The new British Squad was announced today, with a new structure. This year there is a large pool of athletes who make up the squad, and a smaller group of athletes who form the Performance Group.
SENIOR (WOMEN)
Lizzie Adams (SOC/SHUOC)
Aislinn Austin (CLOK)
*Helen Bridle (WIM)
Becky Carlyle (AIRE)
Rachael Elder (CLOK)
Jenny Johnson (SYO)
*Mhairi Mackenzie (WCOC/EUOC)
Alison O’Neil (NOC/JOK)
Helen Palmer (CLYDE)
*Sarah Rollins (BAOC)
Jo Stevenson (SYO)
Claire Ward (INT)
*Pippa Whitehouse (CLOK)
*Helen Winskill (SYO)
SENIOR (MEN)
Rob Baker (SYO)
Nick Barrable (FVO/JOK)
*David Brickhill-Jones (INT)
Oleg Chepelin (GRAMP/EUOC)
*Matt Crane (WCH/SHUOC)
*Jon Duncan (GRAMP)
Scott Fraser (INT/EUOC)
*Graham Gristwood (OD)
Oli Johnson (SYO)
Dan Marston (INT/DRONGO)
Ewan McCarthy (MAROC)
Mark Nixon (EUOC)
Neil Northrop (SYO)
Matthew Speake (EBOR)
*Jamie Stevenson (SYO)
Murray Strain (INT)
* Member of the Performance Group
Getting nervous before the OMM now
24 October 2006
16 October 2006
OD retain CompassSport Cup
Yesterday my club, Octavian Droobers, won the CompassSport Cup for the second year in a row. This is the most prestigious club competition in Britain, with a clubs qualifying for the final through regional rounds, and 25 runners to count in the final from a variety of age classes.
The picture above is club captain Alan Halliday collecting the trophy from Mr CompassSport, Nick Barrable. With him are course winners Jessica Halliday and Iain Embrey. Photo from Peter Guillaume.
The event was held at Greenham Common, an old RAF base, which was on the whole flat open grassland with pockets of contour detail and some areas of slightly more undulating woodland. There were several long legs which were just running across former airstrips. This meant that for the elite, the times were well under 5 minutes per kilometer. Craney won the elite, 10.2km in 47.15. I was 2nd in 48.42 - my race was a little scrappy and my legs felt tired after my long run on Saturday, but Craney beat me on almost every leg.
Results are available here
14 October 2006
University Challenge - orienteer style
Today I went to see the filming of 2 shows of University Challenge as my housemate Harold is on the Warwick University team. The show was filmed in Manchester and will be broadcast later in October - will put up show times when I know
Mountain marathon preparation
My next goal for this year is the B class at the OMM - the Original Mountain Marathon. This is a two day event at the end of October, basically a really long orienteering competition where you carry your camping and cooking kit. I am running it with my housemate Harold, and in preparation for the 5+ hours running each day, today we went up into the Peak District for a long run with our rucksacks. We wanted to test out the weight of our bags and kit, and get an idea about hydration and nutrition. We tested out a few energy bars and gels to see what we might want.
The competition in 28/29th October and is in Galloway in Southern Scotland. We are planning to take a camera to chronicle our weekend.
The competition in 28/29th October and is in Galloway in Southern Scotland. We are planning to take a camera to chronicle our weekend.
09 October 2006
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First World Cup Podium
My first ever senior podium position, 6th place in the World Cup Final Relay thanks to some mispunching by Theirry and David Andersson.
I ran first leg and had a really good race coming back in 3rd, only 45 seconds down and just behind 2nd place. I made a couple of small mistakes, at controls 1, 5 and 6, and I was ultra safe at number 12.
BJ had a pretty good run, with one mistake early on but held on to 3rd place, and JD also ran ok to claim 6th place for GB. My first time in the 1st team and my first bunch of senior flowers (and a big knife).
Here is my map
Results here
06 October 2006
15th place at World Cup Final
A good day in the office. 15th place in the middle race at the world cup final (my best ever non-sprint result). Finished 27th overall in the World Cup 2006 with 101 points. Up to 47th in the world rankings (my highest ever).
This has been a good week in France. My goals were to get top 20s in the sprint and middle (which I achieved) and top 30 in the classic (which I was very close to). I also wanted to finish the week in the top 50 in the world, which I did after todays race.
My race today was ok. It was by no means perfect, but it was fairly steady and I made no significant mistakes. We haven't had the maps back as the relay tomorrow is on the same area, so it is difficult to analyse now.
Full results here and splits here.
This has been a good week in France. My goals were to get top 20s in the sprint and middle (which I achieved) and top 30 in the classic (which I was very close to). I also wanted to finish the week in the top 50 in the world, which I did after todays race.
My race today was ok. It was by no means perfect, but it was fairly steady and I made no significant mistakes. We haven't had the maps back as the relay tomorrow is on the same area, so it is difficult to analyse now.
Full results here and splits here.
05 October 2006
World Cup Final Classic Race
For almost two hours I ran into trees, fell over rocks, fell onto rocks, headbutted rocks, got bits of tree in my eye, fell onto more rocks, attempted to find a few controls and generally really enjoyed myself. Very tough technically and while not overly physical, the sheer rocky-ness made the running very tough (although I probably didn't help myself by running through lots of rocky bits that I should have run around).
