Looking back at the World Cup
The new kid in class, World OCR, organized its first world cup in Baden, Austria and feedback has been good. Could it have gone better? Yes. But the organizers are quite happy.
One major hick-up however, refers to the set-up of the event, which was held at a horse racing track.
-Unfortunately, the Event Director hadn’t anticipated that, even though no races were scheduled during the week leading up to our event, the horses would still be on-site for training. This became a challenge because the horses were easily spooked by the sounds from the obstacle construction and the installation of signs, explains Raul Fodor from World OCR.
This set back meant that the build crew had to work round the clock to get the track ready for race day.
Another mishap, that unfortunately affected the athletes, was the medical staff's delayed arrival. This resulted in a 75-minute delay, as the organizers refused to start without a medical team in place.
-Although some competitors urged us to start without the medical team present, we couldn’t compromise on safety. After a 1-hour and 15-minute delay, we managed to secure an alternate medical team to provide qualified assistance throughout the event.
Due to the delay in setting up the course, WOCR were only able to communicate the change the day before the event through an updated version of the Obstacle Rulebook, posted on the event page.
-Besides the delay, this was the only significant issue brought to our attention by competitors, according to Raul Fodor.
One thing that received a lot of positive feedback, was the timing system, which is essentially an electronic bracelet.
-It also drastically reduced the number of protests, which are often a challenge with the bracelet system. Competitors were able to know their final finishing time as soon as they crossed the finish line, and both athletes and Technical Officials appreciated the simplicity this brought to the process.
In november WOCR will announce the location of their first World Championship.