Event Information

Race Schedule

• Thursday 11th July
  Model event / technical model event
  Friday 12th July
  Sprint qualification – Leith: morning
  Opening ceremony –  Princes Street Gardens: afternoon
  Sprint finals – central Edinburgh: afternoon
• Saturday 13th July
  Rest day
• Sunday 14th July
  Sprint relay – Riccarton campus, Heriot-Watt University: afternoon
• Monday 15th July
  Rest day
• Tuesday 16th July
  Knock-out sprint qualification – Wester Hailes: morning
  Knock-out sprint finals – central Edinburgh: afternoon
  Closing ceremony

Additionally, we invite all our WOC athletes and support staff to take part in our fabulous spectator race (WOC Tour) programme, should their schedule allow. There is no conflict with the WOC programme of races with WOC Tour races taking place after the WOC races. WOC embargoes must be respected until after each WOC race.

Bulletins

Bulletins will be published on IOF eventor as pdf documents and links provided here at the appropriate time.

• Bulletin 1 (preliminary event information) – published July 2022.
• Bulletin 2 (invitation) – published October 2023.
• Bulletin 3 (event information) – published April 2024.
• Bulletin 4 (additional event information) – will be issued on arrival of competitors.

Event centre

The WOC 2024 Event Centre, the WOC Office and the main athlete accommodation are all located at:
Pollock Halls of Residence
18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh, EH16 5AY, Edinburgh
GPS co-ordinates: 55.940293, -3.1717960
Pollock Halls is 2km from Waverley rail station and 15km from Edinburgh Airport. Please note that central Edinburgh is embargoed: athletes and team officials may only use permitted routes to pass through the embargoed area.

Embargoes

Several areas in and around Edinburgh are embargoed for WOC 2024.

Please note that the embargoed areas and permitted routes were updated in June 2022 and some significant changes were made. Further amendments were made in July 2023.

Details of embargoed areas can be accessed at: https://eventor.orienteering.org/Events/Show/6106

Embargoed areas and permitted routes may change at short notice. Potential competitors and other interested parties should always check Eventor for the most up-to-date information.

A stricter embargo will come into effect for Central Edinburgh from 1 July 2024, with the withdrawal of most permitted routes and permitted areas for studying. Use of public transport between Waverley station and Pollock Halls will be permitted.

All queries regarding embargoed areas should be sent to Jon Hollingdale: technicaldirector@woc2024.org

Training and racing

There will be several training camps and racing opportunities for athletes in advance of WOC 2024, including Euromeeting 2023. Head over to our Training & Euromeeting page for further information here.

Old maps

Three of the WOC 2024 embargoed areas have been used for orienteering before: Central Edinburgh, King’s Buildings and Riccarton.

As part of our sponsorship agreement OCAD AG has updated the old map files to the current ISSprOM 2019-2 symbol set (note that these files do not meet all aspects of the specification such as minimum dimensions) and OCAD format so that potential competitors can use the OCAD Route Analyser tool as part of their preparations.  Map files can also be supplied in OCAD 12 format or as pdfs if preferred.

Requests to access the files should be made by national teams wherever possible by email to Jon Hollingdale, technicaldirector@woc2024.org stating your name, saying which files you want, and in which format (OCAD 2018, OCAD v12 or pdf).

You must explicitly confirm that you:

• will only use the files for WOC preparation and will delete them after WOC;
• understand that the areas shown are under embargo;
• understand that the depiction of access on these files must not be taken as an indication of a right of public access.

Routegadget data from past events in embargoed areas is available at

Edinburgh University Orienteering Club Routegadget

The Scottish Orienteering Association Routegadget

Map data

Ordnance Survey OpenData can be downloaded for free here as ESRI Shapefiles or GML3 with the most detailed information including OS Open Greenspace and OS Open Map Local. OS Terrain 50 is available either as a 50m gridded digital terrain model or 10m contours and spot heights.

OS MasterMap is the definitive source of highly detailed geographic data and can be purchased from various sources including getmapping.com and emapsite.com. Note that licence restrictions will apply to this data.

There is LIDAR data availability (circa 2010) for Edinburgh available in the public domain here. Note that the LiDAR data will require specialist knowledge and software for input into packages such as OCAD or OpenOrienteering Mapper.

Accommodation

Teams must make their own accommodation bookings.

The University of Edinburgh Hospitality and Events Collection has accommodation at Pollock Halls available for booking from Thursday 11th July to Wednesday 17th July 2024. Pollock Halls of Residence are part of the University of Edinburgh and during the summer vacation there are over 2,000 rooms available. A range of room types is available, including single standard rooms, double or twin en-suite and self-catering 4-bedded ‘flats’. Various meal options will also be available.

National teams have priority for bookings until the end of December 2023. After that date rooms will be available for booking by volunteers connected to WOC 2024 so teams are advised to book as soon as possible to ensure availability. All bookings must be made by Monday 15th April, when remaining rooms will be released for booking by the general public.

To start the booking process please contact wocoffice@woc2024.org who will provide accommodation contact details and give you a booking code to use.

We recommend that athletes and officials stay at Pollock Halls. Teams are free to arrange their own accommodation elsewhere but note that many hotels are within the embargoed areas. It is the responsibility of competitors to check this and ensure that embargoes are observed.