WOD is a great success world-wide and one of the main contributor is Turkey. This year, World Orienteering Day was hosted by sport clubs, schools and local governments all over Turkey. Activities were organised nationwide for all orienteering lovers, in order to be the country with the most participants this year, just like the last year.
Many events were held with the purpose of introducing younger people to Orienteering. 79 countries around the world have achieved a record attendance with 288 007 participants at 2265 locations. Turkey, especially Kastamonu, Izmir, Kocaeli, Ankara, Ordu, Trabzon, Mersin, Manisa, Bursa Adana Kahramanmaras, Antalya and Adryaman have hosted the events with the most participation. WODY, the mascot of World Orienteering Day, will visit these provinces to increase visibility and to celebrate WOD.
86 436 people participated in Turkey during World Orienteering Day at 695 local centres. Approximately 55 000 people attending the events were awarded with a certificate in memory of the day. In terms of our country, two important features related to the World orienteering Day are at the forefront;
-The first is that Turkey is able to support international organisations with its competence in this area
-The second is that many young children have been introduced to orienteering sports
We will be a pioneer in the international events to be held in Turkey in the coming years and support these organisations with the slogan “All together better”.
Hacer AKYÜZ, President of the Turkish Orienteering Federation