Juniors Off to JIRCs
Steph Pruzina, Junior Coach writes…
It’s an exciting time of year again for our rebranded NIOA junior squad. The donation received from the IOC has been put to good use in supporting squad members to buy from a selection of newly designed Tees and Hoodies. The squad is open to juniors aged 12 to 18+ from any NIOA club who participate regularly in orienteering races and coaching sessions. New members are always welcome.
The team for the annual Junior Inter-Regional Competition has been working hard so we are looking forward to a great weekend in the Lake District this weekend 28-29 September. Once again we have a relatively young team, with most of our runners in the first year of their age group and unfortunately we have no female representation at all. But coach Paul Pruzina will deliver an online session this week to get everyone best prepared for the two competitions. The events are in the Lake District with the individual race on Torver High Common and Torver Beck Common, with the relay on dunes at Haverrig. It should shape up to be a great experience. The team travelling are M18 Sam Graham, M16 James Ewart, Euan Kennedy, Jack Wilkins, Matthew Wilson, M14 Ewan Ewart, Cillian Lynch and Aran Power (running up). Jack will run up to 18 to give us 2 relay teams. Michael Kennedy and Steph Pruzina are leading the gang.
Two weeks later will be the Junior Home International taking place in South Wales on 11-12 October. This year we have just one NI athlete, James Ewart representing us on the Irish team, and on current form we have high hopes for a good result. The JHI terrain is all open terrain – Merthyr Common and Clydach Terrace so hopefully will suit many on the Irish squad, as we do like our mountain contours!