Thoresen: interesting selection comments

[Becks]

Just because I've received a few PMs suggesting I might be a bit bitter, it's no one I've ever run against! I think those selections have been spot on.

[madmike]

Becks,
for what it's worth, imho, you didn't come across as bitter in your post.

I do, however, have to confess to being intrigued as to the identity of this scary member of the national team and if someone PMs the name I might just be daft enough to ask the question

certainly not brave but have been known to be foolish in the past

[Mrs H]

I don't mind asking (if you tell me who it is) everyone at BOF hates me anyway so it won't make any difference to me

[madmike]

As no one is biting on the PM;

Here are the runners and riders for scary national team member from latest selections:

Women Long Relay Middle Sprint
Helen Bridle (WIM) Y Y Y Y
Rachael Elder (CLOK) Y Y Y Y
Heather Gardner (EBOR) - - Y Y
Helen Palmer (NOC) Y Y Y -
Karen Poole (CLOK) Y Y Y Y
Sarah Rollins (BAOC) Y Y Y Y
Jo Stevenson (SYO) - - Y Y
Pippa Whitehouse (CLOK) Y Y Y Y



Men Long Relay Middle Sprint
David Brickhill-Jones (SYO) - - - Y
Rhodri Buffett (SWOC) - - - Y
Matthew Crane (SYO) Y Y Y Y
Scott Fraser (INT) Y Y Y Y
Graham Gristwood (OD) Y Y Y Y
Oliver Johnson (SYO) Y Y Y -
Dan Marston (INT) Y Y Y -
Matthew Speake (EBOR) Y Y Y Y

All selections for the Open Nordic Orienteering Championships and World Cup Events 1 & 2 must confirm their availability by Friday 15th May to the International Programme Director.

O-Festivalen World Cups (Events 3 & 4)

Men Women
Nick Barrable (SYO) Rachael Elder (CLOK)
Jon Duncan (WAROC) Heather Gardner (EBOR)
Dan Marston (INT) Jess Halliday (OD)
Ian Nixon (AIRE) Helen Palmer (NOC)
Neil Northrop (SYO) Karen Poole (CLOK)
Doug Tullie (RR)

[madmike]

I don't mind asking (if you tell me who it is) everyone at BOF hates me anyway so it won't make any difference to me

From not running against? Becks I deduce it's a man

Matthew Crane (SYO) Y Y Y Y
Scott Fraser (INT) Y Y Y Y
Graham Gristwood (OD) Y Y Y Y
Oliver Johnson (SYO) Y Y Y -
Dan Marston (INT) Y Y Y -
Matthew Speake
Jon Duncan

these pick themselves on form in my view and am inclined to think Rhodri's not scary. Neil N, Mharky's bro and young Doug seem logical picks

Therefore, my dear Mrs H, it's elementary it's Nick Barrable or DBJ

And I'm not scared of Nick

[Kitch]

oh for heaven's sake
its David BJ

[DIDSCO]

Ha ha complaining about BJ's selection! What's even more funny are the names of the people complaining. Just love it.

It's worth noting that on the list of all the different runners competing for the British team, men and women, there are only two runners that have ever won individual medals at the highest level....and one of them is BJ.

It's also worth noting that on the same list of runners there are only Scott and GG that I would realistically tip to ever win an individual medal at the highest level. However if somebody made me pick a third runner to bet on it would be BJ. I still remember when BJ was running for Australia some years ago at a World cup race, us in the Brtish team hadn't performed so well and in the team meeting Dave Peel told us we that we needed to run more like BJ, go out there with a real desire to kick butt from start to finish in other words. He was right.

Britain has so few talents of the highest calibre, that those ones that do possess that little extra are worth keeping. Well done BJ for making the effort to get back to full fitness. Well done selecters for picking him.

[ER]

Age is no barrier, but physiology may be. Angela Copson started running at age 59 and can run 10k in 40 minutes - http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/p ... teid=46542.

[Tessa]

Its impossible to split age and physiology question. There are too many factors like having children, retirement, social expectations/norms that make it impossible to say whether it is physically impossible to reach the same physiological performance as before.

it is sure though that training at any age can have exactly the same benefits, you dont lose your ability to respond to training.

half the battle is in the mind, if you believe physiological greatness is all over once you are 40, it most certainly will be.

tess - sitting on the next door desk to someone writing a masters thesis on ageing, training and the myths.

