“Think globally – Act locally”
On Wednesday May 11th 2016, the first ever World Orienteering Day took place all over the world. It proved to be a great success, with more than 250 000 participants all around the world taking part in an orienteering event.
After having finalised the results, the total of participation in the first ever World Orienteering Day stands at 252 927 participants at 2013 locations in 81 countries and territories.
What was once only an idea has come to be a reality beyond what anyone could have hoped. Schools, clubs and enthusiast all over the world made a fantastic contribution, and together managed to beat the world record.
From South Africa to Hong Kong, from Greenland to New Caledonia, from Ecuador to Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of youngsters participated in World Orienteering Day. Following the idea “Think globally, act locally”, people all over the world took part in locally organised orienteering events, and celebrated the biggest world-wide orienteering event ever.
– World Orienteering Day has demonstrated that we are truly a global sport and I just want to thank the thousands of people on all continents except Antarctica who organised over 2000 competitions for 250,000 people – well done the world orienteering family, said Brian Porteous, former president of the International Orienteering Federation.
Some figures from around the world
Turkey performed outstandingly with 49408 participants, just ahead of Sweden (35754) and Norway (20368). Almost 60% of all participants come from Turkey, Sweden, Norway, China, Russia and Hungary.
The 5 biggest WOD-events were organised in Hunan (China) with 2462 participants, in Kocaeli (Turkey) with 2176 participants, in Göksu (Turkey) with 2071 participants, in Tainan City (Chinese Taipei) with 1500 participants and in Mysen (Norway) with 1400 participants.