WOC selection races announced

The Irish WOC selectors have finalised the WOC2011 selection process.

The main selection will be based around 2 major events this spring. Including the JK2011 festival which visits Ireland in 2011 for the first time. Also selections will be made at a major event weekend in the WOC areas in France at the end of May 2011. The selectors feel that given the complexed nature of the terrain that will be encounted at the world champs, it will be important to find team members who can meet the ‘special challenge’ of the competition areas.
More info on the France selection weekend will follow.

You can find more general information on the selection process and races and copies of the athlete WOC intention form on the Team Ireland WOC2011blog

Those of you who have still to return the WOC intention form have only a few days before the December 31st deadline! Even if you do not intend to compete at WOC/WOC selection races please return your form to Ivan at elite@orienteering.ie

The Irish are coming!

Irish exploits at this years world champs in Trondheim are being noticed around the orienteering world. The International orienteering Federations magazine 'O-zine' has produced a feature focusing on Irish team member Niamh O'Boyle.

You can download a copy of the O-zine here.


BY ERIK BORG

The Irish are coming
Niamh O'Boyle has had more success than any other Irish woman at the World Orienteering Championships, and she is one of the most promising athletes from the green island.
The 26-year-old just missed out qualifying for the sprint final at the World Orienteering Championships in Trondheim, but then qualified well for the long distance and in the final came number 34.
“I orienteered well and didn't make any big mistakes. I couldn't ask for more in my first World Championships final and I was really happy when I finished. The day was even better because there were lots of Irish supporters in Trondheim, including my family. My brother Seamus also took part as a competitor at the World Championships in Trondheim. The atmosphere was brilliant”, she says.

Better and better
There are 21 orienteering clubs in Ireland with about 1,100 members and 500 regular orienteers. There is also a good number of school children who take part in organised school orienteering events.
Among the seniors there are a lot of good orienteers who want to lift their level. Ivan Millar, Director of High Performance of the Irish Orienteering Association, says that the current success is mainly thanks to the hard work of dedicated coaches and parents of Irish juniors over the past ten years.
“There is now a core of young seniors emerging from the junior programme who are very talented and focused on doing well at the highest level”, Ivan says.

Positive approach
“Lots of people have very positive attitudes”, says Niamh. “There is more competition to gain a place on the Irish team, especially in the men's, so everyone has to work harder. “A rising tide lifts all boats”.
We are supported by the Irish Orienteering Association to travel to World Cup races so the team is getting experience at a high level. The people on the Irish team also get on very well with each other and we have
lots of fun together”, she says.
For the last three years Niamh has been working on a PhD in the School of Pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin in the area of anti-cancer drugs. The university has also given her good support in her sporting pursuits.
Since mid November has she been living in Gothenburg, Sweden. She moved there from the little city of Newbridge, close to Dublin, “I moved to Sweden both to have better opportunities for orienteering and because I could undertake some interesting research at the university.”

All time best in women’s class
Only two Irish runners, both men, have fared better at the World Orienteering Championships than Niamh. Wally Young was 27th in the long distance in 1981 in Switzerland. Two years earlier Wally ran the first leg in the relay and handed over in 4th place. Aonghus O'Cleirigh finished in 28th position in the long distance in
1987 in France.
“The long term goal is to improve our team performance year on year. The World Championships 2013 looks like being an important goal in the careers of many of our current team members and we aim to have some impressive performances in Finland”, Ivan Millar says.

Aiming high
Niamh will build on her performances from this year and try to achieve more consistency at international events.
“In particular my orienteering technique needs to be improved. I will improve my map-reading skills over the next year or two so that I can compete with the best in the world. And I will have to keep my physical and mental strength up too. I will be aiming for a top 20 finish at World Championships in the near future. I also
hope that I can make it to W35 without being beaten by my younger sister, Caoimhe. She is 13 now and really fast”, Niamh says.

WOC2011 selection policy document and intention forms.

Hi All, Its that time of year again!

Intention forms and selection policy guidelines are now available for next years World champs in France.
All seniors who intend to take part in the WOC2011 selection process should complete the intention form and return to Ivan at elite@orienteering.ie before December 31st.

All Irish seniors are urged to take part in the selection process whether they have WOC ambitions or not. Being a part of the process exposes you to high level and exciting competition and can really improve your orienteering in many different ways.

The documents can be downloaded from the new Irish WOC2011 blog.

Ivan Millar
(High performance director

Senior Home International 2010

Left: The SHI W21 course at Ocknell and Slufters

The Senior Home International was held near Southampton last weekend. After finishing ahead of Wales in 2009, the team were hopeful of repeating the feat this year. With a number of orienteers returning to the international scene, the Irish team was one of the strongest for many years.

A tricky relay in Pamber forest on Saturday saw good results from the men's team finishing in 7th and 8th position, with the team of Darren, Conor and Ruairi best of the Irish. In the women's competition, Faye, Olivia and Ros finished 9th. This meant that overnight, the Irish team was one point behind the Welsh. Relay results and scores.

The individual day dawned bright and sunny and team Ireland were ready to overcome the 1-point deficit. The courses were long and fast - M21 was 17km and was won in 80:58. Best of the Irish were Marcus Pinker 10th in M21, Aislinn Austin 12th in W21, Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan 7th in M20 and Olivia Baxter 10th in W20. The individual titles were taken home by England's Sarah Rollins (W21) and Graham Gristwood (M21) and Scotland's Hazel Wright (W20) and Ali McLeod (M20). Full individual results can be found here. The Irish M21's out-scored their Welsh counterparts but good performances by the Welsh, particularly in W20, secured victory over Ireland. Full scores are here. England took overall victory with a very strong team that included many of the British World Championships squad.

A good weekend was had by all and a big thank you is due to the organisers of this event. Also a big thank you to the Irish runners who competed. The 2011 Senior Home International is scheduled for 22nd/23rd October in south Wales.

Final Scores:
1. England 54
2. Scotland 48
3. Wales 24
4. Ireland 17

Last World Cup races of 2010 in France and Switzerland

Over the past two weeks members of the Irish senior team have been in France and Switzerland taking part in the WOC 2011 training camp and the World Cup final races.

The first leg of the trip was held near Annecy in France. A night sprint in Annecy old town was fast and furious, and the O'Boyle siblings placed best of the Irish (Niamh in 4th place and Seamus in 23rd - full results here). 6 Irish men competed in the World Cup long distance race but unfortunately due to time constraints only 3 managed to finish the course. The other 3 were in the air flying back to Dublin before the competition was even over! Darren finished best of the Irish men in 79th position, while Niamh was the sole Irish women's representative finishing in 53rd place. The full results are here.

