European Champs underway: Middle qualification

The 2012 European Championships started this morning with middle qualification races at Hökberg, near Mora in Sweden. Ireland were represented by Rosalind Hussey, Niamh O'Boyle, Nick Simonin and Hugh Cashell, all running in their first European Champs.

The top 17 qualified for Thursday's A final. All of the favourites in the men and women are safely through, with the Scandanavians dominating. Heat winners were Minna Kauppi, Anne Margarete Hausken, Helena Jansson, Valetin Novikov, Olav Lundanes and Johan Runesson. In the women's A heat, Niamh finished 25th but was pleased with a technically solid run. Roz was running in the C heat and was happy enough with her performance. Both Niamh and Roz had GPS tracking today and it is available on the EOC homepage.  In men's heat A, Nick had some costly errors that took him out of the qualification positions, and Hugh (heat B) was happy but felt he was too slow.

Tomorrow Hugh Cashell will be Ireland's sole representative in the long distance qualification (GPS tracking online - first start in the men is at 10:30 Irish time). Niamh, Roz and Nick will be joined by David Healy for the sprint qualification on Wednesday morning.

Our thoughts are with Gerard Butler, selected for the Irish team for these championships, his father Michael and family at this time.

All maps and results are posted at the European Championships homepage: www.eoc2012.se
Photos: Niamh and Ros on their way to the finish at Hökberg

New Irish squad blogs launched

2012 will see a few changes for the Irish senior squad blog, we are leaving Blogger behind and moving to a new site at wordpress. The new senior squad blog shall have a larger spread of information available for squad members. As well as being the place to catch all the latest squad news you will be able to access more info about squad training and competitions, funding, selection and various other helpful stuff!

You can view the new blog here: Irish senior squad blog

The new Irish WOC2012 Switzerland blog has also just been launched and you can view it here: Irish WOC2012 blog

If you feel like trawling through the archives of this the old squad blog you will find a link to it on the new blog!

WOC2012 training dates announced

The organisers of WOC 2012 have decided to change the dates of the June WOC training camp. This training will now take place after the World cup in St-Gallen, Switzerland from the 25th to 30th June. More details will follow on the WOC2012 websiteand keep an eye out for the Irish WOC2012 blog coming soon!

High performance selectors required

Do you want to help play a part in possible future Irish senior team success? would you like to be a member of the team that helps support our top flight orienteers?

We are on the look out for those within Irish orienteering who would be interested in joining the senior team selection panel for the coming season 2012.

The panel will be involved in selecting teams for major international events such as the European champs in Sweden and the World champs in Switzerland as well as other World cup events.
Although no formal qualifications are required we hope to hear from individuals who have an interest in the senior squad and a desire to help in their development.

For more info please contact Ivan: elites'at'orienteering.ie

Ivan Millar,
convenor of selectors, Irish high performance.

WOC in the future proposals

Hi All,

The WOC in future (WIF) working party have recently announced its proposals for
a future World championship format.

These proposals are the culmination of several years of consultation. The most
recent being in March/April of this year. (Ireland submitted some collected
views and concerns)

Future world championships will focus on Final races. Except for the sprint
competition there will be no qualification races. The WIF working party would
now like some feedback on the following proposed WOC format:

* Sprint will stay as before (qualification and final on same day)
* There will be a mixed relay based on sprint distance for 2 men and 2 women
(per nation)
* A middle distance final based on prologue and chasing start format
* Long distance final will have a pre-determined number of starters per nation
based on that nation's performance at the previous 3 world champs.
* The competition will close with the traditional relay format race.

Full details of the proposal can be viewed here:
http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/WOC-in-the-Future-proposal-from-the-IOF-Council1.pdf

I would be happy to gather the views of those who have an opinion on the
proposed WOC format (whether senior, junior or perhaps other interested
parties)and pass these on to the IOF.
If you would like your view noted send it directly to me at:
elites'at'orienteering.ie and I will forward a summary of our collected views to
the WIF working party.

Ivan Millar
(IOA High performance director)

SHI 2011

Results are now up for this years Senior Home International held in Wales.
Ireland finished in fourth position but had some encouraging results during the weekend.

