World Orienteering Day is now set to be held in September 2021 ©World Orienteering Day

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) has opted to delay World Orienteering Day in the hope that more activities linked to the occasion can take place if it occurs later in the year.

September 8 is the new date for World Orienteering Day this year, with any event held from then until September 14 able to be registered as a World Orienteering Day celebration.

The event is normally in May, with May 19 to 25 the previous window for World Orienteering Day festivities in 2021, but coronavirus-related restrictions on movement are forecast to be in place across much of the world then.

This is not the first time COVID-19 has impacted World Orienteering Day - it was cancelled altogether in 2020 given the global health crisis.

World Orienteering Day was first held in 2016, and editions have followed each year with the exception of 2020.

World Orienteering Day aims to boost the sport's visibility, particularly in schools ©Getty Images
World Orienteering Day aims to boost the sport's visibility, particularly in schools ©Getty Images

It is designed to increase the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, with a particular emphasis placed on schools.

The IOF asks that each club associated with a National Federation gets in contact with at least one school to help implement orienteering lessons and activities.

Students also get to keep maps as a memento of World Orienteering Day, with it hoped that the maps themselves can boost orienteering's visibility.

In 2019, 398,712 people were reported to have taken part in a World Orienteering Day event by the IOF - the largest total recorded through four editions of the special day.