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.