The Individual competition was held on Saturday on the Merthyr common. Highlight of the day being Conor Short's 4th place in the M20 race.
Swedish based runner Hugh Cashell performed well coming home 8th in the M21 race.
Niamh Corbett ran well in the W20 race finishing a solid 7th. While top W21 Irish runner was Ruth Lynam following up from her strong VHI competition a few weeks back.

The Irish Relay teams had steady runs on Sunday - the men's teams finishing 7th and 9th and the women's 8th and 10th.

Thanks to all the Irish competitors and team captain Colm Hill. Thanks also to the organising club SWOC who have results from the weekend posted on their website.

further report to follow.

World ranking events list for 2012

As the international orienteering season winds down and with a little over 2 months until the end of year It looks like Aislinn Kendall and Nicolas Simonin will be the top ranked Irish orienteers for 2011.

Following her strong performances at the World champs this year Aislinn is now the current top ranked Irish women in 149th position ahead of Niamh O'Boyle (168th).
Nicolas is top ranked Irish man at the moment in 156th= position followed by CorkO duo Darren Burke (220th) and Marcus Pinker (222nd)

Current Irish rankings can be viewed here:
http://iof.6prog.org/WR_Aths.aspx?fed=IRL&how=F&sort=R

If your not on the top list and want to make an impression next year or even challenge for the 'top ranked' title 2012 then you can start planning your season now. The IOF have just released the full WRE calender for 2012 here:
http://iof.6prog.org/WR_Diary.aspx?yymm=1200&Det=8&how=F

Some events worth noting for next year include the usual spring events like the Portugal O meeting in February and the Danish spring cup in March. The JK in Scotland this year includes 2 WRE days and then there is the Scottish champs in early June which is also a WRE.
Another notable event with Finland 2013 in mind are the Tampere games in June. This competition provides 2 WRE and could be included in travel plans for those intending to compete in the 2012 Jukola relays.
Half the fun is in the planning :-)

Senior Home International team:

Congratulations to the following orienteers who have been selected to represent Ireland at this years Senior Home International competition in Wales next month:

M21
Colm Hill (team captain)
Seamus O'Boyle
Ruairi Short
Hugh Cashel
Darren Burke
Gerard Butler

M20
Kevin O'Boyle
Conor Short
Josh O'Sullivan Hourihan

W21
Olivia Baxter
Rosalind Hussey
Ruth Lynam
Toni O'Donovan
Regina Kelly

W20
Aine McCann
Deidre Ryan
Niamh Corbett

Good luck to the team. The competition will be held on the weekend of October the 22nd and 23rd. Results and report will be available afterwards here on the squad blog

Ivan Millar

2011 Senior home International

This years Senior Home International competition is being hosted by Wales on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd of October.
Could any senior squad members (M/W20's included) who wish to be considered for the team, please send team captain Colm Hill an email before Friday 16th September.

Colm can be emailed at colmhill1@gmail.com

Ivan Millar
(High performance director)

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)

Its WOC time!

The 28th world orienteering champs kicks off this week and international elite orienteers are gathering in the Savoire for what promises to be a memorable week all round!

Most of the Irish team are now in France and finishing off preparations before the real test of qualification races commences on Saturday the 13th of August. Once again the Irish team will have great support from friends and family in France who will be taking part in the WOC tour multi day event that uses the same terrains and arena as the WOC runners (afterwards!). You can keep upto speed with all the Irish results and craic on the Irish WOC blog where we hope to have daily progress updates.

The WOC live website is now up and running here you will find all the latest startlists, results, maps and GPS tracking.

Come on Ireland!!!

Irish orienteers at the Military world games

A select team of Irish orienteers are currently taking part in the 5th Military World Games in Brazil.Orienteering is one of the 20 sports in the competition and the Irish have had some good results so far.
On Tuesday the team took part in the middle distance race with Colm Hill finishing 62nd, Donald Burke 81st and Martin Coffey in 100th place.
Orla Jennings finished 33rd in the women's middle.
Wednesday saw the long distance final with Donal Burke finishing in 72nd and Martin Coffey also moving upto 98th place overall. Orla came back one place better with a very respectable 32nd place finish.

Keep an eye on the results for Fridays team relay competition.

JWOC 2011 starts this weekend

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!

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.

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!

NORT Stage 2: Map from sprint qualification

This is the women's sprint qualification map: Göteborg Olofshöjd

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.

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/

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

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

• 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)