BEIJING: Beijing will host the first four editions of the Obstacle World Cham-pionships from 2025 to 2028, World Pentathlon (UIPM) said on Friday. The maiden World Championships will launch in October this year, featuring Obstacle athletes from the Pentathlon and Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) communities competing on 100 metres, 400m and 3km courses. The introduction of the competition follows the full integration of the Obstacle discipline into Modern Pentathlon. This development has been backed by the establishment of the UIPM Obstacle Commission and an Obstacle Task-force, which received approval from the UIPM Executive Board on Thursday. “The creation of the UIPM Obstacle World Championships is an important step in the ongoing integration of this popular urban sport into our movement,” UIPM president Rob Stull said. “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.” The championships will be hosted at an upgraded sports complex which was designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2025