Niamh and Darren continued to Geneva to take part in the last races of the 2010 World Cup. The middle distance on Saturday was relevant for WOC 2012 and was a steep, forested area near St. Cergue. It was a miracle that Niamh made the start line with a number of injuries plaguing her - a cocktail of anti-inflammatories, heat treatment and ice ensuring that she made it to the start line. A reasonable run left her in 45th place. Darren had a solid run to finish in 62nd place but had two silly mistakes and a bad route choice. Full results here and maps here. Running in the national sprint race on Sunday, Niamh took 8th place in the old streets of Geneva while Darren finished 24th (results should appear here). In the World Cup sprint, Daniel Hubmann and Simone Niggli were victorious. The courses for the World Cup sprint can be seen here.

In the overall World Cup for 2010, Swiss superstars Simone Niggli and Daniel Hubmann took victory. Overall classification for 2010 is here.

A busy week and plenty to think about (while eating pain au chocolat...) for WOC 2011! Next up for the Irish seniors is the Senior Home International in England on 6th and 7th of November.

Le madness

Today le Irish team runners must have run more times in one day than ever before. In le morning they ran le 4km model training for tomorrows World Cup long distance race. Then at lunch time they ran le Orient Show which consisted of three heat races of which you ran in every one (your total time counted towards being in one of le fastest 8 spots in le semi final. And then it was four people to go through to le final). Oh, and then there was a night sprint race in le town of Annecy!

So Colm Hill and Seamus O'Boyle ran six times today! Colm and Seamus got into le semi final of le Orient show. And Seamus was just 3 seconds off qualifying for le final.



Le map!



Some of le Irish guys in action at Orient show.









Some men compare their guns, others just scratch their backs when they should really be comparing their guns for a picture.



Le night sprint map.



Colm in action in the night sprint.

WOC2011 training camp / World Cup France

The Irish hit Annecy in France to prepare for next years world orienteering championships in Aix les Bains/Chambery. A worthy mention: a certain someone from Corko has returned to the wild.

After the first days of training in local terrain to next years WOC it seems that foot placement will be challenging.

But you can't spend the race watching where you put your feet, look up, and keep an eye out for the Alps!

But seriously it's physically challenging in a different way to Trondheim and it's way more intricate! If you haven't seen Thierry Gueorgious twitter post about his training here check it out - http://twitpic.com/2ir3pf . The Irish team were on this map today.

Stay posted for future updates about the training camp and the world cup race this Sunday.

And now some terrain pictures:

Development team announced for French World cup.

I am pleased to announce the following squad members have been selected as part of the Irish seniors development team to compete at the World cup event in Annecy, France 2nd/3rd October:

Men: Darren Burke, Gerard Butler, Hugh Cashell, Colm Hill, Seamus O'Boyle and Rauiri Short Women: Niamh O'Boyle.

The French WC weekend will see a long distance race on the Sunday and sprint events on the Saturday. There will also be the opportunity for those on the team and other squad members to sample some of next years WOC terrain in organised training sessions in the area.

The following weekend Niamh and Darren will be taking part in the final World cup event of 2010 the postfinance sprint in Geneva.

Good luck to all those taking part!

You can also find more French WC and WOC info on the new WOC 2011 Irish blog here:
http://worldchamps2011france.wordpress.com/

Ivan Millar
(High performance director)

Park World Tour results

Irish senior squad members were competing at the Park World Tour sprint races in Perth this weekend.
They had fine runs in the Elite finals on Saturday with Niamh O'Boyle finishing in the top ten with 8th place, 2 and a half minutes behind WOC sprint runner-up Sweden's Helen Jansson. Niamh's World champs team-mate Rosalind Hussey qualified for Saturdays Elite final and finished a respectable 18th place in a high quality field.
Corko junior Niamh Corbett narrowly missed out on joining Niamh and Rosalind in the big final, she finished a mere 11 seconds off qualification.

Nicolas Simonin was the only Irish representative in the Men's final. He had a strong run finishing 14th in a time of 15:39
In a race that was won by sprint specialist Norway's Oystein Kvaal Osterbo Nick was less than a minute off a podium spot!

Special mention must also go to the Irish Juniors who were placed 3rd (finally getting the better of the Welsh)In the Junior Home International which was run alongside the PWT events in Perth. Well done!

You can view full results, photos and maps on the PWT website

Irish Team for Senior Home International Selected

The Irish team to compete at the SHI in Southern England on November 6th and 7th has been selected. The team will be:

M21: Darren Burke, Gerard Butler, Seamus O'Boyle, Colm O'Halloran, Marcus Pinker and Ruairi Short.

M20: Niall Ewen, Conor Short, Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan

W21: Aislinn Austin, Rosalind Hussey, Ruth Lynam, Niamh O'Boyle, Toni O'Donovan and Faye Pinker.

W20: Fiona Hill, Olivia Baxter

The relay event will be held on Saturday in Pamber Forest, while the individual competition will be held as part of the November Classic in New Forest, Southampton. The event webpage can be found here.

WMTBO champs report

NWOC orienteer Bobby Smyth was Irelands sole representitive at the 2010 World MTBO championships in Portugal this year.
Here is a taste of what Bobby experienced at his first major MTBO competition.
You can read his full report on the Trailblazers MTBO webite.




MTBO WOC Portugal 2010

Preparation

After a successful bike and foot orienteering season in 2009 I decided that I needed a new goal for 2010. I got word early in 2010 that I would be representing Ireland at the MTBO World Champs in Portugal in July. So it was with a mixture of fear and excitement that I set about training for such an event. I was afraid that I would suffer from the “Eddie the Eagle” syndrome where I would finish in a distant last position but be popular because I was the only competitor from Ireland. I was extremely excited as it would be my first taste of international competition. My preparation involved training for between 9 to 12 hours per week. My training consisted of 2 hour cycles for aerobic endurance, cycling to work, mountain biking on the hills around Clonmany, running and core strength. For sharpness I competed in as many foot and bike orienteering events that I could manage. I also travelled over to England and Scotland on 3 occasions to compete in some of the UK MTBO Cup events and I currently lie 4th in the rankings with 3 events still to go. I vowed to myself that I would finish every race in Portugal no matter how tough, the only thing that would stop me would be mechanical problems.

Portugal

I travelled out to Portugal on Friday 2nd July with my wife, Aine and daughter, Ciara. There was no way they were going to miss the opportunity of a holiday in Portugal. I explained to them that we would be nowhere near a beach and there would be a lot of waiting around at very warm finish areas, they were undeterred. We arrived in Chaves in Northern Portugal just before midnight . Chaves is an old spa town which was situated near 2 of the competition areas in addition to being the venue for the sprint event. I spent the next day wandering around the town to get my bearings and locate the nearest supermarket for supplies. My first impressions were that everywhere I looked there were hills and the temperature gauge was hitting 38ºC, boy this was going to be a tough championship.

