25 days to the start of WOC 2009

25 Day to go to the start of this years World orienteering champs in Hungary.

The Irish elite team are training hard and trying to stay injury-free in the run-up to the competition.

We are thankfull to Kyle Heron who has joined the team as WOC team manager. Kyle will be doing his best to help and support the Irish team during the week.

Race selections have been made for the team members and are as follows:

Neil Dobbs - Middle and Relay (3rd leg), David Healy - Middle and Relay (1st leg), Colm Hill -Sprint and Classic, Shane Lynch - Sprint and Middle, Ruairi Short - Classic ,Nicolas Simonin -Sprint, Classic and Relay (2nd leg).

Ciara Largey and Rosalind Hussey - Sprint, Middle and Classic.

Following Niamh's injury Ciara and Rosalind are the only runners on the womens team. There is a place on the womens team open for a willing and able orienteer - It would be great to be able to put out a Mens and Womens relay team. If there is a runner out there that you know who may be interested, please let them know that there is a place available to join Ciara and Rosalind on the team.

In the meantime keep an eye out here for updates on the teams progress at the champs.

Congratulations to the Irish junior squad members who performed superbly at this years JWOC in Italy.

There were some fantastic results from Niall, Kevin, Ruairi and Nicolas.

Nick was 49th in the Classic and placed a superb 44th in the middle A final. Ruairi ran well to gain 3rd place in the middle C final. Kevin showed his sprinting strength coming an impressive 71st in the sprint final. Niall had some strong runs in his first JWOC.

The relay team finished off a great competition with a storming run finishing just 2 seconds behind big rivals team GB.

Well done also to Ruth who's hard work with the juniors is really paying off!

We now look forward to Nick and Ruairi joining the senior squad as they compete against the big boys and girls at next months WOC in Hungary

Good luck at JWOC!

On behalf of the senior O squad I would like to wish the very best of our celtic luck to the junior team at this years Junior World Orienteering Champs (JWOC) in Italy. Two of the boys there are already scheduled to run for the senior team at this years senior WOC, Ruairi Short and Nicholas Simonin. And the other two juniors, Niall Ewen and Kevin O'Boyle, are two promising talents for the future. We'll all be watching very closely to the boys at JWOC and know that they are in great hands with Ruth Lynam on the sidelines.

!!!COME ON IRELAND!!!