A team of 5 Irish juniors led by Ruth Lynam take on the Worlds top elite juniors at this years Junior world orienteering champs in Poland.
The competition starts with the sprint race this Sunday 3rd July and culminates with the relay race on Friday the 8th July.
The Ireland team is: Cillin Corbett, Jack Millar, Colm Moran, Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan and Conor Short.
Good luck to all involved!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
World cup round 3
Round 3 of the 2011 world cup takes place on September 24th (middle) and 25th (classic distance)
The competition will be taking place near Liberec in the north of the Czech republic. visit http://www.owcliberec2011.cz/index.php?menu=home for more details on the event.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
NORT 3rd stage
Niamh O'Boyle finished off the 2011 Nordic tour at the weekend with a commendable 40th place finish - Niamh filed this report.
Hubmann and Billstam take overall victory in Nordic tour 2011
The third and final stage of the Nordic tour took place south of Oslo
on Saturday. The format for this last race was a chasing start based
on the results of the previous two races in Finland and Sweden.
Sweden's Annika Billstam took overall victory in the women's race,
with Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) finishing first in the men's class.
The top 40 men and top 30 women had GPS tracking, available to
re-watch here (there are some interesting route choices):
Men www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcH/
Women www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcD/
For me it was touch-and-go about competing up to the last minute.
My winter injury was starting to niggle, and in hindsight it would
probably have been better to rest it. However, when you are in the
thick of the action, you just want to keep running. Will I ever
learn!? Starting as number 42, I was alone for nearly the entire
course. I was navigating well, but physically not strong enough - the
same pattern as for the previous two races in the Nordic tour. I lost
most time in the final loop, about 3 minutes or so, but otherwise it
was a consistent run and I took all the fastest route choices,
finishing in 40th position. Thank you to the Irish Orienteering
Association for supporting me to run these races. Next stop: France!
Well done to Niamh for her performances on the tour this year. Up against some very tough competition she proved that she can mix it with the best even after several months out of action with following her recent injury.
I'm sure we will all be holding our breath hoping that Niamh can hit top form for the WOC week in France in August!
Hubmann and Billstam take overall victory in Nordic tour 2011
The third and final stage of the Nordic tour took place south of Oslo
on Saturday. The format for this last race was a chasing start based
on the results of the previous two races in Finland and Sweden.
Sweden's Annika Billstam took overall victory in the women's race,
with Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) finishing first in the men's class.
The top 40 men and top 30 women had GPS tracking, available to
re-watch here (there are some interesting route choices):
Men www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcH/
Women www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcD/
For me it was touch-and-go about competing up to the last minute.
My winter injury was starting to niggle, and in hindsight it would
probably have been better to rest it. However, when you are in the
thick of the action, you just want to keep running. Will I ever
learn!? Starting as number 42, I was alone for nearly the entire
course. I was navigating well, but physically not strong enough - the
same pattern as for the previous two races in the Nordic tour. I lost
most time in the final loop, about 3 minutes or so, but otherwise it
was a consistent run and I took all the fastest route choices,
finishing in 40th position. Thank you to the Irish Orienteering
Association for supporting me to run these races. Next stop: France!
Well done to Niamh for her performances on the tour this year. Up against some very tough competition she proved that she can mix it with the best even after several months out of action with following her recent injury.
I'm sure we will all be holding our breath hoping that Niamh can hit top form for the WOC week in France in August!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
NORT Stage 2: Map from sprint qualification
This is the women's sprint qualification map: Göteborg Olofshöjd
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
NORT Stage 2: Sprint qualification
The Nordic O-Tour continued this morning with a sprint qualification race. The top 30 would go forward to 5 quarter-finals, from which 12 progress to two semi-finals and then 6 to the final.
