JEC 2005

JEC Results, 6-9 October 2005, Graz, Austria

This years Junior European Orienteering Championships (JEC) were held in Graz, Austria from the 7th of October until Sunday 9th.

These championships involve 4 classes, M20, W20, M18 & W18.

The Irish team included:

M20 - Patrick Higgins
M18 - Ruairi Short, Robert Browne, Seamus O´Boyle & Nicolas Simonin
W18 - Erinna Foley-Fisher & Ciara Largey

The competition programme involves a sprint race, a classic
distance race, and finishing with a relay on Sunday.

The terrain is of a continental type with lots of contour detail which caused some navigational problems in todays races.

Sprint Distance

The sprint race was held on an area called Ragnitz-Haidegg.
This was a forested area with courses ranging from 2-3km.

The results from the sprint race are as follows:

W18
1st Simona Karachova, Czech Republic, 17.21
48th Erinna Foley-Fisher, Ireland, 27.29
50th Ciara Largey, Ireland, 36.44

M18
1st Stepan Kodeba, Czech Republic, 18.16
35th Seamus O´Boyle, Ireland, 22.03
54th Ruairi Short, Ireland, 30.11
55th Nicolas Simonin, 30.18
56th Robert Browne, 31.47

M20
1st Jonas Mathys, Switzerland, 18.06
40th Patrick Higgins, Ireland, 25.07

Classic

The Irish Team competed this morning in pleasant conditions in the forested hills near Graz. With hot air balloons in the sky, the Irish bravely entered the forest and here are their results:

W18 6.1km 220m climb
1st Simona Karochova, Czech Republic, 48.51
47th Ciara Largey, Ireland, 84.15
48th Erinna Foley-Fisher, Ireland, 93.57

M18 8.4km 320m climb
1st Magne Daehli, Norway, 54.38
44th Seamus O´Boyle, Ireland, 71.04
45th Nicolas Simonin, Ireland, 71.14
55th Ruairi Short, Ireland, 87.24
56th Robert Browne, Ireland, 106.45

M20 9.6km 400m climb
1st Csaba Gösswein, Hungary, 59.45
41st Patrick Higgins, Ireland, 91.24

Relay

The JEC relays were held in Mariastrost. With the start/finish being located in a football stadium. A bank around the pitch made it a spectator friendly event.

Competitors also passed through the stadium via a spectator control with approximately 600-700m left on the course. This spectator control enhanced the event atmosphere as
it added to the suspense surrounding the event results as top 3 positions were won and lost on this short final part of the course.

Due to an early afternoon flight out of Graz, it meant that none of our Relay teams could finish the event. Things were further complicated by a marathon that took place the same day in Graz.

The Irish relay team consisted of Seamus O'Boyle on the first leg, Patrick Higgins on the second leg, and Nicolas Simonin on the third leg. An Irish mixed team had Biel Rafols of Spain on the first leg, with Ruairi Short on the second and Robert Browne on the third leg.

Ciara Largey and Erinna Foley-Fisher ran in the women's race but a third leg runner could not be secured, a British girl would have filled the vacant spot but could not due to illness.

After the mass start, Seamus O'Boyle came into the spectator control right behind Biel Rafols, and at the end of the leg Seamus handed over to Patrick Higgins only 1 second ahead of Biel Rafols. This meant that Patrick Higgins and Ruairi Short started the second leg
at the same time. Seamus O'Boyle handed over in 22nd place, 8 minutes down on Jonas Mathys of Switzerland who was first to change over. Patrick managed to come back 5 minutes ahead of Rory after a massive mistake on the last control.

There were some changes later in the mens race as the Czech Republic came home first ahead of Norway, with Switzerland in third. In the women's race which was won by Norway, the Czech Republic was second with a second Norwegian team in third.

The full JEC results can be viewed at the following address along with course maps.
http://www.schoeckl.at/www/JEC05/results.htm

Next years Junior European Championships will be held in Switzerland near Berne from October 5th to 8th.

Darren Burke & Olive Simonin
JEC Team Leaders