Sprint Race Sunday 11th July

The world championships started with the sprint race on Sunday 11th July in Chaves. I had ridden the model sprint event in Montalegre the day before so I had a fair idea of what to expect at the start and finish areas. The sprint took place in the morning so the temperature was relatively cool. All competitors were contained inside FC Chaves’ football stadium before the start so that we could not see any of the course. I spent the time before my allocated start chatting to the British team and warming up on the dirt track surrounding the pitch which created a remarkably large dust cloud that did my asthma no favours before racing. I had an early start time so I wouldn’t benefit from seeing other competitors going in and out of controls. I felt confident on the start line and went off like a bat outta hell overtaking the other competitors that started at the same time as me. I mispunched control no. 1 but lost no more than 10 seconds as my control was only 50m ahead. I rode controls 2-7 quickly, made a 20 second error at 8 by going to 9 first which was very nearby. At this point I vowed to keep better contact with the map. Controls 10,11, 12 and 13 presented no problem except that I was starting to suffer on the hills from my fast early pace. I got a little bit disorientated on the way to 14 through following another competitor and not looking at my map enough this lost me about 20 seconds as I had to stop to relocate. I was hesitant on the way to 15 as I could not find a direct route on the map (there was none) losing me another 30 seconds. I made a slight mistake on my way to 16, turning the wrong way at a junction which cost me another 10 seconds. I rode 17,18 and 19 extremely quickly and had already planned my route through the last 2 controls to the finish in my head which proved to be a big mistake. I rode along the walls of an old Napoleonic fort to where I thought number 20 was only to find out that I was 20 feet above it. I had to retrace my steps to a walkway that would take me to the lower level of the battlements however tried to be clever on the way and went down another walkway first that was blocked off, then back up to the correct walkway and finally into control 20. Control 20 cost me 2 minutes 15 in lost time! I sprinted to the final control and finish without further mistakes. At the finish I was gutted because I knew that I had blown my best chance of a top 40 finish. All in all I made nearly 4 minutes of mistakes and finished in 69th position, if I had only looked at my map before going to number 20 I would have finished 10 places further up the field. I know that I will never have a completely clean run but I really need to cut out these silly mistakes.
On Sunday evening we travelled 40 minutes to Montalegre, where the event centre was, for the opening ceremony. This involved walking through the town from the castle to the event centre behind a child carrying each country’s flag. I must say that it was quite a buzz, especially since Ciara was with me in her pram and taking her job of carrying the Ireland sign very seriously.

Autumn events

WOC is over for another year, Its time now to focus on the Autumn events. This next few months see's the Park World Tour event coming to Perth, Scotland. Also there is the World cup events and pre-woc training in France and the Senior Home International in England.

On the weekend of September 10th - 12th the Park World tour sprint competition will take place in Perth with a qualifier at Scone Palace and final in the city itself.
There is a 5000 euro prize fund up for grabs though you will have to beat the likes of Daniel Hubman and others to get your hands on it!

The JHI competiton is being held in the same area and there will be a chance to run on the Sunday as well. A number of the Irish squad members are taking part as it will be excellent big race experience. For more details visit the PWT website

The Annecy World cup 2010 event will be held on Sunday October 3rd, this will be a long distance race. An Irish senior development team is to be entered in the competition If you would like to be considered for the team please contact Ivan at:
ivanmandymillar'at'aol.com.
The weekend will also include a middle, sprint and orient show races. There will be organised Pre-WOC 2011 training available in the days prior and after the World cup event so It is hoped a large party of Irish seniors will be there preparing for next years WOC. For more details visit the Annecy World Cup website

The Final senior competition of 2010 will be the Senior Home International. This year the SHI is being hosted by England in the New Forest area on the weekend of November 6/7.
Niamh O'Boyle will again be the team captain and a team will be selected very shortly.
If you wish to be considered for the team please email Ivan at ivanmandymillar'at'aol.com as soon as possible. More details about the SHI weekend will follow.

Ivan Millar
(High performance director)

WOC a week to remember!

WOC 2010 Trondheim is over and what a week it was for the Irish orienteering team.
Our best ever results with 4 finalists and we were so close to another 4!

Well done to all the team and thanks to all who supported them both in Trondheim and at home in Ireland.

You can catch up with all the news and WOC reports on the Irish WOC blog here.

Roll on France 2011!!

14:58pm is when the Celt sprints naked into battle in Trondheim!!!

A quick note from Trondheim and today's sprint qualie.

Nicolas Simonin went through in 10th place, Ireland's best performance in a qualification race to date, to my knowledge. Get your vuvuzela ready for the final this afternoon!

The O'Boyles also had great races, Niamh in 16th and Seamus in 18th with only 15 to qualify.

More on the races later.

Follow the stories and the races on
http://live.woc2010.com
with discussions and more on worldofo.com

Sprint Final this afternoon (first start women 13:40, men 14:40 men, so Nick will go out just before three, Swedish time (just before 2 in Ireland), Middle Q tomorrow, Long Q Tuesday.

Neil

WOC is here!

The 2010 World Champs starts in just 2 days.

A large group of Irish orienteers is bound for Norway for a week of excellent orienteering whilst supporting the Irish team at the World champs. Many young and older Irish orienteers are taking part in the WOC tour event which is a five day event using the same terrains and event centres as the Worlds best at WOC.

The Irish WOC team of 6 men and 4 women will be well supported by the travelling Irish and we are hoping to keep those at home upto speed with all the goings on in Trondheim on the Irish WOC website, so keep checking over the next week or so for updates on everyones progress. Fingers crossed for some world class Irish results!!

Nicolas performs well at O-ringen

Irish mens champion Nicolas Simonin had some storming runs at the worlds largest orienteering festival, The Swedish O-ringen last week.

Running in the mens elite group as a first year senior Nick finished the 5 day competition strongly.

He was placed mid table in a very respectable 37th place, alongside some of the biggest names in World orienteering.

Lets all hope Nicks good form continues as he heads off to Trondheim next week to join the rest of the Irish seniors competing at the World champs 2010!



