Irish elites at O-ringen in Halland
It is straight to Sweden from Switzerland for two of Ireland’s WOC team. Nicolas Simonin and Hugh Cashell are competing in H21 elite at O-ringen in Halland this week. Conor Short and Colm Moran are running in H20 elite. Nick is coming off a best ever Irish result at WOC (27th in sprint) and Conor from a best ever Irish result at JWOC (25th in middle). The courses in H21 elite consist of the following distances over the 5 days: middle, middle, sprint, long and long with chasing start. There are live results each day.
A quick mention of our juniors who had a fantastic start to the Welsh multi-day event Croeso 2012 – Roisin Long 1st in W16 and Eoin McCullough, Jack Millar and Mark Stephens taking 1-2-3 in M18 on Day 1. Good luck for the rest of the week to all competing!
Ireland’s men 26th in WOC relay
The Irish men’s team finished 26th in the final event of the World Championships 2012 in Switzerland. There was early excitement as Nicolas Simonin ran a strong first leg, coming to the changeover in 14th position, 1:44 behind the leaders. On second leg, Colm Hill lost time to the group and sent Darren Burke out in 27th. Darren had a steady run to bring the team in 26th. In a close fight for the medals, the Czech Republic took their first ever gold, 6 seconds ahead of Norway and 11 seconds ahead of Sweden. Switzerland won the women’s relay title ahead of Sweden and Norway.
Results
Replay the GPS tracking
Ireland’s WOC history updated, courtesy of WorldOfO – Nick set a new best sprint result with 27th, to tie with the best Irish WOC result ever (Wally Young in the long in Switzerland in 1981).
Darren crossing the line in 26th position
Break Time
Well done to Nick Simonin on a fantastic 27th place in the Sprint and on qualifying for the Long Distance final at the World Championships.
You can read about WOC 2012 on the Senior Squad blog here.
TIO is taking a short break. After the break we expect to have reports on WOC, JWOC, Sorlandsgaloppen in Norway, the Welsh 6-Day and maybe the World Masters in Germany and World Student Champs in Spain, plus other summer O-activities.
In the meantime. look out for those summer orienteering events at home like the 3ROC series of four Tuesdays in the Phoenix Park in August, celebrating the Park’s 350th Anniversary, on August 7th (Papal Cross), 14th (Furry Glen), 21st (Magazine Fort) and 28th (Furze Road), starts 6.30-7.30.
The first event is a charity fundraiser for DeafHear (DeafHear.ie) who provide services for the hard of hearing.
Get ready for the Fingal scatter event series on Sundays in Dublin in September and look out for three Leinster Mountain Bike orienteering events on Saturdays in September (the 1st, 15th and 22nd). More details later.
Finally, there will be a Junior training weekend in Dublin, including the infamous Phoenix Park time trials, on September 8/9 and the Senior Home International will be in Scotland on September 22/23, unfortunately clashing with the London City race and the UK Southern Championships in nearby Epping Forest. The Leinster Championships are a week later on the 30th in Co. Wicklow.
Enjoy the “Summer”!
WOC 2012 Relay Preview
The Irish Team for the WOC relay which start tomorrow at 1230 (Irish time) is Nicolas Simonin on 1st leg, Colm Hill on 2nd, and Darren Burke on 3rd.
The womens relay starts at 1030 (Irish time) but there is no Irish team running. It will still be worthwhile following to see if the Finns can retain their title from last year or will the Swedish girls or the Swiss team challenge them.
In the mens race the Swiss team may have the favourites tag around their neck with their entire team having won medals earlier in the week. Thierry is running for the French, but after recent injury, will he have the fitness to help his team attempt to retain their title. The Scandanavian countries will all have strong teams, as will others, with Latvia having Edgar Bertuks on 3rd leg, having won the middle and taking a bronze medal in the Long, can the Latvian team get into the top 6. Should be an exciting relay.
The races can be followed live at www.woc2012.ch There will be the usual radio controls, GPS tracking, tv coverage, etc.
Once the relay is over the teams will focus on the Banquet or WOC Soiree as the organisers are describing it. The Irish Team spent the afternoon in downtown Lausanne looking for a suitable outfit. All will be revealed, but probably not until after the event..
WOC middle distance qualification
The WOC middle distance qualifications were held this afternoon at Bois Rond, St. George. The winning times were much longer than the estimated 26 mins, but all of the big favourites including French superstar Thierry Gueorgiou qualified for the final. Unfortunately none of the Irish progressed. Colm Hill had the best run, just over 5 minutes from qualifying.
