New annual award - Irish orienteering annual top athlete award

A new high performance award is being created for the highest ranked Irish man and Irish woman orienteer’s.

The highest ranked athlete on the 31st of December each year according to the IOF world ranking system will receive the award.
A prize fund is to be set up for the award winners and it is hoped that in future a sponsor will be found to support the top athlete award.

In view of possible changes to future World championship qualification and to promote Irish orienteer’s gaining higher world ranking status there will be more emphasis on Irish squad members competing at World ranking events. The prize fund will also help promote personal development of the top Irish orienteer’s.

The award will also be part of a series of changes hopefully to be introduced in the 2012 high performance financial budget.

It is our aim to have as many Irish orienteer’s breaking into the world rankings top 150 as possible. At the moment (August 2011) there are 3 Irish squad members in the top 150.

Niamh O’Boyle - 114th
Aislinn Kendall* - 128th
Nicolas Simonin - 150th

Both Niamh and Nick have been regulars in the top 100 recently and the Irish best since the rankings began in 2000 has been John Feehan who was ranked 80th in 2001.

It will become more important in future to have a substantial number of athletes in the higher ranking spots.
The prize fund value will be determined closer to the end of each year.


The IOF world ranking website is here: http://iof.6prog.org/wr_home.aspx
The upcoming events for the rest of 2011 can be found here: http://iof.6prog.org/WR_Diary.aspx

Ivan Millar
High performance director, IOA)