30 Bjørn Ekeberg IL Tyrving 65:28
31 Jakob Lööf OK Pan-Kristianstad 65:32
32 Jesper Lysell Rehns BK 65:52
33 Andreas Rüedlinger Leksands OK 65:56
34 Gustav Nordström Gävle OK 66:00
35 Pelle Engstrand Stora Tuna OK 66:01
36 Baptiste Rollier Kristiansand OK 66:37
37 Mattias Millinger OK Linné 66:44
38 Emil Lauri IFK Lidingös Skid o OK 68:09
39 Nicolas Simonin IFK Lidingös Skid o OK 68:26
40 Andreas Kyburz Tullinge SK 68:52
41 Jon Pedersen Halden SK 69:04
42 Anders Carlsson IFK Lidingös Skid o OK 69:27
43 Daniel Hubmann Kristiansand OK 70:17
44 Rune Olsen Bekkelagets sk 72:19
45 Erik Nilsson-Simkovics ASVÖ Österrike 72:27
46 Raffael Huber Göteborg/Majorna OK 73:18
47 Mats Troeng OK Linné 73:33
48 Kristo Heinmann OK Ilves 74:58
49 Christian Christensen IFK Göteborg 76:27
50 Joakim Hederskog IK Hakarpspojkarna 77:08


Nicks in good company on day five!

Irish senior team news

Irish senior team members Ruairi Short, Colm Hill and Nicolas Simonin are enjoying the mixed weather conditions in Sweden at this years O-ringen.

Meanwhile resident Irish team members Shea, Ciara, Neil and Niamh are training hard in the Trondheim terrains.

They sent us this message:

Today we went training with the Long family in some beautiful, marshy
Trondheim terrain. Aside from being talented orienteers, Mike,
Catherine, Róisín and Ruairi have been wonderful hosts over the past
few weeks and kept us all in good spirits.







More photos can be found here.
picasaweb.google.com/neil.dobbs/27Jul2010MarshTrainingTrondheim

Ciara, Shea, Niamh and Neil

Niamh's Scandinavian summer

Multi-Irish champion Niamh O'Boyle is not afraid of a challenge! 2010 has seen her not only finishing off her PhD, this summer she has also taken on the challenge of orienteering her way across Scandinavia against some of the best orienteers, most testing terrain and thirstiest mozzies you could ever meet!

Read Niamh's progress report here:

Leaving for Trondheim
I was due to leave for Trondheim, where Mike and Catherine had generously offered accommodation, on Thursday 10th June. On Monday, June 7th I ran in the Flora Women’s mini-marathon, running a new 10km PB of 39:18 and more importantly, raising €1000 for Barretstown Gang Camp, an amazing association near where I live that works with seriously ill children and their families. On Tuesday, 8th June I managed to submit my PhD thesis, 466 pages of anti-cancer drug-related research. I was unsure until the very last few days whether I would be able to submit it before I left, or if I would have to wait until I returned, but it was in! No time to think about it – had to start packing and before I knew what was happening, I was on my way to Norway with a bag full of orienteering kit. I had some ill-effects from the 10km – a sore underfoot – but a trip to the physio (my long-suffering physio, Aidan Woods on Pearse Street – he’s great!) assured me that it was nothing serious and a few days rest would be fine…

The Trondheim Open
Arriving on the Thursday, myself and my brother Seamus had about 18 hours to settle in before our first competition. The Trondheim Open was held over 3 days and to be honest, I was still in a bit of a daze for the whole thing (this daze was to last a while…!). My foot was still a little sore, but improving daily and I couldn’t resist the enticement of a 3-day orienteering event. A sprint on Friday was fun (map below), with a middle distance on Saturday and a longer distance chasing start on Sunday. The maps for the middle and long are available here with GPS tracking, though I wasn’t wearing one. In the middle distance, I was doing well until number 9, where I dropped 3 minutes. Ditto for the longer course on Sunday, where I dropped 5 minutes on number 8 with a horrible error leaving number 7 the wrong way. Lessons learned and wasn’t worried at this stage of the summer at all. It was just wonderful to be back out orienteering!

The Nordic Orienteering Tour
This was a new concept in the World Cup for 2010. I won’t go into it in too much detail but basically it is aimed at raising the profile of orienteering by increasing coverage, etc. The bit that mattered for the athletes was that it incorporated 3 races in 3 countries over a 10-day period, coinciding with major races like Jukola and O-Festivalen. It was an interesting idea and an Irish team of myself and 5 males were to compete in it. The first race was in Finland. It was a mixed middle distance-sprint distance race, and the middle part was a disaster. It has been a long time since I made such a silly error, and I can’t even figure out a reason for it. I was running along the high bank from 13 – 14 when I saw some huts, and try as I might, I could NOT locate them on the map (of course they were there!). I was thrown by this and took way too long to relocate. Rusty map skills… The positive that I took out of the race was that I got over it well and completed the sprint part with no hiccups, and was in 33rd place for the sprint part of the race. Map and GPS tracking.

After this, it was time for Venla and Jukola. Unfortunately I was picking up a cold, which got way worse after my Venla run. Not good for stage 2 of the Nordic Tour, which was being held 3 days later in Stockholm. It was nearly gone by then, and I managed a good, consistent sprint race to finish 44th. Unfortunately it wasn’t fast enough to qualify for the next round (top 30 – was 45 seconds down on qualifying). The sprint finals were held in Gamla Stan (The Old Town) in Stockholm. The final leg of the tour was in Norway at O-festivalen. Another sprint race, not part of the World Cup series, was held on Friday and the World Cup chasing start on Saturday. The terrain was rocky and tough, and I didn’t see anyone out there, so it felt very alone. After all this, I was really looking forward to going back to Trondheim!

The Nordic Tour was fun, but for me it came at the wrong time. In hindsight, I hadn’t done enough orienteering prior to it and would have benefited far more from staying in Trondheim and recovering from the craziness of the month before I left, with writing up and my 10km road race. The Nordic tour involved a lot of travelling, and I can understand why a lot of orienteers chose not to include these races in their schedules for 2010. It also ended up being quite expensive, and if it were not for the hospitality of Andrew in Stockholm, would have been even more so. I don’t think this Tour will be an event that I’ll be aiming for in the next few years. Having said that, it was fun travelling and staying with the Irish team.

The Irish selection races, Verdal
There was a one-week gap between the end of the Nordic Tour and the start of the Irish Selection races. During this time, most of the Irish team travelled up to Trondheim to get in some terrain work. It was a great week of team bonding! And it was fantastic to see so many of the guys going for the team. The only disappointment was the number of girls – only myself and Ciara made the trip, and we were staying in Trondheim anyway for the summer. This was good in one way, as the top 2 were guaranteed selection! Because of this, there was no need to taper and I could train hard in the week before the races. However, increased competition can only be a good thing and hopefully in the future, when some juniors start coming through, competition for the women’s team will be just as intense as the men’s.

