GB Team head for World Junior Championships, Estonia
Thursday 3 July 2003
The 12 strong team of 16 to 20 year olds head for Polva, Estonia
for this year's Junior World Orienteering Championships.
The team have only recently been training together in the
forest of Speyside in Scotland fine-tuning their technique
and analysing maps of the embargoed areas in Estonia. "It
was great to get almost all the team together in a team-building
situation so close to the Worlds", said Head Coach Jason
Inman. "Apart from one athlete with a head cold and one
with a weak ankle, neither of which will hamper our performances
in Estonia, we are in great form and results from the Junior
Inter Regional Championships on Cannock Chase last weekend
confirm this with JWOC team members or reserves heading the
fields in both W and M18 classes".
The team will travel straight out to their own "pre-camp"
in South East Estonia where they will spend some "quality
time" together training and attending an informal relay
competition on Saturday before going to the official JWOC
accommodation on the Sunday.
The first race will be the Short Race Qualification Heats
on Tuesday 8 July. The first 20 in each heat will go through
to the following day's Short Race Final.
The GB Team hope to improve on last year's results which
saw them 8th Nation overall and 5 top 30 results during the
week in Spain. Best result for nearly 10 years came from Matthew
Speake - 9th in the Short Race and Matthew has the opportunity
to "Go For Gold" this time round in his last year
as a junior.
" I am really pleased with the strength of our team
this year", says joint Coach Chris Poole, "the women
have come through stronger this year and we have been able
to take a full team, unlike last year when we only took 4
girls. The boys are an exceptionally talented group this year
with Matt Speake 9th JWOC 2002, Graham Gristwood Bronze and
Mark Nixon 6th at the Junior European Cup we have real potential
to achieve podium positions this year".
So what will ensure things go according to plan? " A
good bit of British rain to go with the head-high nettles
and heavily-brashed forests that we are expecting will make
us feel really at home!" says Jason.
The team are:
Scott Fraser, Graham Gristwood, David Hodkinson, Mark Nixon,
Matthew Speake, Murray Strain
Fiona Berrow, Laura Daniel, Heather Gardner,Helen Gardner,
Mhairi Mackenzie, Alison O'Neill,
Staff : Jason Inman and Chris Poole - Coaches, Sian Challacombe
- Assistant Coach and Andy Monro - Team Doctor
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