Note that the rule was not only moved to 1.2 – rather the OLD rule 26.2 was reintroduced, and this was moved to 1.2. This is a big difference, as the old 26.2 only says that you are expected to orienteer independently.

With this wording, it fits a lot better in 1.2, which defines what orienteering is.

see: IOF Amendments

We all agree comptitors should navigate independently and following has played all too big role in past WOC races. And I also belive those runners Martin mentioned above most likely think it’s absurd if someone would have to take different and worse route-choice or stop and wait, count to 10 or something like that. It is a race and competitors are there to do best they can fastest wins.

The problem is in the past competitors used to be responsible for not running together. From now on competitors are allowed to follow if they can, but lots of following is still not desired. This makes course setter / event organizer responsible to minimize the following/pack factor to make the event succesful. This means longer start intervals, use of spreading methods, less competirors in finals and so on. In this perspective I see this all as step forward.