GBR team so far...

[Wattok]

We've had two big weekends of racing with many of the big guns attending. Who would you pick in a 6 men 6 women team to take to WOC 2007?

Men:
Jamie Stevenson
JD
Oli Johnson
GG
Speaky
BJ

Women:
Helen Bridle
Helen Winskill
Jenny Johnson
Rachael Elder
Helen Palmer
Pippa Whitehouse

But...

In the the men, what about Craney, Chepls, McCarthy, Scotia, Strain, Nixon, Northrop, Baker etc. etc.

In the women, what about Carlyle, McKenzie, O'Neill, stevenson, Roberts, Austin, Heppenstall etc etc.

Thoughts...

Disclaimer: I realise that this is early in the season, it's only been 2 weekends of races and not a true representation of form and athletes will be looking to peak for the selection races and WOC in the summer and some people didn't race blah blah...it's just a bit of fun/interest!

[Patrick]

We've had two big weekends of racing with many of the big guns attending. Who would you pick in a 6 men 6 women team to take to WOC 2008?

Shouldn't we wait for WOC2007 first (sorry!)?

Being a boring git, I'm not going to add to your list, save to ask why Scotia isn't in there. However, it may be worth pointing out that Craney just became Aussie Middle Distance champion.

Patrick

[eddie]

interesting that Craney isn't in any of the wc teams. i thought he was back by then.

[gg]

i heard that he is in he australian team for world cups this year after a secret wedding and he is just waiting for his new passport to come through

this may in fact be a lie

[eddie]

does this mean my sticker of craney is now worthless?

[Nails]

it always was

[DIDSCO]

From what I've seen of Craney's recent form he's probably the best British male runner just now, so should be top of the mens team.

Obviously Oli is clearly the best British based runner at the moment, His results have been really impressive the last 2 weekends, hopefully this is the year Oli will take the final step and get the world class result at WOC. Nr 2 spot in the mens.

Jamie seems to be keeping a low profile and concentrating on painting his house. Saving himself for August. Nr 3 for Britains best ever.

Jon D - 'go hard or go home' - he's probably at home getting ready to go hard in August. J.D nr 4

Scott F - first year senior, first year in the WOC team. Nr 5

Ewan Mc - Ultimate confidence with the ultimate preperation. Nr 6

Bj - Time to strike back from last year, and show how British he really is . Nr 7

[Wattok]

What timing, i didn't know there were going to be selection announcements today honest!

Congrats to to all the pre-selctions for WC races and WOC training camp. With 5 women only going to WOC training camp does this mean a full team will not be selected for WOC?

I'm guessing they'll select 6 but thought i'd put it out there anyway

[harry]

I guess it depends how well people are running Wattok! It will be tough to qualify for World Cup finals (or even to bother trying to understand all the rules) but those that do and place highly will certainly be good enough to perform well at WOC. Male or female!

Availabilty can play a part too. If you did the Ukraine training camp & both FIN & NOR World Cups you could be away from home & travelling for virtually the whole of June with the selection races at the end. With the spread of names it looks more like people are picking and choosing what to focus on. Not all of us have the luxury of being able to flit around the World the whole time - nor would we necessarily want to.

There's another Kyiv training camp later on for the actual WOC team and there have already been 2 training camps out there. Summer '05 a development group went and last autumn a more senior group went. When I went we were there nearly 2 weeks and exhausted most of the training possibilities as well as doing some races. We even stayed at the WOC hotel and familiarised ourselves with the surroundings and the weather (we were out there the same week WOC will be) and the weird food.

It's an amazing place but I reckon you can train for it just as well if not better at home and I am not hurrying back there unless I get in the WOC team! Having said that if people are thinking of going and running the spectator races and supporting the GB team, you definitely should do, it's going to be a real one-off and interesting WOC!