The races themselves were fun. The sprint on Friday was fast and furious, and not very technical, mostly based on route choice (which way would you go? – see the course at this link. I was most pleased with my middle race. In the races since arriving in Scandinavia, I had been making unacceptable big mistakes, so the aim for this weekend was to forget about the pace I was running at and get around without any major mistakes. I managed to do this in the middle distance and only had a small loss of time, managing to beat some of the Swedish girls who were using it as their WOC selection race too. In the long on Sunday, I didn’t stick to this plan and lost a lot of time on number 3, and some more time with not being aggressive enough.
Routegadget middle distance
Routegadget long distance
In the guys, Andrew won the middle selection and Nick won the long. The Irish WOC team was selected shortly afterwards and is the largest team to be sent for many years.

And so, to summarise!
The trip has been a little crazy in terms of travelling around, so that’s something I’d like to reduce when preparing for a big event in the future. After the Irish selection races, I had a bit of time to breathe. I did some travelling with Hugh in the western fjords, including a hike on a glacier, incredible. I’ve been doing some training in the Trondheim area and getting some runs in too. It’s time for the 2 big aims of 2010: the World University Champs and the World Champs. I’m down in Borlänge in Sweden for the World University Champs, and unfortunately as I write this, the long distance is in progress. Food poisoning hit me three days ago, and although I’m recovered, I decided last night not to run the long distance. It was a really tough decision to make, but definitely the right one. Even if I could get around the long, I’m not here just to get around – I want to do well. Getting around the long and risking the possibility of wiping myself out again for the sprint and middle (Wednesday and Thursday) would have been silly. I learned my lesson at Venla that I shouldn’t run whilst not feeling well. So as hard as it is to sit out the long distance, I can go into competition tomorrow knowing that I’m fully fit and ready to go. Looking forward to it!

There will be blog updates about how myself, Nick and Colm are getting on here in Borlänge and also from the World Champs. After the World Champs in Trondheim, where I’m running the sprint, long and relay, I’ll let you all know my own take on the competition phase of my summer. A big thanks to Mike, Catherine, Ruairi, Roisin, Murray, Aidan, Jim, Ivan, Ruchika, Hugh and the O’Boyle clan who have all helped me immensely along the way. Till then, happy orienteering!
Trondheim open sprint

Irish senior team members to compete at WUOC

A team of 3 Irish seniors will be taking part in the World universities orienteering champs this coming week.
Niamh O'Boyle and Nicolas Simonin will be taking time out of their World champs preperation to compete along with Colm Hill against the Worlds best students in Borlange, Sweden.
The team will be lead by Neil Dobbs veteran of a few WUOC competitions himself.

The Relays are now over and the competition has come to a close. It was a very successful competition for the small Irish team with arguably some of the best Irish performances at a World students championships.
Nicolas had a strong run on the opening day long distance finishing in 60th place out of over 100 runners.
The Middle on Thursday saw solid runs from the team - Nick (52nd), Niamh (62nd) and Colm (87th).
The Highlight for all would have to be the sprint competition. Niamh finished a close 1.40mins off the winner in 29th place. Both of the Men also finished in the top half of the competition - Nicolas (33rd) and Colm (47th). The team proving that here in Ireland we have the terrain, maps, planners and athletes to compete on the world stage in Sprint.

An excellent week and great work by the inspirational team leader Neil Dobbs!

Full results available on the WUOC website.

Irelands Bobby Smyth competes at MTBO world champs

North West orienteer and new Ireland MTBO international Bobby Smyth has been competing in the World MTBO champs in Portugal over the past week.

This is Bobby's first taste of top flight MTBO competition and he has proven that he has quickly learnt the skills necessary to compete at the highest level.

Bobby competed in the 3 main distance races Sprint, Middle and the Long distance.

The Long distance qualifier was held today (Thursday 15th) The physical challenge of the weeks racing and training maybe took its toll as Bobby finished his race (Men B) in 31st place in a time of 2:15:56 for the 24.4km course (that's a straight line!)

Bobby had a solid ride in the 20.1km middle distance final finishing in a respectable 1:56:23 (86th) behind new World champion Samuuli Saarela of Finland who rode the course in 1:06:34.



The Highlight of the week for Bobby was finishing 69th in the technically challenging Sprint competition in a time of 31:31 only 9 minutes down on Aussie world champ Adrian Jackson. Bobby also was faster than a number of riders from Japan, Spain and Israel - Good news for the future!

Still to come for the other riders is the Relay competition - It would be great to see an Irish Relay team fighting it out in the coming World champs. Next year will be Italy.

Bobby will have a full report on his World champs week when he returns from Portugal.
Full reults and info can be found on the World MTBO champs website.

Irish WOC selection results

Irish 2010 WOC selection came to an exciting conclusion this weekend in the physically challenging forests north of Trondheim.
The Irish squad rubbed shoulders with the top scandinavians on their home turf and proved that they can more than hold their own at the World champs this year.

The weekend started with a very humid sprint race around the town of Verdal before the serious business of WOC qualification at the Craftcup. Saturday saw the Middle distance race with the physically challenging test of the long distance on Sunday.

Congratulations to Andrew Quin who was first of the Irish in the middle distance, completing the 5.5km course in 44.19, 25 seconds ahead of Nicolas Simonin with David Healy in third.
Niamh O’Boyle was 6 minutes quicker than Ciara Largey in the first of their head-to-head races.

On Sunday it was Nick who had the legs of the classic distance test, pipping Andrew by one and half minutes in a time of 2.13.42 on the 13.75km course which had the boys climbing at least the height of Carrauntoohill! David Healy grabbed his second third of the weekend.
The girls swapped positions with Ciara Largey gaining a win over Niamh by the slenderist of margins in an exciting race.

So as a valuable few days of WOC racing and training draw to an end and the majority of the squad head home we are getting a better picture of the final team to compete at WOC.
the final Irish WOC team will be announced later this week.

Thanks to the organising club Verdal Orienteeringsklub for their warm Norwegian welcome (and the lovely waffles!) A big thanks to the Long family of AJAX for all the help the have provided the senior squad in the build up to WOC.
Thanks also to the Irish orienteering association for the financial support they have given the senior squad.

Full event results etc. can be found on the Craftcup website.

Irish WOC hopefuls head for Trondheim

A large group of Irish senior squad members are gathering in Trondheim for this weekends WOC 2010 selection races. The selection races are being held at the Craftcup orienteering event in Norway. They will be competing
alongside some of the biggest names in Scandinavian orienteering who are also using Craftcup for national WOC selection.

Thursday will be spent training nearby, Friday evening is the sprint competition.
Saturday and Sunday see the main events, the Middle distance and Long distance selection races.

Live results can be viewed here: Full reports and photos to follow

Good luck to all the squad out there!

Tá sé críochnaithe!

