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.