EYOC Hungary 2007

[Rockaldo]

Best of luck to the team who will be representing GB at EYOC this weekend.

[ER]

Sprint results up; Hazel had a good one.

http://www.eyoc2007eger.hu/main/file.ph ... print.html

[Gross]

Best GB results:

M18 - 54th
W18 - 23rd

[ER]

GB juniors doing well in Hungary - Alice 14th on the long!!

[Gross]

Best GB results:

M18 - 42nd
W18 - 14th

[Tatty]

EYOC Long Race
M 18
43 Mike Noblett
55 Mikey hopkins
66 Ralph Street
67 Tom Beasant
W18
14 Alice Butt
33 Hazel Wright
42 Jo Halliday
48 Anwen Darlington

[Gross]

Relay results:

M18 - GBR 19th (just behind Israel)
W18 - GBR 13th (just behind Austria)

[Tatty]

Gross - a little more encouragement would go a long way

[Gross]

Gross - a little more encouragement would go a long way

Oh sorry....

GBR are doing well in Hungary: Lads were 19th in relay just behind Israel and the lasses were 13th, just behind Austria.

[Gross]

OK - a positive looking at of the results & maybe some of the coaching staff who were present can put their thoughts forward.... the individual results were nothing to write home about and the relay results were not good at all - being beaten by Israel etc.

BUT I wouldn't pay much attention to the results... and the being beaten by Israel confirms my thoughts (and that's all they are coz I'm not involved with the juniors but I know some of the East Europeans). It would seem to me that what is missing is fitness & speed.... technically I think it's been proved over the years that GB juniors are generally as good as anyone... that doesn't change overnight. But speed & fitness are lacking....

BUT being a top junior is only a stepping stone & not an aim in itself... if the motivation is there then today's 16 / 18's have time on their side to develop the speed, fitness & strength required to move up the game board

[Toni]

I was at EYOC with the juniors over the weekend so I'll put my views forward.

EYOC comes at a really bad time for GB with A levels still going on. The team selected was very young (no one is 18 yet). Alice and Hazel definitely got the top results of the weekend and as first year 18's with very little experience I was reasonably pleased with these. The EYOC girls' team are still not competitive with Anne and Hollie who are our top W18s at the moment - Cat is close behind but struggling with an injury. Emily and Vicky were also unable to travel. I don't know the boys as well but Hector is the obvious omission from the team.

Pre race preparation was less than ideal for most of the athletes because of exams. THis had the most noteable impact on Jo and Ralph who traveled out on Friday morning after exams on Thursday evening leaving at 3.30am with a sprint race on Friday afternoon - Jo started her sprint race around 12 hours after waking up! And Ralph has another exam today. I know that Spain and Germany were in Hungary since Monday preparing for the races so the GB team preparation for EYOC was bad but I'm not sure how it could be improved.


I don't think their relay performances reflected their potential so that was a bit dissappointing but I think they learned something from the race so I'm not too bothered.

Their strengths - I was impressed by some of their navigation but this still has some way to go - Alice had one clean race and everyone else made at least one noteable mistake in every race. Their fitness was better than I expected but I was very impressed by the fitness of some of the other nations. The girls were aware that they were less fit than some other athletes with whom they were competing - and I think this was a good lesson.

Another important aspect of this weekend is that it gave me a chance to get to know the girls before they join the junior squad if selected (none of the team were on the junior squad last year and Hazel is the only athlete going to pre-JWOC tour to Gotheburg). They are not polished athletes yet and openly recognise this but I think they have potential and learned a lot from the experience. I'm quite looking forward to seeing them develop over the next few years - I think they all left the competition with a better idea of what they need to work on.

Hope this helps with your evaluation of the results.

Toni

[Tatty]

Well said Toni. Perhaps Gross didn't appreciate that these were not all the top 18's as some of them have been selected for JWOC/JWOC Training camp and those going to EYOC were the next band down.

[Gross]

Actually if you read what I wrote it agrees with Toni's assessment.... i.e. results were disappointing, but at this level results are not overly important. Toni says she was impressed by the navigational skills & aware of lack of fitness / strength in relation to others.... exactly what I predicted.

[Kitch]

For me, reading Toni's notes the whole thing begs the question;
Why send a team when they are so compromised by exam commitments ?

This is absolutely not a reflection on any of the juniors there but a challege to the junior selectors.
Would it not be better to find a competition clear of exams where our juniors have an opportunity to do themselves proud?

I just think going out and struggling (for perfectly understandable and legitimate reasons) does no-one any favours. Worse it runs the risk of setting low expectations and low standards.

[EddieH]

Maybe Kitch but last year's team medalled - in fact did the boys not win the relay? And talking to some of the team they had had no preparation whatsoever for the unusual negative terrain in Slovenia.