I havn't had a chance to analyse the maps post-race (we get them back after the finals - I will try to post it then) so this is based on memory, which could be influenced by lack of oxygen! Starting off, we had a very short leg to control 1, followed by a longer route choice to 2. From 2 to 5 the navigation was quite simple. There was another route choice leg to 6 where I took a chance and went left through the rough open. From 8 to the end of the course there wasn't much route choice or difficulty, and it was a case of pushing up the hills as much as possible. (Note: the stairs at the end of the crag south of no.9 were closed, as we were informed at the pre-start, so route choice to no. 10 was affected by this). I didn't lose more than a few seconds anywhere, with my splits being approximately 120-125% of the fastest times for most controls. I finished 42nd in 14:38, with 54 seconds to the top 30. That gives me a good indication of the work that's needed before the WOC sprint qualifications. Maja Alm (Denmark) won in 12:29, with Matthias Mueller (Switzerland) taking first place in the men's.
Overall there was plenty of time to think, especially towards the end. Of course, you have to be careful not to start day-dreaming too much, but I suspect that the quarter, semi and finals will offer more technically challenging sprint orienteering. The semi-finals and finals promise to have fast and furious orienteering around the centre of Göteborg and can be followed with live GPS tracking and live TV broadcast - see www.nordicorienteeringtour.com/index.php/live
Link to split times from qualification.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Niamh's Stage 1 report
Ireland's Niamh O'Boyle had a solid start today in the first stage of the 2011 Nordic tour.
Here she is reporting from Porvoo in Finland:
NORT Stage 1: Porvoo, Finland
The first stage of the 2011 Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) was held today in Porvoo in Southern Finland. The format for the day was a morning middle-distance race, with the top 30 qualifying for a sprint race in the evening. For me, after a long winter of injury, rehab and frustration, it was an ideal chance to run a high quality competition to see how things were going in the build up to the World Champs.
Normally before World Cup races there is a ‘quarantine area’ where the athletes are held to ensure that they can’t see the map or talk to those who have already finished. It can be boring when there is nobody else from your team there, but today the time was filled with an elaborate strapping routine – left knee, right knee, left ankle. For good measure, and because there was some spare time, I strapped my right ankle too - feeling very old and crippled at this point! After that, a good warm-up and into the pre-start and I was ready to go.
The plan was to stay calm, navigate well, minimise mistakes and let the running take care of itself. We had a long run-out (140m) to the start kite, enough time to glance ahead at the course and assess the long leg from 2 – 3. Number 1 was good, number 2 less so. I didn’t keep my direction in the vegetation and ended up slightly past the control. For number 3, I had decided that the far right route was too long and decided to go over the top instead of left. From 4 to the map exchange I was sticking to the plan and navigating well. Just after the map exchange, Tessa caught me and we were together from 9 to 11,when she went left and I took a more direct up-and-over route.
Herself and a Norwegian got away on the second butterfly loop en route to 15, which I was rueing when I was running (walking) up the ski slope from 16 to 17. This was a leg that really exposed my lack of fitness as I lost over 2 minutes to the fastest time. I lost some time to 18, turning too soon from the track, but at the finish I was pleased with the run. It wasn’t enough to qualify in the top 30 for the final, but I was happy nonetheless.
The finals were won by Linnea Gustafsson (Sweden) and Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland). The Swiss men dominated the final, taking the first 5 places!
Now it is on to Jukola where we have an Irish team from CNOC (in order of appearance: Conor, Ruairi, Seamus, Kevin, Me, Hugh and Colm) and will be blogging on www.cnoc.ie. Then it’s back to Gothenburg where the second leg of NORT will take place next Tuesday. It is a knock-out sprint with live GPS from the semi-final and final on Tuesday evening. Full results and GPS tracking from today are available at: http://nordicorienteeringtour.com/
Here she is reporting from Porvoo in Finland:
NORT Stage 1: Porvoo, Finland
The first stage of the 2011 Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) was held today in Porvoo in Southern Finland. The format for the day was a morning middle-distance race, with the top 30 qualifying for a sprint race in the evening. For me, after a long winter of injury, rehab and frustration, it was an ideal chance to run a high quality competition to see how things were going in the build up to the World Champs.
