the microphone turned off
and immediately announce the agreed answer.
The sprint race was found to be very nice. The
unusual area of the military fortress with theabsence of traffic and people was especiallyappreciated by the competitors, who could run
at full speed with the certainty that there would50

be no collision. However, it is clear that not in all
sprint terrains can this be ensured.
One of the few issues to which we received negative feedback was the quality of the plastic
cover of the maps used for the relay and long
distance race. See the more deatiled explaination in Sport section.
Another point that is at least questionable forthe future is the evening time for relays. It‘s possibly an interesting time for the TV viewer. On
the other hand, the men‘s race in particular wasaffected by bad weather combined with nightfall. A large proportion of the competitors ran
with a headlamp, which is not ideal for the World Championships. A lot of competitors complained about this.

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