The Czech O-Tour 2024 series consists of nine individual orienteering races over three weekends from spring to autumn. The program includes 3 middle distances, 3 sprints and 3 long distances. It is organized by the Czech Orienteering Federation with the cooperation with the local clubs. The Czech O-Tour is for all generations, for experienced orienteers as well as those who are orienteering beginners. The organizers set themselves several goals:

• help the developement of orienteering n locations where it is not so developed
• help the clubs in the organization of large races and to pass on the know-how that
• bring more fun and non-traditional formats to races (e.g. shoe testing, O-bazaar, labyrinth)
• to create an spectator races to high level events in the Czech Republic
• offer the best possible conditions for orienteering beginners and hobby athletes
• promote orienteering in the best light

Series rules

• The best 7 results from 9 races are calculated.
• The winner of the class in each race gets 100 points, the other percentage less points according to the time loss up to twice the winner’s time.
• After each race, the winners of each class will be awarded, in children categories 3 best will be awarded.
• At the end of the series, the 3 best competitors in the overall ranking of the given class will be announced.
• In addition to the individual competition, there will also be a year-round club competition.

Three weekends

3 active weekends are beeing prepared:

• March 24, 2024 – Mirakulum – 2 WRE sprints in amusement and educational park near Prague.
• July 2–6, 2024 – Plzeňsko – 4 forest races with the best JWOC athletes together, extra sprint prologue using JWOC courses
• October 27–29, 2024 – Beskydy – 2 forest races in mountains and 1 sprint in the largerst open-air museum in Europe

There is a participation limit 1000 competitors for each race. If you want to be sure of your entry, we recommend that you enter directly for the entire series. In addition to the guaranteed entry you will get a discount on the entry fee and an extra gifts from Czech O-Tour partners.

Orienteering forest

The forest is a gym for orienteering runners. We have teamed up with the Ivan Dejmal Foundation and we want to develop a project to increase the stability of forest stands. One of the basic problems of our forests is the occurrence of monocultural tree species, and because of this a number of places have been affected by bark beetle calamity. For each competitor registered for the Czech O-Tour 2023 series, we will plant one tree (usually edible, beech, larch or linden), which are necessary for more stable and natural forests in the long perspective. For the winner of each stage, we will plant. In the autumn months (October to November), each participant or winner can plant their seedling directly. This also applies to other participants and interested parties who want to contribute to the planting of the Orienteering forest. We will map the entire planting into a very detailed orienteering map, where for each seedling we will show the names of all donors, participants of the entire series or winners.

2022

The first year of Czech O-Tour series returned to the terrains of WOC 2021. We negotiated throughout the autumn of 2021 with representatives of various institutions or nature conservation authorities in order to allow everyone to run in the same terrains like the best competitors in the world at the World Orienteering Championship 2021. As it was not possible to organize a large-scale event in July in the area of relays and the long distance in the Kokořín region, the organizing team tried to turn the negative news into a very unique event, which has no analogues worldwide: a slightly different year-round series in the best terrains of the WOC. The World Orienteering Championships 2021 were successfully held on July 3 – 9, 2021 in the Czech Republic in 4 locations: Terezín, Doksy, the Jizera Mountains and the Kokořín region. The center of the whole event was the town of Doksy. 307 competitors from 40 countries took part and it was the largest sport event in the Liberec Region in the year 2021. Results, photo galleries, maps and other information can be found on the WOC 2021 website.

Czech O-Tour 2022: 3 stages, 7 races (Terezín, Jizera Mountains, Kokořínsko), 7411 competitors in all races together.

2023

The second year of the Czech O-Tour spread from the north of Czechia to the greater part of the Czech Republic. In the spring, the race took place in Pilsen, where the organizers held such a general test before the Junior World Orienteering Championship in 2024. During the autumn holidays, the competitors visited Kubova Huť in Šumava, where they could run in beautiful weather in unique mountain terrains. And we may have helped kick off a landmark in a somewhat forgotten region. But the beginning of August was the best – the Czech O-Tour was run together with the World Cup in Česká Lípa and the sandstone rocks of Kokořínsko! Throughout the year, we offered a rich accompanying program – an orienteering labyrinth, o-bazaar, shoe testing tree planting, a cinema or a fencing school.

Czech O-Tour 2023: 3 stages, 8 races (Pzeňsko, Kokořínsko, Šumava), 9114 competitors in all races together.