Normally before World Cup races there is a ‘quarantine area’ where the athletes are held to ensure that they can’t see the map or talk to those who have already finished. It can be boring when there is nobody else from your team there, but today the time was filled with an elaborate strapping routine – left knee, right knee, left ankle. For good measure, and because there was some spare time, I strapped my right ankle too - feeling very old and crippled at this point! After that, a good warm-up and into the pre-start and I was ready to go.
The plan was to stay calm, navigate well, minimise mistakes and let the running take care of itself. We had a long run-out (140m) to the start kite, enough time to glance ahead at the course and assess the long leg from 2 – 3. Number 1 was good, number 2 less so. I didn’t keep my direction in the vegetation and ended up slightly past the control. For number 3, I had decided that the far right route was too long and decided to go over the top instead of left. From 4 to the map exchange I was sticking to the plan and navigating well. Just after the map exchange, Tessa caught me and we were together from 9 to 11,when she went left and I took a more direct up-and-over route.
Herself and a Norwegian got away on the second butterfly loop en route to 15, which I was rueing when I was running (walking) up the ski slope from 16 to 17. This was a leg that really exposed my lack of fitness as I lost over 2 minutes to the fastest time. I lost some time to 18, turning too soon from the track, but at the finish I was pleased with the run. It wasn’t enough to qualify in the top 30 for the final, but I was happy nonetheless.
The finals were won by Linnea Gustafsson (Sweden) and Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland). The Swiss men dominated the final, taking the first 5 places!
Now it is on to Jukola where we have an Irish team from CNOC (in order of appearance: Conor, Ruairi, Seamus, Kevin, Me, Hugh and Colm) and will be blogging on www.cnoc.ie. Then it’s back to Gothenburg where the second leg of NORT will take place next Tuesday. It is a knock-out sprint with live GPS from the semi-final and final on Tuesday evening. Full results and GPS tracking from today are available at: http://nordicorienteeringtour.com/
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Niamh competes at NORT
Niamh O'Boyle will begin her build up to the World champs by taking part in the 2011 Nordic orienteering tour. The tour (better known as NORT) begins this Thursday in Finland before moving to Sweden (June 21st) and then Norway on June 25th.
The Nordic tour is also the first round of the 2011 world cup events and features mainly sprint and middle distance spectator friendly races. This will be good preparation for Niamh who is recovering from injury and is concentrating on the sprint and middle distance races at this years world champs.
Follow Niamh's progress and enjoy GPS-tracking and webTV on the NORT website
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Irish 2011 WOC team.
Following a gruelling series of WOC selection competitions the following athletes have been selected to represent Ireland at the 2011 world championships in Chambery, France.
Women’s team
Rosalind Hussey: Sprint and Long
Aislinn Kendall: Middle and Long
Susan Lambe: Sprint
Niamh O’Boyle: Sprint and Middle
Toni O’Donovan: Middle and Long
Men’s team
Darren Burke: Long
David Healy: Sprint and Middle
Seamus O’Boyle: Sprint
Marcus Pinker: Middle and Long
Ruairi Short: Long
Nicolas Simonin: Sprint and Middle
Colm Hill: team reserve
Team manager
Kyle Heron
Women’s team
Rosalind Hussey: Sprint and Long
Aislinn Kendall: Middle and Long
Susan Lambe: Sprint
Niamh O’Boyle: Sprint and Middle
Toni O’Donovan: Middle and Long
Men’s team
Darren Burke: Long
David Healy: Sprint and Middle
Seamus O’Boyle: Sprint
Marcus Pinker: Middle and Long
Ruairi Short: Long
Nicolas Simonin: Sprint and Middle
Colm Hill: team reserve
Team manager
Kyle Heron
- Relay teams will be selected during the WOC week based on WOC results.
- Can selected athletes please confirm their availability by emailing Ivan (elites@orienteering.ie) before Monday the 13th of June.
This year was another tough selection campaign with many squad members having excellent results during the races making it a very difficult final decision for the team selectors.
The terrains at this years world champs in Chambery will provide a special challenge to all orienteers taking part. The Irish team members involved have shown that they have the ability to meet this challenge and we wish them well in the build-up to the big competition.
Ivan Millar
(High performance director)
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