The Demise of Elite Junior Orienteering Competitions

[greywolf]

more of this sort of thing, you mean?

[gaw]

I've just read RC#5 in Compass sport and enjoyed reading about the JWOC. I couldn't help but notice, that while Kirsi Nurmi and Frida Sandberg were taking silver and gold on the long race in their first JWOC, the article praises the GB 'JWOC first-timers' for what look to me to be pretty decent, but hardly breathtaking performances.

Kirsi and Frida will be first timers because the competition in Finland and Sweden is so strong that it is very difficult to get into their teams. There will be another 30 or so who could have been in with a chance of getting into their jwoc team. Compare that with GB where you can have a fairly accurate guess at 7 or 8 from which the team of 6 will be chosen. The strength and depth of competition does not exist in GB and some would say that our best results show us to be punching above our weight. That's not to say that GBs runners are not capable of getting good results but they don't have regular experience of that standard of competition to draw on. When they do have a good result it does serve to spur the others that it's possible - as with Lucy Butt's top 10 result in the long at JWOC followed by Charlottes in the middle and a great Relay result as well.

[Sunlit Forres]

Just so nobody misunderstands - I think the JWOC squad did really well. It's the British psyche that I'm calling in to question. The question is about whether I'm right to do so.

Thanks for the the reminder about Ali's Army (NOT). Now that really was getting in to the realms of fantasy. Just for you Jon, Here's a nice song about British ambition that might amuse you... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmTxAx1Wh4E

[andypat]

Likewise I'm not that knowledgeable about elite juniors, but I'd assume that coaches need to set "realistic" goals otherwise the juniors (with maybe the odd exception) will consistently fail to acheive their goals. I'm not sure how that would affect their motivation?

[Oldman]

I've just read RC#5 in Compass sport and enjoyed reading about the JWOC. I couldn't help but notice, that while Kirsi Nurmi and Frida Sandberg were taking silver and gold on the long race in their first JWOC, the article praises the GB 'JWOC first-timers' for what look to me to be pretty decent, but hardly breathtaking performances.

No, it was Sunlit Forres who said that, not me