The third and final stage to the Nordic O tour was held this Saturday in Raufoss, Norway. And with it wraps up the innovative touring concept designed to make orienteering more interesting to spectators. The final race was a chasing start middle distance after the results of the first two stages of the tour in Finland and Sweden. The head of the mens/womens race was apparently very exciting to watch in the arena and the gps tracking and results can be viewed here and here.

The Irish lads were close together starting off but Nick Simonin kept his position as the first Irish to cross the line even with a shakey first few controls. The terrain threw you around physically and the light green areas made it difficult to keep direction and map contact.

This Nordic tour will be run each year up to 2013 and the hope is that they can continuously improve the excitement by learning lessons on previous tours. The lesson this year is that they need to have more tv points on the courses, much more especially with the Stockholm sprints in the old town.

World of o article on the tour found here.
Bjornar Valstad article on the tour concept can be found here.


********
















The Irish squad was not allowed to enter the O-festivalen relay because international teams cannot run the race. Check out this link for Sondags result of the stafett (relay) and keep an eye out for "Treodóirí na hEireann". And here is a picture of the moving control from the relay event.

Nordic tour - round 2 report

The second stage of the Nordic Orienteering Tour is in progress. The idea of a 'knock-out sprint' is a novel one for orienteering and is aimed at creating head-to-head racing to make for spectator friendly viewing. It takes the format of a 'traditional' sprint qualification race, with one-minute start intervals, where the best 30 athletes go through to a quarter-final. The quarter-finals have 6 athletes starting together in a non-forked, non-butterfly course with the top 2 from each of 5 quarter-finals progressing to the semi-final. 6 athletes from the semi-final go through to the final, both of which are also head-to-head races.

The sprint qualifications were held this morning in Stockholm University. The terrain was a mixture of forest and building complexes, offering fast running and route choices. The standard of qualification was very high and none of the Irish team managed to get into the quarter finals. In the men's race, Nick was the best of the Irish in 58th position, 1 min and 3 sec away from qualifying. In general, the Irish boys had clean races and were happy with their performances. Niamh has been ill since the Venla relay on Saturday and made a last minute decision to run, after a breakfast of paracetamol! She had a steady race and finished in 44th position, 45 seconds down on the qualifying time.

The quarterfinals are in progress at the moment, also at Stockholm University. Unfortunately, there is no GPS tracking, but there will be a live TV broadcast from the semi-finals and finals, to be held in Gamla Stan (the Old Town of Stockholm) this evening (semi-final starts at 5:30pm Irish time, final at 6:30pm Irish time). See the Nordic Tour 'Live' website: (qualification results are here too). The next Irish involvement in the Nordic tour will be in stage 3 in Norway on Saturday.

Thanks to Niamh for the report and hope your feeling better soon

Niamh's Jukola update.

After the first stage of the Nordic Tour, the Irish team took in the Venla and Jukola relays. Running for different teams, between the 5 of us (Nick didn't run) we spent approximately 10 hours in the terrain. It was tough going. After our time in Finland, orienteering and watching Baywatch and Australia's Next Top Model (guess whose choice? clue: one of the boys), we are now en route to Stockholm for the second part of the Nordic Tour. The sprint qualification is on Tuesday morning and with the top 30 advancing to the next round in the men's and women's races, all efforts will be concentrated on making the finals. Qualification starts at 9am Irish time on Tuesday morning, perfect viewing if you've just gotten in to work :-) We'll keep you updated!

Stage 1, Finland
TV program replay
GPS tracking replay

Stage 2, Sweden
Time schedule

Nordic tour - first round

Nicolas reports from Finland on todays action. NORT Stage 1, Tuusula, Finland


Today's race was in two parts, a middle distance for the first two thirds of the overall distance, followed by a map exchange where we changed to a sprint race for the last third of the course. All the men had early start times so we didn't have to spend too long inside a fenced army compound in quarantine, unlike Niamh, but it was a nice afternoon in Finland.


First out was Gerard, followed by Seamus, Dave, Darren and then Nic. The start draw resulted in all the Irish men starting in close proximity to each other. The actual start was not a pleasant experience as we had to wait on the start line for a minute with mosquitos attacking with a tv camera pointed at us. There were cameras at a number of controls on the course, with pictures being shown in the finish arena, and a highlights show this evening on Finnish television, with other countries also likely to air the programme.


The middle distance course had one thing in common for most of the Irish lads (and many other nations), people left the 1st control in the wrong direction to 2! Everyone had GPS tracking so if you have time you can view this mistake as it happened and wonder what were they thinking! It was a long leg to 2, followed by two short legs before another long leg where the route choice was left or right of a big hill. After that we ended up in a very wet marsh before starting a butterfly with two loops. After 18 controls we dropped our Middle Map and picked up a Sprint Map, with different scale and different mapping standards to the middle.


The womens course was very similar to the mens course minus a couple of controls. Niamh was 80% pleased with her race, while David was only 68.2% pleased with his overall race.


This change in scale, from 1:10000 to 1:5000, didn't affect any of the Irish to a major degree. But we were surprised to be running across a supermarket car-park in the middle of the course. There was a possible route choice through an underground car-park but don't think we were allowed to do that (one of the women competitors may have done this though)


Overall the Irish team was pleased with how todays experimental format worked. We now have the Sprint Race experiment to look forward to on Tuesday in Stockholm. Over the weekend the team is heading to the Jukola Relay where we will be running for various teams.

You can watch how the action unfolded on the GPS tracking website.

Nordic tour - first stage start times.

Irish start times for stage 1 of the Nordic Orienteering Tour (all times are Finnish, 2 hours ahead of GMT). All athletes will have live GPS tracking. The model event was held today and spirits are high ahead of the race tomorrow.

Men:
Gerard Butler 16.27
Seamus O'Boyle 16.29
David Healy 16.35
Darren Burke 16.36
Nicolas Simonin 16.48

Women:
Niamh O'Boyle 17.57

See http://nordicorienteeringtour.ikk.no/ for full start lists and TV broadcast times.

Irish team head for the Nordic tour

Six members of the Irish elite squad are heading for Finland this week as the first leg of the 2010 Nordic tour kicks off.

The Nordic tour consists of three World cup events held in Finland, Sweden and Norway throughout June.
The Irish team of Niamh and Seamus O'Boyle, Gerard Butler, Darren Burke, David Healy and Nicolas Simonin start the competition this Thursday 17th June.

You can follow the teams performances on the Nordic tour website.
We also hope to have regular updates from the team members on the Irish blog.

Good luck to all the team!!

Norwgian press-release

The Irish team recently recieved a questionaire from a Norwegian orienteering magazine. The article is aimed at highlighting how certain nations are preparing for the World champs in Trondheim.

(Be warned soft marsh training is on the way!)

How do the team prepare for the detailed and hilly Norwegian terrain?

