The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) say the decision follows the cancellation of this year's World Orienteering Championships in Denmark, which would have featured only sprint competitions.

The event in Denmark has now been rescheduled for 2022, but it would have meant no sprint title would have been awarded since 2018.

Both the individual sprint with qualification and a sprint relay event will now feature in the 2021 World Orienteering Championships, with the governing body saying they had sought to find a solution for the world's best sprint athletes.

The agreement was approved by the IOF Council at their latest digital meeting.

"To include more competitions is a real challenge for us, but many competitors and teams wished to have sprints included," said Jan Picek, director of the 2021 World Orienteering Championships.

"We just want to declare what we have been saying since the beginning of the preparations: the athlete always comes first.

"Our concept and vision have not changed.

"The emphasis on back to the roots, forest environment and ecology still remains."

The additions to the World Orienteering Championships will lead to alterations to the dates of the event.

The IOF has said the Championships will now begin three days earlier than previously planned, with the Opening Ceremony initially scheduled for July 4.

Both the qualification races and sprint final will open the event, followed by the sprint relay.

These competitions will take place prior to the forest based races, the middle distance, long distance and relay events.

"Considering the consultation we previously conducted with our member federations and in a cooperative dialogue with the IOF Athletes' Commission, we feel that this is the best possible solution we could find for awarding Sprint World Championships medals in lieu of the cancelled 2020 event,” said Leho Haldna, IOF President.

"This solution also maintains the new World Championships model of alternating sprint and forest formats.

"We would like to thank the Czech organisers for their willingness to find solutions in this new situation and look forward to working together to make the event a success."

The IOF added that further details of the modified programme and overall plans for the events will be announced by organisers in the coming weeks.