WOC Selections

[Spookster]

Congratulations to everyone selected so far for WOC, as announced on the British Orienteering website this morning. Final Sprint selections will be announced after Nordic OT.

WOC 2011 is in France, 10th to 20th August.

[Scott]

Excellent! Congratulations to all the athletes - it's good to see so many making very well-deserved WOC debuts

[Kitch]

Good to see, at long last,
that the relay teams will be able to compete with fresh legs

Aslo Good to See Tess, Hollie, Doug and Hector in there

[Homer]

Yes, congratulations, particularly to the first-timers.

I look forward to supporting you all in France in August.

As an outsider, I'd be interested to know a bit about individual athletes' preferences. Some of the allocations to different disciplines don't seem to match the results in the selection races. Anyhow, the team team looks a good blend of experience and new blood. Good luck all!

[Tatty]

Congratulations to all those selected. Good to see that all the hard work with Toni at EUOC is paying off. 3 EUOC in the team, of whom Doug and Hector are firs timers.

[graeme]

and the insiders are always a bit secret squirrel about this, but... as I understand it,

the WOC programme makes it very hard to double-up long with anything else. So the "established" athletes are aiming for short-middle. Relay is the best GB medal/podium hope, and the selectors probably want the athletes to stay fresh, so connive with this.

Flip side is that the junior/newer runners saw their best hope as being in the classic. And there they are. Great to see the three Edinburgh-based debutants, and Tess obviously benefitting from her Edinburgh connection too

As a traditionalist, I'm sad to see the de facto deprioritisation of the classic by the IOF.

[Spookster]

As a traditionalist, ...

Ah, so that's why you're calling it Classic.

The IOF has just announced a bit more progress on the WOC in the Future group page on their website.

[Becks]

Congratulations to everyone! Must have been some tough decisions to make, but looks like an exciting team. Hello 5am starts in the lab come August!

[Ravinous]

Graeme - I think we have a greater chance at medal/prodium in the Sprint, rather than the relay - plus of course we get three chances rather than one - per gender!

Great to see a nice tough Long Selection race. Well done to all those who survived! I am sure that the real WOC final will be even longer and tougher, with much harder technical running underfoot, plus with higher temperatures to contend with... Get preparing now guys and good luck!

[andypat]

Yes, well done to all those selected (so far). Agree with homer its not so easy this year to see the rationale for who goes where although Graeme seems to ahve a handle on it.

Given the sprint pre-selection criteria
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/images/uploaded/downloads/international_2011_season_selection_policy.pdf

which appears to be essentially historic performances and/or British/JK +any other big races, its hard to see how sprint speciaslit Murray Strain isnt on the list yet (5th PWT, 1st British, 2nd JK, 18th last WOC - his first). I cant see how anyone not already on the list can make it ahead of him, so presume the selectors would have liked to preselect Scotia (but couldnt as he didnt attend the British and JK (reasonably since he is living abroad) didnt race the PWT since he organised it and his WOC DQ in the sprint last year) and maybe also think Craney has a shout after his convincing JK win.
Will make for a tense Nordic tour to settle it!

Not sure I understand the logic of having the entire mens relay team on the middle when the relays are the day after the middle final- perhaps "staying fresh" for elites/Graeme has a different meaning than it does for lesser mortals?

(Murray has graciously reminded me of the credentials of Ralph Street who he considers to be a serious contender for the last Sprint spot - but I am allowing myself a Scottish bias with a prediction that Murray will show his class in the NORT)