The World Obstacle - UIPM OCR World Championships are the official championships of the national federation members of World Obstacle, representing athletes from over 110 countries. World Obstacle works with international sports governing bodies to maintain compliance with rules and regulations related to anti-doping and other issues of importance to the global sports community.

REGISTRATION

Athletes must be registered with their National Federation for all competitive categories. This can be done during registration, however, National Federations validate athlete affiliations and that they have qualified to represent their country on the national team. Important information for registration is here. If you have questions on how to use the registration platform, please review the knowledge base at My Next Match. 

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Thursday: 100m heats (OCR Triple Crown), Packet pick-up, Technical Meeting & Opening Ceremonies (mandatory)
Friday: 3K Short Course, awards & 100m heats
Saturday: 15K Standard Distance, awards & 100m heats, party
Sunday: 3K Team Race, 100m heats & finals, open race, awards, closing ceremonies

VENUE

Thor Park is a 1200-hectare natural park in the Belgian province of Limburg. It is a beautiful nature reserve with ample open space for sports and recreation. The venue is located in the beautiful City of Genk. The athletes' village is 20 minutes drive from the venue, on-site with accommodation for 3,600 athletes in bungalows.

TRAVEL

A shuttle service will be provided for national teams and athletes arriving by plane for a reasonable fee (contact event admin). Thor Park is 1-hour drive from Brussels, Brussels South, or Dusseldorf (Germany) airports.

ACCOMMODATION

The reservation link is here  

OCR TRIPLE CROWN

The OCR Triple Crown brings together three obstacle world championships:

World Obstacle - UIPM OCR World Championships
OCR 100m
Belgium, September 14-17

World’s Toughest Mudder
World’s Toughest Mudder 24-HR OCR World Championship
Granbury, Texas, November 4 – 5

Spartan World Championships
Spartan 3K World Championship
Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi, December 8-10

AWARDS

Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are awarded for top three in each category. Prize money may be awarded to the top three finishers in Elite races. A medal tally will be kept for the top-performing countries.

Competitive race categories include individual men and women in Elite plus five-year age groups: Junior 16-17 (Minimum age on race day) to 65+. Open waves will be available in each event format for non-competitive athletes.

CATEGORIES

Competitive race categories for the 15K include individual men and women in Elite plus 5-year age groups: U20 (minimum age 18 on race day) to the oldest athlete. 3K categories also include Youth (10/11, 12/13, 14/15) and Junior (16/17, U20). National team races are mixed gender (3 people, at least 1 woman and at least 1 man) in the 3K. Open waves will be available in each event format for non-competitive athletes. The 100m has one category for women and one category for men. Results / records will be listed for all categories.

QUALIFICATION

Qualification to represent each country is through the national federations. Championships such as the OCR European Championships, OCR Asia-Pacific Championships, national championships, and races specified by each country’s national federation may be qualifiers. PLEASE DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE NOT APPROVED BY YOUR NATIONAL FEDERATION.

National Teams are limited to five (5) athletes per competitive category (elite and age group). Additional athletes may compete in the open category. Details on qualification for each Country are available here.

EVENTS & FORMATS

Event formats include 100 m individual Sprint (12 obstacles, video here), 3 km individual and team Short Course (20+ obstacles ), and 15 km individual Standard Distance (~50 obstacles) cross-country Obstacle Course Races. Qualification for OCR World Championships assumes athletes study and train for the obstacle format, rules, terrain, and weather conditions.

COMPETITION RULES

Competition Rules are specific to each event. Rules for competitive categories allow only one attempt per obstacle. The races and competition rules are formatted to facilitate fairness, event flow, judging, and eliminate back-ups at obstacles. A high level of obstacle proficiency is required, however, these are races and are designed for completion by world-level athletes in all categories. These are not “failure” races and are designed for national teams that are selected by the national federations from the best athletes in each country. This meets the criteria accepted for medal events in International Multisport Games and championships under regulation by the International Olympic Committee for athletes competing at the highest level.

ATHLETE & ENTOURAGE CONDUCT

National Federation members and recognized events of World Obstacle are required to promote the character development of athletes, to enhance the integrity of obstacle sports, and promote sportsmanship and civility in society. Coaches, trainers, officials, officers and all those associated with their programs and events should adhere to the fundamental values of respect, fairness, civility, honesty, and responsibility. The Entourage must respect and promote ethical principles, including those contained in the World Obstacle Codes of Ethics and the WADA Code. Download the Athlete and Entourage Conduct Guidelines below for details.

https://www.worldobstacle.org/code-of-ethics/

ANTI-DOPING

World Obstacle has adopted the  World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code and World Obstacle Anti-Doping Rules are implemented to advance World Obstacle's continuing efforts to prevent doping in Obstacle Course Racing. All athletes competing in OCRWC23 are required to complete the WADA Anti-Doping e-Learning (ADeL) talented athlete education programme and provide the certificate of completion prior to competing. ADeL is provided free of charge. Register and complete the program on the WADA ADeL website, then download your completion certificate and upload it during race registration, or show at packet-pick up with your photo ID. Instructions for creating an account:

• Register on the ADeL platform (green button, top right)
• In the Language field select your preferred language (you will enter your native language later)
• In the Role, field select “Athletes”
• In the Sport field select “Obstacle Sports”
• In the Level in sport (Athlete) field select “International-level athlete (competing internationally – Major Games)
• In the Discipline field, type “OCR”

The WADA prohibited substances and methods list are available for download from the World Obstacle Anti-doping page.

ELIGIBILITY TO COMPETE IN WORLD OBSTACLE - UIPM OCR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The World Obstacle National Federation eligibility guideline specifies that for a competitor to represent their country in competitive categories of federation championships (national, continental, and international), they must be in good standing with their national federation per the World Obstacle Competition Rules. The nationality of a competitor is guided by the Olympic Charter Rule 4. Details are available in the Eligibility to Compete document here

https://www.worldobstacle.org/ocr-world-championships/

Anti-Doping

World Obstacle has adopted the  World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code and World Obstacle Anti-Doping Rules are implemented to advance World Obstacle’s continuing efforts to prevent doping in Obstacle Course Racing. All athletes competing in OCRWC23 are required to complete the WADA Anti-Doping e-Learning (ADeL) talented athlete education programme and provide the certificate of completion prior to competing. ADeL is provided free of charge. Register and complete the program on the WADA ADeL website, then download your completion certificate and upload it during race registration, or show at packet-pick up with your photo ID. Instructions for creating an account:

• Register on the ADeL platform (green button, top right)
• In the Language field select your preferred language (you will enter your native language later)
• In the Role, field select “Athletes”
• In the Sport field select “Obstacle Sports”
• In the Level in sport (Athlete) field select “International-level athlete (competing internationally – Major Games)
• In the Discipline field, type “OCR”

The WADA prohibited substances and methods list are available for download from the World Obstacle Anti-doping page.

T-SHIRTS

There are four types of shirts to get/buy. The first one is BLUE and is the one to which everyone who register will be entitled to, regardless of the distance. Please note that each athlete is only entitled to 1 shirt, no matter how many different distances he will participate. It is therefore unique. Athletes can choose to refuse the shirt and donate the value to the nature reserve in which the World Championship will take place. Athletes can refuse AND donate €5 to the reserve at will.

The other three colours represent a distance each.

YELLOW = 100 m sprint
RED = Short
BLACK = Standard