The Alliance of European OCR Associations is thrilled to announce that the second edition of the OCR European Championships will be held in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands. The event will take place from 30 June till 2 July 2017, and these three days will include a short distance race, a standard distance race and a team race
The Alliance is a cooperation of European governing bodies for Obstacle Course Racing. The Alliance is aimed at the promotion and development of OCR as a sport on European level. The alliance currently consists of 12 associations covering 14 European countries (counting the UK as one)
The OCR European Championship is a „brand independent“ event, which means that the event is not organised by a single event organizer, such as Spartan race, or Strong Viking.
Therefore it is not like a branded championship, hosted multiple times at the same partner race event. We strongly feel that The Independent OCR European Championship should represent the entire obstacle sport and not a single brand or OCR concept. We are the overall championship for all top European race events.
We guarantee our independence by using a cooperation of European governing bodies to run the organization of the event. The organization is in the capable hands of this cooperation and not the responsibility of a single sports board. The second edition of the OCR European Championship will once again be held in the Netherlands, mimicking the World Championship which also took place in the same country in subsequent years. However, the venue for the second edition will be different from the previous edition. The change of venue is a deliberate choice to emphasize the independent character of the OCR European Championship.
The Championship course will run both on and off the Flevonice grounds in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands.
You can expect a return of the wooden obstacles from 2016, but we will have many new surprises for you. We represent all top European race events and we will demonstrate this in our choice of obstacles.
Some of the permanent obstacles will be used but at least 80% of the obstacles will be build there specially for the OCR European Championships.
The course will be build by Bruggink en Rougoor and Urban-sky obstacle design division Europe.
The complete course will consists of approximately 50 technical and / or strength based obstacles.
Last year we put together one of the toughest possible courses for the European Championship.
We received a lot of feedback from athletes and adjudicators; much praise, but also constructive criticism that we are now using to build an even more impressive event for all our participants.
One great concern was waiting times. To avoid queues for obstacles, we will create sufficient lanes and we will position obstacles in such a way on the course that we minimize the chance of creating obstructions.
This year we have the advantage of having the entire course to ourselves in contrast to last year, when we had to share part of the course with another same day event. Besides these measures, retry lanes will be managed by sufficient adjudicators, creating a free lane for first tries.
We believe that these measures will go a long way into providing a challenging course without obstructions for every athlete.
We can also tell you that the start waves will be back to normal. So no more time trial system, but regular start waves like we see at most of the OCR events.
Compared to this time last year, we currently have two and a half times as many registrations as last year in early February and this is fully in accordance with our expectations.
Further we are introducing an Open Course Charity run, taking place on the Sunday of the OCR European Championships weekend.
Sport is healthy; it increases your physical fitness. It boosts your confidence and encourages you to set goals and get the best out of yourself. Sports also increases social participation. But did you know that people with disabilities are only half as likely as people without disabilities to take part in sports?
We are committed to raising awareness and making a difference.
This Open Course is open to everyone. All competitive and recreational runners are welcome to join in.
A portion of the registration fee will go to „Fonds Gehandicaptensport“, a Dutch charity organization that enables children and adults with disabilities to take part in sports activities.
Registration fee is set at only 49 euros and the course will be part of the official EC course.
On top of this, we welcome all athletes with disabilities and their buddies(helpers) from all over Europe to join us for free at the Open Course.
We are pleased to announce the prize money for the standard course event, there will be a total sum of 63.000 euro in prize money just for the standard course event, we are still looking at the prize money for the short course, so the total prize money might just rise but we will come back to that at a later time.
Kind regards,
Michel de Jong
Event Director – 2017 OCR European Championships
Alliance of European OCR Associations
Mobile: +31 6-312 511 82
Email: michel@ocreuropeanchampionships.org
Web: www.ocreuropeanchampionships.org
The OCR European Championships will consist of several qualifying events around Europe culminating in one final event in june, in subsequent years we will rotate where the finals are held based on applications and eligibility..
Obstacle Course Racing is a running event where the participants encounter various obstacles along the way. Examples of obstacles are wooden walls, crawling under barbed wire, swim through ditches, jumping over fire and climbing on rope nets.
Kontakt
OCR European Championships
Michel de Jong
Vrijburglaan 31
1911SE Uitgeest
+31 6312 511 82
michel@ocreuropeanchampionships.org
http://www.ocreuropeanchampionships.org