[bendover]

i hope BJ proves you all wrong, really, i do.

[harry]

The main similarity between Thoresen's selection style and the new GB outlook is it really reflects an understanding of the capacity of people to actually perform at a high level, either this year, these championships or in 1, 2 or 5 years down the line.

The difference is that Norway have more athletes that you might tip to win medals whereas at the moment that maximum capacity of a lot of our athletes might only be top 10s. Still you have to start somewhere. Supporting our athletes towards more top 10 performances would be a great start! It's not like we have so many top 10 performances right now!

Then hopefully with consistent mentoring and support of our younger athletes, and gradually raising the bar physiologically, we could be looking at a group of athletes in 5-10 years time from which Didsco might pick out more medal winners.

I think all the selections were bang on, but even better is what you don't see going on behind the scenes when you look at a list of names. The communication with athletes is so much better. I know that there have been good dialogues with other athletes that you don't see on the list. They are finding out where people are at and actually asking what disciplines can you realistically handle, how many races? Last year it was more like "we haven't spoken to you and we've paid your entry fees so we expect you to man up and run everything, back in my day we ran everything... blah blah" yeah well, back in your day there were only 2 disciplines...

[harry]

It's also worth noting that on the same list of runners there are only Scott and GG that I would realistically tip to ever win an individual medal at the highest level.

I totally agree with Didsco. With the information Didsco has, ie results lists, I would also only realistically tip Scott and GG.
But there are a lot of pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of a good performance and if the National team set up can help more pieces click into place for more athletes then that group might broaden a bit! A really important step will be to help get more athletes focusing more of their time on orienteering.

But that doesn't include reading and posting on nopesport so I'd better say bye bye for several months now

[awk]

Ha ha complaining about BJ's selection! What's even more funny are the names of the people complaining. Just love it.

Not complaining, no. Just querying. Seems reasonable enough given available results.

It's worth noting that on the list of all the different runners competing for the British team, men and women, there are only two runners that have ever won individual medals at the highest level....and one of them is BJ.

True - 4 years ago I think.

Britain has so few talents of the highest calibre, that those ones that do possess that little extra are worth keeping.....Well done BJ for making the effort to get back to full fitness.

As someone who is seeing this very much from the spectator point of view, I do agree with the first part. However, I don't see any real evidence of him reaching that sort of fitness: 16th in the British Elite Sprint (one place in front of the leading M16), 11th= in the British Elite Middle are the only two domestic results I can find. Anything internationally?

On that basis, I can understand why that particular selection has been queried. I've no axe to grind, and certainly don't want to get at the selectors who know far, far more than I do, but with the lack of visible objective reasons, I can see why that is a selection that interested people might question. Hopefully the results will help answer them.

[DIDSCO]

Careful 'Awk' I didn't say he was at full fitness. I said 'Well done BJ for making the effort to get back to full fitness'. I'm sure he has some way to go to full fitness, but it's partly the selectors and British Team management's job to help him on this issue. I think by selecting him they've sent BJ a signal that they still respect his high level ability and really want him back in the team, and eventually in a team in the future when he's at full fitness. This can only be positive for Bj's motivation and his long term progress. In my mind they've done what any serious national team and selection commitee should do at the elite end of the sport. It's early days for Bj, so I don't expect wonders at the Nordics and neither should anybody else. Perhaps we should give him a bit of support and show a bit of excitement over one of our absolute best runners making a come back.

[awk]

Careful 'Awk' I didn't say he was at full fitness. I said 'Well done BJ for making the effort to get back to full fitness'.

Missed that subtlety. Take your point! Given that the OP was about the open approach used by Thorresen (sp?), it would be good if some of that was used when selections are announced over here: it would help engage those interested but not totally conversant with what's going on (those like me!) and help support the athletes concerned.

On a positive note, it was good to some of the younger generation, like Rhodri Buffet, Doug Tullie and Jess Halliday get places (and, of course, Ian Nixon from my own club!).