Irish results
Men A
1. Thierry Gueorgiou 29.16
23. Colm Hill 40.31
Men B
1. Gernot Kerschbaumer 30.34
32. Darren Burke 45.09
Men C.
1. Carl Waaler Kaas 29.21
27. Ruairi Short 41.48
Women A
1. Tatyana Riabkina 33.51
25. Rosalind Hussey 59.40
Women B
1. Tove Alexandersson 30.38
24. Ciara Largey 51.22
Women C
1. Simone Niggli 31.58
The middle final takes place tomorrow at La Givrine, with the men facing 6.5km and the women 5.5km. The next Irish involvement at WOC will be Nicolas Simonin running on Thursday in the long distance final at La Jorat. Nick is the first starter at 11:02 (Irish time) so is assured plenty of coverage 
(start list here). The course is 18.3km with an estimated winning time of 96 minutes. Good luck Nick!
Full results, splittimes and maps can be found at the WOC2012 website.
Nicolas Simonin makes Long Final
After his success in the Sprint Final, Nicolas Simonin today qualified for the Long Final which is being held on Thursday. He finished 15th in his heat, getting in by the hair of his moustache. He says that he felt tired in the forest after his races the day before.
The Long Qualification area turned out to be nicer than the nearby training area and model area which had a lot more (biting) insects and undergrowth than the area used today. This was welcomed by the team who were expecting a rough time of it.
The other Irish in action (Darren, Hugh & Ciara) all finished outside of the top 15..
Live results from the races can be followed here,
http://woc2012.ch/en/live-centre.html
Middle Distance Qualification races are on tomorrow with 5 of the team in action. Darren, Ruairi and Colm in the Mens with Rosalind and Ciara running the Womens race. They start as follows,
Rosalind 1327
Ciara 1339
Ruairi 1431
Colm 1455
Darren 1507
All times are CET.
Good luck to them tomorrow.
Map from Mens Heat A (quality not great)
Nick 27th in WOC sprint final
Nick Simonin ran to an all-time best Irish sprint performance in the streets of Lausanne today, finishing in 27th place. With smart route choices and good speed, he was in a top 10 position at control 9 but dropped some time en route to 10. He pulled back 8 places after that to give his first top 30 WOC finish, bettering his result of 41st in 2010. An impressive Swiss men’s team took all the medals, with Matthias Kyburz claiming the title of World Champion. Simone Niggli won the women’s race.
GPS can be watched here.
Results here.
Nick running to the finish in Lausanne, from WorldofO.
Matthias 1-2-3 in the Sprint
Switzerland had a clean sweep in the Mens Sprint Final with a Matthias coming 1st (Kyburz), 2nd (Merz) and 3rd (Muller). Nicolas Simonin finished 27th, a fantashtic result for the Cork Man. His moustache has really added to his speed this year.
In the Womens Final Simone Niggli-Luder added another Gold Medal to her collection, winning by a comfortable margin. Maja Alm from Denmark was 2nd with Annika Billstam from Sweden 3rd.
Results can be found at http://www.woc2012.ch
The Long Distance Qualification Race takes place tomorrow afternoon with Darren, Hugh, Nicolas and Ciara facing the mosquitos and nettles.
Nicolas Simonin makes WOC Sprint Final
Nic finished 4th in his heat this morning with the top 15 making this afternoons final.
Sadly Roz, Colm and Dave didn’t finish in the top 15.
Full results and startlist will be at http://www.woc2012.ch
WOC 2012 begins tomorrow
WOC starts tomorrow. All the preparation is done and it’s time for the competition to begin. First up is the sprint race. Both the qualifying and final are taking place tomorrow around the city of Lausanne. The Sprint Qualification takes place in the morning around the University with the Final in the afternoon with the finish on the shores of Lake Geneva. The start times of the Irish are as follows:
Rosalind Hussey 09:11
Colm Hill 10:12
Nicolas Simonin 10:12
David Healy 10:28
(All times are CET)
Results with radio control splits can be found at:
http://www.woc2012.ch/en/live-centre.html
For the Final tomorrow afternoon (1st start is approx. 1600 CET) there will be GPS tracking and TV coverage. All of which should be available from the above link, orhttp://www.worldofo.com will have the details.
Updates can also be found on the Squad Facebook page (www.facebook.com/IrishOrienteeringSquad) or on Twitter (Irish_O_Squad).
The Opening Ceremony takes place tomorrow evening at 1900 so keep an eye out for team pictures following this. Thanks to the IOA Communications Officer Finn van Gelderen for providing the team with shorts and t-shirts.