Here in Ireland we have no real comparison to typical Norwegian terrain, so it is difficult for us to prepare for Trondheim. It is important to try and spend time in Norway preparing for WOC although this is difficult for our competitors – getting time off work and having exams in spring.

Has there been or will there be any training camps in Norwegian terrain before the event?

We are encouraging the elite squad members to compete as much as possible in Scandinavian races in the build-up to WOC. Last September a number of Irish squad members participated at the first WOC training camp and found this very useful.
We are also having our WOC selection races at the Craftcup meeting with the other Scandinavian nations to expose our team to high quality competition in typical Norwegian terrain.

Are there any specific preparations for running in the soft marshes?

It rains quite a bit in Ireland so we have plenty of soft marshes to train in, although most of the time we try to avoid them! However, It would be a good idea to encourage a ‘soft marsh training programme’ – thanks for the tip.

How large team are you planning to send?

We are sending a team of six men and four women. We also have a team manager and a team media person who will be reporting on the teams progress during the competition.

How far before the WOC does the team plan to arrive in Trondheim?

It is important to spend as much time as possible getting used to Norwegian conditions. One of our athletes is spending all of June, July and August preparing in Trondheim. Obviously this is not possible for all team members but we hope to have the full team in Trondheim the week before WOC starts.

Do you expect any specific problems with food, culture etc.?

You know, there are a lot of similarities between the Irish and Norwegians. We enjoy the same types of food and drink, we like the same music (especially the Eurovision song contest!) we both love the great outdoors and we share a similar sense of humour.
We also share the same friendly welcome towards visitors to our own countries. In Ireland we have a tradition where a visitor should never need to buy a drink in a pub. I have heard this is true about Norwegian hosts too…(especially for visiting Irish orienteers!)

Will your federation cover the expenses for the runners, or do they have to do it themselves?

Thanks to financial support from the Irish sports council the Irish orienteering association can cover most of the teams costs for the competition.
In Trondheim individuals need only pay for their travel costs and food costs. They must also pay for the pre WOC training themselves. (so if there is any kind O clubs out there who can help…)

Do you have any specific goals for the results?

We are very excited about this years competition in Trondheim. There is a definite optimism running through the squad. We have some talented and motivated young orienteers who have been preparing hard for WOC in Trondheim.
In Hungary last year we had good solid relay runs from both the mens and womens teams. We hope to build on that this year.
It is rare for Irish individuals to qualify for the final races at World champs, this year we are hoping for a number of finalists to give all the Irish supporters out in Trondheim someone to cheer!

Questions asked by Bernt O. Myrvold

Irish Orienteering Champs results

IOC 2010 was a great success - Quality areas, quality courses and a quality field of Irish competitors! Thanks to NWOC and LVO and Well done to all those that took part over the 3 days.
Here are a list of the podium getters in the elite classes:

Mens sprint:

1st Nicolas Simonin 15:35
2nd Seamus O'Boyle 16:03
3rd Bill Edwards 16:19

Womens sprint:

1st Susan Lambe 18:43
2nd Rosalind Hussey 19:07
3rd Ciara Largey 19:28

Mens Long:

1st Nicolas Simonin 71:55
2nd Andrew Quin 73:42
3rd Bill Edwards 75:40

Womens Long:

1st Niamh O'Boyle 46:29
2nd Ciara Largey 53:09
3rd Rosalind Hussey 56:00

Mens Relay:

winners: CNOC - Seamus O'Boyle, Ruairi Short, Colm Hill

Womens Relay:

winners: CNOC - Niamh O'Boyle, Orla Jennings, Ruth Lynam

World Cup/Nordic O Tour 2010

Squad members who wish to compete at the upcoming World cup races to be held alongside the Nordic Orienteering Tour should let me know of their interest by Friday the 15th April.
(If selection is required Irish Classic results will be taken into consideration)

The events will be spread between Finland, Sweden and Norway from June 17th - 26th.
(followed closely by the Irish WOC selection races in Norway) For more information on the Nordic Orienteering Tour please visit the tours website





The first selection race for this years World orienteering champs is fast approaching. Monday April 19th is the final day for entries for the Irish champs and Friday evenings sprint race (April 23rd).

So far the men's elite race has 35 competitors and the women's elite race has 18.
If your hoping to make the Irish team for WOC 2010 you will need to get your entries in asap

Niamh and Nick shine in the JK rain!

Niamh O'Boyle and Nicolas Simonin were both among the leading orienteers at this years JK Festival in Devon.

The Irish elites were well represented at this years competition and faired well with some fine performances in the Sprint, Middle and Classic races.

Niamh was best placed with an outstanding 4th overall - including 3rd at the Middle distance only 20 seconds behind winner and British team member Sarah Rollins.
Nick was top Irishman in the M21 elite competition being placed 7th overall.

Full JK results are up now.

Well done to all squad members at the JK - Hopefully the weather will be kinder as the summer kicks in!

Squad weekend

Hi All,

It is hoped that as many squad members as possible can take part in the upcoming senior squad weekend to be held around the Leinster champs (May 8th/9th).

There are 3 events on offer during the weekend including a squad fundraiser for WOC 2010 at Kilbroney park. We are hoping to provide accommodation for all the squad in the area and have a bit of a feed on the Saturday night.

This will also be a good opportunity for the younger members of the squad and those who aspire to the squad to join in and see what senior orienteering is about.
You can get a bit more info at the Carlingford 2 day website

I will keep you updated about the weekend as things progress. Meanwhile keep that weekend free!

Ivan

Ulster university campus embargo

Following recent discussion regarding the staging of a Mountainbike orienteering event at the University of Ulster campus at Coleraine (venue for the upcoming Irish sprint champs and WOC selection race) – I would like to advise all Irish senior squad members wishing to be considered for WOC selection not to compete at this event as the WOC selectors would consider involvement to be a breach of embargo conditions.

In the interest of fairness all seniors who intend to compete at the Irish champs sprint are advised to consider their involvement in this MTBO event.

However, It must be stated that the organisers of this MTBO event have taken all steps possible to avoid the sprint area in planning their course.

