WOC 2010 build-up blog

A new Irish elite blog has been launched.

The blog highlights the squads annual build-up to the season highlight - the World champs.

Please make this blog a favourite and visit it as often as possible as it is hoped to be a valuable source of info for all elite athletes preparing for WOC.

You can visit the blog here: http://irisheliteorienteering.wordpress.com/

Irish elite attackpoint group

All members of the Irish elite squad are invited to join the new Irish elite attackpoint group.

Attackpoint is a valuable training diary facility already used by a number of squad members.

It is hoped that all squad members will join up and benefit from this excellent training tool.

The group can be found here: http://www.attackpoint.org/group.jsp/group_157

Irish team for Senior Home International 2009

The Senior Home International is an annual competition held between Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. This year it is being held in Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The individual race will take place on the Burren on Saturday 3rd October and the relay will be held on Crossmurin on Sunday 4th October. The competition is being held in conjunction with the Northern Ireland orienteering championships and promises tough and technical orienteering. The Irish team has been selected as follows (alphabetical order):

W20: Katarina Stefko (LVO)

M20: Niall Ewen (CNOC), Kevin O'Boyle (CNOC), Ruairi Short (CNOC)

W21: Rosalind Hussey (FermO), Ciara Largey (FermO), Violet Linton (LVO), Ruth Lynam (CNOC), Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC/DUO), Maeve O'Grady (CNOC/DFO)

M21: Gerard Butler (3Roc), Darren Burke (CorkO), Patrick Higgins (LVO), Colm Hill (CNOC), Steven Linton (NWOC), Seamus O'Boyle (CNOC)

Map extracts from Crossmurin and the Burren

Pre-WOC training in Trondheim

NORWAY

The five of us (Andrew, Darren, myself, Kieren and Neil) arrived last Thursday/Friday and have begun preparations for next years world champs in Trondheim, Norway. Training has being tough; we've been to hell and back already.

But still we've managed to keep a smile on our face.



















It's the marshes that will require some serious amount of strength and speed, and the hills also demanding hill strength.

We've attended the "how to Orienteer in Trondheim" lecture along with all the other big national teams and we have some posed questions to begin exploring, to hopefully provide the answers to next year in August.




















The road will be long and tough going if we're to be able to run and navigate respectably in Trondheim next Summer. From time to time you should hear more about our preparations and training camps for the Trondheim WOC. I (David) have just completed my second training camp here, and I leave tomorrow morning along with Darren to leave Neil, Andrew and Kieren to continue training. Hopefully they'll post something to this blog with more map samples along the way.


























We hope some Irish people might think about running the WOC spectator race called the "WOC tour". It's basically a mutiday festival that is run alongside the WOC leaving enough time to to spectate the races. Trondheim is certainly an Orienteering experience you will never forget!

Squad coach for 2010 WOC build-up

I am pleased to announce to Irish squad members the offer of help with technical training from a young Norwegian orienteer Kim Andre.

Kim would like to work with squad members to improve their running and orienteering technique. He would like all squad members to complete and return a short questionnaire about themselves and a recent photo.

It is planned that Kim will assess individual and team requirements and take part in team training camps in the build up to next years major competitions.

Here is a brief introduction from Kim:

Hello, I was born 5th of July 1983. From Brandbu, 1hr drive north of Oslo. I Started orienteering at 3 years old. My best results are 12th place in junior NM, and 35 th in senior NM. I have been troubled with injuries my whole career, so I have never reached any of my goals. Now I want to help others reach theirs.

I have competed and trained in a lot of sports like football, athletics, cross country running and skiing, ski orienteering, mtb orienteering and cycling.

I am a certified pose method of running coach, and would recommend all runners to watch the page posetech.com to learn more about running technique. My coaching philosophy is to focus on both running technique and orienteering technique. I feel that is where most athletes have the most to gain.

I have a bachelors degree in business administration from the Norwegian school of management. Now I have started on my bachelors degree in sports coaching in Falun, Sweden. My interests include travelling, sports, cars, tv, and computer games.

Feel free to ask if there is something specific you want to know.

Best regards Kim André.

I feel it is important that all Irish squad members take this opportunity to gain from Kim's help.

I will be sending out Kim's questionnaire to all squad members.

WOC 2010 Training camp

Five members of the Irish elite squad are getting a taste of the terrains surrounding Trondheim, Norway. They (Andrew, Darren, David, Kieran and Neil) are taking part in the first official training camp for next years World Champs to be held in Trondheim next August.

The training camp is being well attended by other national teams preparing for the competition including the Swedes, French, Czech and British teams.

Friday saw the Irish boys heading to Selbu OKlubb for a regional champs event, the first race was a sprint - Andrew showed good speed coming 7th, Neil was 14th, Darren 20th and Kieran 25th. Full results available here: http://resultat.selbu.org/20090904/resultat/H21.HTM

Saturday was the long distance race and attracted a very large field of the worlds top orienteers.

1st was David Andersson of the Swedish team just 12 seconds ahead of the legendary Thierry Gueorgiou and 3rd placed Norwegian Holger Hott. Fastest of the Irish was David coming in a very respectable 51st, Andrew continued his good form coming in 62nd, Neil and Darren were 71st and 72nd.

Full results available here:

http://resultat.selbu.org/20090905/resultat/H21.HTM

The team now head to the forests for 3 days of technique training before taking in the Norwegian champs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.