Beijing (CHN) secures four-year deal to host UIPM Obstacle World Championships (OCR)

• Chinese capital to host new global competition from 2025-2028
• OCR specialists and pentathletes poised to race on 100m, 400m and 3km courses
• President Stull celebrates ‘important step in integration of urban sport’

The Chinese capital city of Beijing has won the right to host the first four editions of the UIPM Obstacle World Championships (OCR), securing the competition from 2025-2028.

The brand-new World Championships, set to launch in October 2025, will be UIPM’s first step into the organisation of standalone Obstacle competitions. The organising committee has offered significant prize money and UIPM will invite the most successful Obstacle athletes from both Pentathlon and OCR communities.

The competition will be hosted within the sports complex originally designed for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, which has since been heavily modernised and upgraded.

Hundreds of athletes from the Obstacle and Pentathlon communities are expected to travel to Beijing (CHN) to test their skills in Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) courses spanning 100m, 400m and 3km.

The launch of the competition follows the full integration of Obstacle as a discipline of Modern Pentathlon, supported by the creation of the UIPM Obstacle Commission and an Obstacle Taskforce that was approved yesterday by the UIPM Executive Board. The 73rd UIPM Congress voted in November 2024 to make statutory changes that established UIPM as the sole IOC-recognised Olympic International Federation governing obstacle sport worldwide.

UIPM President Rob Stull OLY said: “The creation of the UIPM Obstacle World Championships (OCR) is an important step in the ongoing integration of this popular urban sport into our movement.

“Having successfully introduced Obstacle as a new Pentathlon discipline, it is key that we also provide exciting opportunities for existing OCR athletes to test their skills in a high-quality competitive environment. It’s going to be amazing to see how pentathletes measure up against their OCR specialist counterparts in October.

“As one of the world’s most populated cities with more than 22 million residents, we could hardly conceive a better venue than Beijing to start the UIPM Obstacle World Championships journey. Obstacle racing is all about universality and bringing sport to urban communities. The OCR scene in Asia is buzzing and it’s going to be a fascinating four years.”

Bin Zhang, President of the Chinese Modern Pentathlon Association (CMPA), added: “We are honoured to welcome the world to Beijing for the UIPM 2025 Obstacle World Championships (OCR) and proud to begin a four-year journey as hosts.

“Obstacle sports such as OCR are already hugely popular in China, especially among young people, and we believe this World Championships will serve as a powerful catalyst for the development of Modern Pentathlon across the country.

“This agreement reflects China’s strong commitment to innovation in sport and our shared vision with UIPM to grow this dynamic discipline worldwide.”