World MTBO champs

This years world MTBO champs are being held in Montalegre, Portugal from the
9th-18th of July. There are four disciplines decided at the World champs - sprint, middle, long and relay. More information about the event can be found here:
http://mtbwoc2010.fpo.pt/

If there are any MTBO competitors out there who would like to be considered for selection to represent Ireland at the World champs in Portugal please get in touch with Ivan Millar: ivanmandymillar at aol.com
before the 31st of March

Elite squad news

Selection for major events

A number of squad members have asked about selection criteria for major events. Here is a brief rundown:

World cup 4-6(Nordic Tour)June 17-26


Irish Orienteering Championships 23rd-25th April


World champs (Norway) August 8-14

WOC selection races - Sprint, Irish sprint champs, 23rd April
Middle, Norwegian selection races, 3rd July
Long, Norwegian selection races, 4th July

WOC selection guidelines


World cup 10-12 (Pre-WOC, Post finance sprint) October 3-10

All known form during June, July and August (to include World cup 4-6, World champs and any other WRE)

May squad weekend

A squad weekend is being organised for the weekend of May 8/9 to include the Leinster champs on the Sunday and an LVO event at Slieve Gullion on the Saturday plus a micro event on Saturday evening.
The weekend will be based around Carlingford and is open to all squad members. We are extending the invitation to all older juniors who want to get a feel for the senior squad. More details to follow.
Also, something to think about is organising a squad get-together at this years Irish champs to catch up on all the squad business.



IOA Funding

Good news on the money front - Despite all the recent gloomy economic news The elite funding grant from the IOA has remained the same as previous years at 15k euro.
Although it may sound like a lot, it has to go a long way. New O-kit, major competitions and trainings account for most.
The IOA are investing allot in the Elite squad and we should provide as much of a return as possible by striving for that wee bit extra - training hard, orienteering hard! and then writing about it afterwards.
All team members should be writing up event reports so that the IOA and Irish orienteers in general get to know what they are getting from us for their money.

Major events and results

The orienteering season has already kicked-off with a number of squad members sampling stiff International competition in Portugal and next month sees the Danish spring cup followed by the popular JK competition in Devon before the Irish champs to be held by NWOC. Friday evening is the first selection race for WOC 2010 the sprint. The Long distance is being held on the sand dunes of Magilligan.

When it comes to selection issues or funding/grant applications it is very use full to have your choice of results and statistics at hand.
The Junior and Senior elite squads are very lucky to have the services of Olive Simonin who gathers and files these results. As you can imagine it is a monumental task for one person to do!
Olive would be greatly helped if all squad members regularly sent her an update of their major event results e.g Portugal, JK, WOC etc.
This is important and should be done every few months following events.
Olives email is:olivesimonin@hotmail.com


Irish O Kit

More kit is being ordered from Trimtex (to include the new IOA logo)
If any of the senior team have kit requirements please get in touch with Andrew or Ivan. Any new team members will be provided with a new set of kit following selection.

WOC news

Preparations are being made for the WOC selection races in Norway. We have been included in the events that will be used for the WOC selection for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. More info regards accommodation and travel will follow shortly but it looks like there will be training opportunities in the week between World cup 6 and the selection races.
There has been great interest in the selection races and 25 squad members have shown an interest in WOC selection for Trondheim. (a list of all those interested will be published prior to IOC)
Being a part of the build-up and training for WOC is very valuable for the whole squad as well as the final team.

JK entries

The Last day for cheap entries to this years JK is next Saturday 28th February.
Its looking like a large number of Irish elites will be taking part in the 4 days of competition based in Devon.

The JK Mens and Womens elite classes are very popular with both British and overseas orienteers so selection is required for elite competitors. Here is further info on the elite selection taken from the JK website;


Elite competitors (M/W18-20 and M/W21) will have a Sprint race on Day 1, a Middle race on Day 2 and a Long race on Day 3. Entries may be restricted; those that are not ranked in UK Cup 2009 or FCC 2009 should provide evidence of eligibility to compete. The 21E Long race is a World Ranking Event. UK Cup and FCC races will be announced later.

Selection for elite classes - all days
Entries for the Elite classes are restricted by the available start interval. In the event of the entry exceeding the number of available start times, selection based on UK Cup; IOF and Future Champions Cup rankings will be applied. Athletes with doubts about their qualification should provide additional evidence of their eligibility to compete in the Elite races. Any additional evidence should be objective and based on results/non-UK ranking. Only information supplied in advance of the final closing date (12 March) will normally be considered. Athletes selected out of the Elite class will automatically be placed on next available course for their age group (Men Open on Day 1). All the later starts (1330 - 1530) on the JK Sprint Men and Women Elite classes are likely to be allocated on the basis of seeding. Competitors who need a late start time but consider they are unlikely to be allocated one by seeding should enter Men Open.

Allocation of start times for elite classes - all days
Elite start times for Days 1 and 2 will be based on UK Cup; IOF and Future Champions Cup rankings, with top competitors starting last; competitors will not be able to request a later start time although they may request an earlier one.

In particular entrants on M/W 18/20E are asked to note that the combination of their course with M/W21E on Days 1 and 2 means that they are unlikely to be starting in the latter part of the start interval – their travel companions should only request "Late" as start preference if they are happy with a large gap between the start times of the travel group. Start times for Day 3 will be based on reverse order from Day 2 results; i.e. with the Day 2 winner starting last

Elite funding announced

2010 will be a demanding year for the Irish elite squad.
Travelling to international competitions and training events is expensive and could not be possible without the financial assistance we receive from the Irish Orienteering Association.

So I am very pleased to announce that the IOA have allocated 15,000 euro from the Annual Irish sports council grant to go towards High performance orienteering in 2010
The funding will be used to help develop the skills and performances of the Irish elite orienteers.

Spring cup 2010

The traditional curtain-raiser to the elites orienteering season - the Danish spring cup - celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
A number of Irish elites are expecting to compete at the event to be held in North Zealand. The event provides ideal preperation for the season ahead.

To help you with planning your years schedule you can download an Irish squad planner for 2010.

WOC selection races announced

The dates and venues for this years WOC selection races are as follows:

Sprint: 23rd April - University of Ulster, Coleraine (Irish sprint champs)

Middle: 3rd July - Vuku, Norway (part of VM Testlop)

Long: 4th July - Vuku, Norway (part of VM Testlop)

Please visit the WOC blog at:irisheliteorienteering.wordpress.com
for more details on the selection races

World university orienteering champs 2010

This years World university orienteering champs will be held in Borlange, Sweden

from July 19-23.

Last year a small team of elite Irish student orienteers took part in the championships and it is hoped that an Irish team will take part this year in Sweden.

If you would like to be a member of this team and compete against some of the best O students in the world please send an email to elites@orienteering.ie

The team will also require the services of a travelling team leader, this person does not have to be a competitor.

For more information about the World university orienteering championsips click here: http://www.wuoc2010.se/

WOC 2010

Thanks to all those elites that returned intention forms for this years WOC in Norway

It was a great response with 25 athletes showing their commitment to gaining selection for the WOC team.

It is great to see such strength and depth within the elite squad. Competition for places on the final team will be fierce, hopefully this competition will inspire all to perform at their best in the upcoming selection races (to be announced asap)

Good luck to all elites in 2010. The hard work starts now!!