Over 1000 have signed the petition

We are happy to announce that over 1000 individulas have signed the petition! Thanks to everyone who took the time to sign, but our work is not done yet! What are we going to do with the petition? I have spent a great deal of time thinking about it, and have arrived at a soltution I believe to be effective.

If we were to submit the petition immediately, our chances of getting the results we desire are rather small. I am going to gather information about IOF processes in order to determine the best course of action to solve the problem. Being a Belgian junior, my voice doesn’t carry the weight of an elite orienteer and so, In addition, I will reach out and find two elites (M & W) who would be willing to speak on behalf of the 1000+ supporters when we official put forth our notion to the IOF. I am currently thinking of 2 persons, But if you want to do it, you are of course, more than welcome to mail me.

 After speakers have been contacted and agreed upon, we are going to send the petition to the IOF so we can get on with the process of change. If anyone can help me with this process or has other ideas, please feel free to comment or send me an e-mail at toonmelis@hotmail.com.


Some intresting facts/stats related to the Petition:

- There is a competition in Switserland that has the same thought about orienteeing as the petition has: classic-o. It is a competition in technical demanding terrain over 2 days with a course setting/vetting team that is composed of WOC long-distance course setters and a WOC winner.

- It took just under 8 days to get from 1 to 1000.

- Our 1000th signer was Annika Kottonen, but also worth mentioning is number 1000 on our list Jakob Ødum (there were 5 fake accounts that I had to delete).

- These Big Names:
Olav Lundanes, Thiery Gueorgiou, Fabian Hertner, Eva Jurenikova, Graham Gristwood, Edgards Bertuks, Lina Strand, Eskil Kinneberg, Tue Lassen, Jarkko Huovila, Anders Norberg, Hannu Airila, Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg, Olli-Markus Taivanen, Anna Forsberg, Erik Rost, Philippe Adamski, Carsten ørgensen, Gustav Bergman, Jan Prochazka, Tero Föhr, Gernot Kerschbaumer, Yngve Skogstad, Matt Ogden, Topias Tianen, Milos Nykodym, Antonio Martinez Perez, Lucas Basset, Ivar Lundanes, Gaute Hallan Steiwer, Marcus Millegård, Ola Martner, Albin Ridefelt, Mats Troeng, Tomas Dlabaja, Ausrine Kutkaite, Helen Palmer.

- There are 75 websites who were linked to the petition, the largest of which was Suunistusnet with a link that received over 500 hits.

- The petition is translated into french on this site: asope.info

-The youngest signer: Pyry Sëppällä 1999
- The oldest signer: Andre Hallouard (who started orienteering in 1966)

- Most signers/visitors: Finland