insidethegames has obtained a proposal by World Obstacle to merge with the UIPM in April 2016.

The document has been circulated to the leaders of all National Olympic Committees and UIPM National Federations by the Modern Pentathlon Association of Denmark (MPADK).

Obstacle racing is being trialled as modern pentathlon's new fifth discipline following the axing of horse riding - a move criticised by the MPADK.

Benny Elmann-Larsen, head of the MPADK, has claimed that the process to replace riding has been "far from transparent" after revealing the unsigned document, entitled "Integration Agreement".

The Danish official said that Schormann had asked him in April 2016 to "look into the validity and attractiveness of such a merger".

"It is evidenced that the present UIPM leadership already in 2016 was flirting with a potential merge with the International Obstacle Course Race Federation - an activity that even had a draft common constitution on the table between its leaders," wrote Elmann-Larsen in a letter.

Under the proposed agreement, World Obstacle planned to be "integrated within UIPM and therefore shall cease to exist".

"The parties have identified mutually beneficial areas of co-operation which will contribute to the integration process better described herein," the document read.

"In addition, the parties have the common goal of increasing both the size of the audience for sport and active participation in sport, by creating a combined and more efficient federation representing both UIPM Sports and obstacle sports.

"The parties hereby intend to set the steps to follow during the integration process and to create a framework for future co-operation."

There were also proposals for World Obstacle President Ian Adamson to become a UIPM member with no voting right and head a five-strong obstacle racing committee, with the worldwide governing body for modern pentathlon asked to establish a ranking system, classifications and a membership programme for all obstacle participants.

Elmann-Larsen said he had been requested by Schormann to review and comment on the proposal.

Under the counter proposal in May 2016, Elmann-Larsen changed it to a "Letter of Intent" and suggested that World Obstacle should instead aim to be an "associated partner of UIPM" and bid to become "one of two subunits under UIPM with each their independent governing bodies".

"It was evident, that the original wording of that merger-document… was almost a carte blanche for IORF to gradually take over UIPM lead, as the IORF counted hundreds of thousands of participants in these events," Elmann-Larsen added.

"UIPM would be the ticket for OCR to become Olympic."

In response to Elmann-Larsen’s letter, Schormann told insidethegames that he binned the proposal when it was presented to him at the time.

"I said 'sorry, not for me, there must be clear discussion with all the stakeholders'," said Schormann.

"I stopped it immediately.

"I got the contract and said 'sorry, it is for the basket'."

Criticism has been levelled at the UIPM over a lack of transparency in its process to replace riding, which was ditched in the wake of a Tokyo 2020 scandal when German coach Kim Raisner was sent home in disgrace after punching the horse Saint Boy.

A Fifth Discipline Working Group, headed by Schormann, was formed to oversee the process, with the UIPM claiming that it considered 61 proposals.

Two variations of obstacle racing were selected for testing with events staged in Ankara in Turkey, Manila in the Philippines, Lignano in Italy and Zielona Góra in Poland.

Adamson has rubbished suggestions that his talks with the UIPM in 2016 led to obstacle racing’s selection by the organisation's Fifth Discipline Working Group.

"There was a proposed framework for an agreement which the parties didn’t agree on, we didn’t come to terms and it was dropped," Adamson told insidethegames.

"We talked to several International Federations that year and didn’t come to terms with any of them.

"If they are saying that that led to this [test events for a fifth obstacle discipline], that is nonsense, that came out of the IOC [International Olympic Committee].

"We did talk to International Federations early on as we were trying to work out whether it was feasible to have a sport and if so how should it be done.

"It’s quite common in sport and there are many examples in aquatics, athletes, cycling and canoe.

"Currently, you see stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) become part of two International Federations, so you have racing under canoe and the surfing part of SUP under surf.

"We’ve explored those possibilities, so talked to pentathlon, triathlon, athletics, all sorts of International Federations in 2015 and 2016.

"We did have a conversations with pentathlon and it ended.

"It thought that the timing was not right and it's not going to work at this point so keep doing what we are doing."