I was fairly happy with my race apart from maybe four places. I made a stupid error at control 3, both coming in and leaving in the wrong direction. On the epic long leg across the map, I chose a good route, and then proceeded to ignore the nice white forest and attempted to run through a thick green boulder field. Then at controls 22 and 23, just when the finish was in sight and everything seemed to be under control, I made two big mistakes. The first I lost contact on the leg and failed to relocate, and then the next one I had big problems in the circle. I lost maybe 7-8 mins in total on those controls.
I am content with my 31st place. My goal before the race was top 30, so I am not really happy. At least I beat BJ (only just though....)
Results here, map sometime when I get home
I was fairly happy with my race apart from maybe four places. I made a stupid error at control 3, both coming in and leaving in the wrong direction. On the epic long leg across the map, I chose a good route, and then proceeded to ignore the nice white forest and attempted to run through a thick green boulder field. Then at controls 22 and 23, just when the finish was in sight and everything seemed to be under control, I made two big mistakes. The first I lost contact on the leg and failed to relocate, and then the next one I had big problems in the circle. I lost maybe 7-8 mins in total on those controls.
I am content with my 31st place. My goal before the race was top 30, so I am not really happy. At least I beat BJ (only just though....)
Results here, map sometime when I get home
04 October 2006
Sprint at Chateau de Theix
Today we had a really enjoyable world cup sprint race around Chateau de Theix. With no qualication, it was a straight final with a really strong field. Most of the race was in some steep woodland with intricate rock detail, and the rest was in scrappy parkland with mixed vegetation and quite a few paths.
I had a fairly good race, and I am content with my placing (20th), but I was amazed by how far down I was on the leaders (almost 2 minutes). There were a couple of route choices that I was unsure about, and some of the mapping of the rock detail was either hard to read or a bit dubious. I lost some time on one control running through an area of large rocks mapped as rocky ground when the rocks were just as large as the one with the control on it. I also lost time on the hill running sections of the course, entirely down to my inability to run up hills. One 300m leg had 45 metres of climb on it and I really felt every centimetre.
Results up here, map to follow
I had a fairly good race, and I am content with my placing (20th), but I was amazed by how far down I was on the leaders (almost 2 minutes). There were a couple of route choices that I was unsure about, and some of the mapping of the rock detail was either hard to read or a bit dubious. I lost some time on one control running through an area of large rocks mapped as rocky ground when the rocks were just as large as the one with the control on it. I also lost time on the hill running sections of the course, entirely down to my inability to run up hills. One 300m leg had 45 metres of climb on it and I really felt every centimetre.
Results up here, map to follow
03 October 2006
Kenilworth, Ukraine and World Cup Final Middle race
In the time since my last post, I have been living in my new house in Kenilworth (which is very nice). I have had a bad cold after my long summer trip, I have had a training camp in the Ukraine with the GB squad (maps and photos to follow), I went to the Post Finance Sprint in Switzerland (where I did very badly) and I am now in France at the World Cup Finals.
These are being held in the Auvergne region, close to Clermont-Ferrand. The event website is here. Most of the team arrived on saturday, but the Post Finance Sprinters drove over from Bern on Sunday morning. We all took the opportunity to go to the model events to get a feel for the very special terrain (see extract below). We were blown away by the technical element of the orienteering here - it truly is a case of lose contact with the map, and lose the race. Mistakes here can be measured in tens of minutes.
These are being held in the Auvergne region, close to Clermont-Ferrand. The event website is here. Most of the team arrived on saturday, but the Post Finance Sprinters drove over from Bern on Sunday morning. We all took the opportunity to go to the model events to get a feel for the very special terrain (see extract below). We were blown away by the technical element of the orienteering here - it truly is a case of lose contact with the map, and lose the race. Mistakes here can be measured in tens of minutes.
Middle Qualifier
I had a solid race, no big mistakes. I stuck to my plan which was to keep constant contact, make good judgements about where to run fast and where to really concentrate, and if in doubt, make absolutely sure. I made a small mistake early on, and really hesitated at one control where I stood still for over 30seconds making absolutely sure that I was where I thought I was. At the end, I was running at a really good pace with a small pack and I qualified comfortably. I feel that I was a little unlucky in terms of heats, as my time would have placed me much higher in the other 2. I felt 12th was worse than the run deserved. Results here. The map of my race is here.
Middle Final
Memorable. Before the race we knew it was going to be trickier than the qualifier, with less paths, more details and more climb. What we didn't know was that the weather would conspire against everybody and force the race to be cancelled. Winds over 100km/hour knocked out power to the whole region and caused many trees to be knocked over. The event itself lost power and runners were stopped in the forest. Only a handful of athletes finished the race, and many weren't even allowed to start. I started, but only made it as far as half way to the sixth control before I was stopped. My run was ok, I had made a 2 minute mistake, but apart from that I was fairly happy, even catching Audun Weltzien by 8 minutes (at the 2nd control).
Tomorrow is the sprint race, I have a fairly late start. Then thursday is the classic, friday the rescheduled middle and saturday the relay.
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