Junior World Orienteering Champs (JWOC) 2007, Dubbo, Australia

The Irish team travelling to the first JWOC ever outside Europe consisted of: (left to right) Ciara Largey (lvo), Seamus O’Boyle (cnoc), Colm Hill (cnoc), Nicolas Simonin (boc), Ruairí Short (cnoc), and Fiach O’Rourke (Fingal). Team manager: Ruth Lynam.

The majority of the squad flew out to Sydney at the end of June. We spent a week in Orange training in the terrain to acclimatise ourselves for the week of racing to come. We then moved to Dubbo for the week of events which started on July 8^th with the Sprint Distance.

The sprint event took place in the Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo. The course for the men was 3.3km and 2.7 for the women. The terrain was extremely fast but easy enough to stray off and make mistakes. All competitors were warned not to cross the fences into the enclosures for their own safety.

M20, 3.3 km, 18 controls			Time
1	Vojtech KRAL	CZE	13.59
2	Olav LUNDANES	NOR	14.05
3	Ivan SIRAKOV	BUL	14.23
74	Seamus O'BOYLE	IRL	16.48
90	Ruairi SHORT	IRL	18.06
94	Fiach O'ROURKE	IRL	18.33
111	Colm HILL	IRL	21.39
119	U Hang LEUNG	HKG	35.53
mp	Nicholas SIMONIN	IRL	mp

W20, 2.7 km, 17 controls			Time
1	Eva SVENSSON	SWE	13.19
2	Sarka SVOBODNA	CZE	13.20
3	Maja ALM	DEN	13.23
80	Ciara LARGEY	IRL	19.48
88	Yukara NAGATA	JPN	25.47

Classic/Long Distance:

The Classic/Long distance event took place the following day in Malang. The area consisted of many short sharp hills with lots of contour detail & covered in rock features. There were a few streams and fences to locate off and many route choices. The courses were long, featuring a map exchange and consisted of a lot of climb.

M20, 11.1 km, 27 controls			Time
1	Olav LUNDANES	NOR	71.30
2	Magne DÆHLI	NOR	74.05
3	Christian BOBACH	DEN	75.31
90	Nicholas SIMONIN	IRL	103.46
98	Ruairi SHORT	IRL	109.52
101	Colm HILL	IRL	117.10
104	Fiach O'ROURKE	IRL	120.31
121	Liang JIANLONG	CHN	184.54
mp	Seamus O'BOYLE	IRL	mp

W20, 7.2 km, 16 controls			Time
1	Siri ULVESTAD	NOR	60.47
2	Kine Hallan STEIWER	NOR	61.13
3	Heini SAARIMAKI	FIN	61.48
62	Ciara LARGEY	IRL	80.55
88	Yuki SHIRAKATA	JPN	168.04

Rest Day:

Following the tough day of racing from the classic we had a rest day. We toured the Western Plains Zoo to see the sights which we passed by so quick in the sprint and could not view.

Middle Distance Qualification:

The following day was the middle distance qualification, which would determine whether each competitor would compete in the A or B final the next day. The top 20 in each heat would go through to the A final. Times were fast in each heat. Small mistakes cost many places and saw many big names not make the A final.

M20 A, 3.5 km, 17 controls			Time
1	Timo SILD	EST	23.15
20	Daniel PORTAL GORDILLO	ESP	27.16
26	Ruairi SHORT	IRL	29.33

42

Andy STRAT

USA

49.59

Ciara LARGEY

IRL

mp

M20 B, 3.5 km, 16 controls			Time
1	Olav LUNDANES	NOR	23.51
4	Nicholas SIMONIN	IRL	25.11
20	Petr NURMUKHAMETOV	RUS	28.36
37	Colm HILL	IRL	42.26
42	Ho Ching CHIU	HKG	53.02

M20 C, 3.5 km, 17 controls			Time
1	Zsolt LENKEI	HUN	23.21
20	Phillipp MULLER	GER	27.39
34	Seamus O'BOYLE	IRL	37.10
35	Fiach O'ROURKE	IRL	37.48
43	U Hang LEUNG	HKG	57.45

Middle Distance Final:

After a successful heat for Nick he qualified for the A final. Ruairi had a very good run to miss out by just over 2 min. The Middle distance finals took place directly beside the qualification map, finishing in the exact same area. Times in the A final were very fast with less than 5 minutes separating the top 30. Some small mistakes were made by most out our squad loosing a small amount of time. Two bad ankle twists also affected 2 of us on the course.

M20 A, 4.5 km, 22 controls			Time
1	Olav LUNDANES	NOR	23.15
2	Petter ERIKSSON	SWE	23.59
3	Martin HUBMANN	SUI	24.02
47	Nicholas SIMONIN	IRL	29.55
57	Luca DALLAVALLE	ITA	35.24

Relay:

The last event which is usually the best event for viewing was the relay. Runners could be seen disappearing off in the mass start, running through 2 spectator controls and in the finish run in. 42 teams entered the men’s relay and 31 entered the women’s. Each team had 3 runners but because our team consisted of 5 men and 1 woman we entered 2 teams in the men’s competition and Ciara competed on the men’s course.

Courses were technical and legs were gaffeled.

M20 (42)

1 104 CZE 1 129:47

Stepan KODEDA 43:30, Jan BENES 43:40, Adam CHROMY 42:35

2 103 NOR 1 130:57

Torgeir NØRBECH 44:54, Magne DÆHLI 43:16, Olav LUNDANES 42:46

(3)N/C 129 CZE 2 133:53

Matej KLUSACEK 43:09, Eduard SMEHLIK 46:41, Vojtech KRAL 44:01

31 121 IRL 1 168:52

Nicholas SIMONIN 52:18, Seamus O'BOYLE 57:53, Ruairi SHORT 58:40

36 132 IRL 2 207:13

Fiach O'ROURKE 73:23, Colm HILL 61:40, Ciara LARGEY 72:09

42 139 USA 2 disq

Andy STRAT 69:46, John GOODWIN disq, Malcolm WYATT-MAIR 72:45

The whole experience was a very good one as a whole. It took a lot of getting used to the terrain and styles of orienteering needed to compete in the land down under. After the closing ceremony and banquet we had a disco to finish off the celebration which was the 2007 junior world champs, with all national squads dressing in different costumes for the occasion.