Discussion: World Cup

Last year there was controversy over an IOF to reduce the number of entries available to World Cup races for some countries (including US and Canada). After much lobbying the IOF agreed to allow a minimum of three entries from each country.

The first race in the 2007 World Cup is on June 14 and on Attackpoint only one person has it listed as tentative. Does this mean that people are waiting until the national squads are selected to confirm attendance, or that nobody is planning to go, even if they are selected to the squad?

The extra entries were only confirmed for one year, and I would suspect that the IOF will adopt a ‘use it or lose it’ approach when deciding the rules for next year. If we aren’t planning one using these entries, what was the point of lobbying for them in the first place?

I agree - it may well be a "use it or lose it" thing, for better or for worse. That would be short-sighted by the IOF in my view, though, since many of the smaller countries are dependent on a relatively small pool of elite runners to fill their spots. It only takes a few scheduling conflicts to make it tough/impossible to fill our spots.

This year Canada has kind of shot itself in the foot, by scheduling one of its WOC test races in conflict with the Jukola - which includes the first World Cup and a qualifier for subsequent World Cups. I _THINK_ that we'll fill all 3 male spots for that race anyway, but probably not all the female spots. It's a bit disappointing, after all the to-do about things last year, to then go and schedule one of the races that are important for our elites in Canada against the very races that we battled to gain access to in the first place. Yes, it was the principle of the matter, but still.... It would be nice if we could back that up with substance. Similar problem with the COC's being scheduled opposite the round of World Cups in O-Ringen - no idea how many of us will be in Sweden then, though I will plan on it anyhow.

Scheduling is always a huge issue and it's not easy to find enough clubs to even host the meets we would like to have, let alone host them on the dates that would be ideal for competitors. But as a Canadian who would like to race in the World Cups as well as have a go at the World Champs and the Canadian Champs, this truly is an unfortunate year.

A good thing the COF did at least schedule two rounds of selection races, only one of which conflicts with a World Cup.

For my part, since I don't at present want, for various reasons, to relocate to Europe, it's hard to justify the multiple round trips and/or lengthy taking of vacation in the summer that would be necessary to participate in a significant number of the 2007 World Cup races.

It's not clear toi me why the IOF would feel a need to limit participation from countries that aren't sending competitors anyway. If World Cups were getting swamped by low-ability orienteers from lesser countries, then I could understand. But why not leave slots available if they aren't causing a problem?

J-J, you're being too logical and not being at one enough with nature.