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.