Junior European Cup...

[Reiver]

Feedback from the girls is that JEC was well worth going to (even self funded) and that it was an excellent opportunity to compare themselves with the best juniors in Europe.
The Sprint however was not a typical "European Sprint" with more than 50% in forest rather than the expected urban race so you don't know what you are going to get.

[awk]

Sarah Hague is responsible - she controls where the money goes to in the programme.

I was saddened that Sarah decided to move away from using JEC (the 6 Nations) last year - for me it was a great stepping stone introduction for young athletes on route to the following year's JWOC.

Yes, but it didn't involve sitting around in a classroom did it?

There is no reason why the Regional Squads group couldn't take JEC under their umbrella ....

Seems I've heard that somewhere before?

Good to hear of juniors getting themselves to these things though - says a lot for them.

[CrawfordL]

If you meant what about next year... well, I'm not sure where it is yet but the Edinburgh ladies who went this year will know and I have tentatively agreed to look at getting a team and budget together for a 2013 team.....

Jason,

As the driver for this year's 'GB team' I was also the coach attending meetings. The 2013 JEC is in France about an hour SW of Lyon over the weekend 4 - 6 October. I've lost the flyer with the details I've been given but that's the date.

This year's events in St Moritz were well organised and we couldn't have been better treated. Free public transport, good food and plenty of it. The areas were excellent but strangely the sprint had more brashings than the long. We became known as the team from Scotland, due to the kit worn (Sarah said they couldn't wear their GB kit as it wasn't an 'official' team) I was questioned as to why GB hadn't sent a full team but I couldn't possibly comment.

The competition was very strong and Rona, Jo and Kirstin learnt a lot and despite being well beaten found the weekend beneficial. Far from being dismayed it has spurred them on to continue training hard and strive to do better in the future.

I don't understand the reluctance to send a team especially if the people are prepared to be self funded. Others missed out on seeing future stars of the sport like Tove Alexanderson from Sweden running. The Norwegian team were all self funded but the Norwegian coaches had their costs covered. As orienteering is the only non Olympic sport with government funding in Norway I guess they are more able than BOF to help with expenses. The athletes also receive support from their clubs, who get a lot more sponsorship than ours. In many ways we are the poor relations but we should still try to send a full team as the experience gained is really important and useful to the athletes.

Good luck with getting next year's team off the ground Jason. I'm happy to be a driver for the team next year as well if required.

Crawford Lindsay

[Gross]

Good luck to Lard & co in your efforts If you are dedicated & enthusiastic then it doesn't take too much effort to put on a small scale international event or get a team together to travel.... sounds like the most difficult part will be getting permission to wear GBR kit

Maybe the JEC in GB could be combined with the new FFC running the same courses?

[Daneo]

Crawford,

My son Dane and a couple of other M18's want to form a Team to participate in JEC in France. I'm willing to take on the Admin, booking flights, hiring a car and driving it and completing the entry for them. I believe their are a number of girls that are looking to do the same thing and looking at past post on Nopesport that you are volunteering to do the Team Management for them.

2 years a go I took 3 girls to JEC in Austria and I can't see a problem with doing the same for the boys in this year. However I don't want to confuse the issue with the JEC organiser if you have already started the entry process. My email address is apblomquist @aol.com please can you confirm at what stage you are in the entry process or not if you are not going.

Regards

Axel

[pete.owens]

From the selection policy it looks as if BOF is at least considering sending an official team this year.

[WillG]

At the squad weekend in November a few of the juniors discussed sending out a team, even on a self-funded basis. There's several of us who are definitely keen to send out a team this year so I definitely think we can get a full team out to France!