When the official WOCs are held, there are a lot of things happening around the championships. For instance, a pre WOC took place in Lysekil and Munkedal one year before the actual event. The people of the localities had the opportunity to see some of the world’s best runners, competing on their own backstreets. In fact, as a spectator, there a lot of things you can do besides watching the actual races.
Participate yourself
Orienteering, as a sport, is not known for being very well spectated. Orienteers tend to not visit a large number of events unless they are running themselves. As a result of this, open races are often arranged in connection with the official ones. These races are for everyone and do usually not require participators to apply in advance. Normally there is a fee, although a small one. However, factors such as pre-registration and prices may, of course, vary from event to event.
Large-scale events
As mentioned in the introduction of this text, a large-scale pre-WOC took place in Lysekil and Munkedal, just south of where the official WOC was held the following year. These kinds of event are not unusual, and municipalities are generally happy to host them. It means good promotion, both for the city itself, and local businesses that get the opportunity to sponsor the event.
WTOC
In recent years, WOC has regularly been arranged in conjunction with World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC). Currently, the events are as follows:
• PreO. The traditional format
• TempO. A format with timed controls only.
• Relay. For teams consisting of three members.
WTOC was first held in 2004. Since then, it has been arranged in conjunction with WOC ten times. All of them have been arranged in Europe, and twice in Sweden. The only exception so far is 2005, when Japan hosted the championships.