Juniors' Corner 2013

Last updated 8th July 2013

 OD Juniors win the Yvette Baker Trophy Final 2013

OD juniors had a very close win in the YBT final on Sunday 7th July at the LOG event held at Belton Park, scoring 881 points out of a maximum score of 899, just beating DEVON by 2 points. This stems from winning 1 of the 8 classes on offer and having three second places (plus a whole lot of other good results). Each class winner scores 100 points with 99 for 2nd place, 98 for 3rd etc. The top nine OD scores summed to 1@100 + 3@99 + 4@97 + 1@96 = 881.

Here are the results summary from the LOG website:

Our 100 point scorer was: Matthew Elkington (G)

Our 99 point scorers were: Tamsin Alcock (LG), Nathan Lawson (G) and Harriet Lawson (G)

Our 97 point scorers were: Rhiannon Cope(O), Alfie Bullus(O), Stephen Elkington(LG),

Rachel Emmerson(G)

Our 96 point scorer was: Pippa Smart(Y)

With 31 runners we also had enough people to make a second team, which finished 11th, beating some clubs first teams!

Thank you to all juniors (and their parents) who came and ran for the club.

For full qualifying results, please click on the following link: http://www.logonline.org.uk/wp/

Next major junior event will be the Peter Palmer Junior Team Relays in September to be in the Lakes, this is an annual event aimed at club teams comprising orienteers from the M/W12 to M/W18 age classes. The race is run over six legs of differing lengths and difficulty, and each team must have at least two legs run by boys and two legs run by girls. To add to the excitement the race starts approximately ninety minutes before sunrise so that the first leg is run in the dark and the second at dawn.

I will be asking people if they are available in the next few weeks to run and stay over night in some form of accommodation to be confirmed. I hope to be able to make up two/three junior teams if possible.

Debbie Morse, OD Junior Squad Coordinator dizzy.ross@gmail.com

Yvette Baker Trophy Qualifier 2013

OD juniors had a close win in the YBT Qualifier on Saturday 18th May at the Leicester event held at Bradgate, scoring 895 points out of a maximum score of 899. This stems from winning 4 of the 8 classes on offer and having an abundance of second places (plus a whole lot of other good results). Each class winner scores 100 points with 99 for 2nd place, 98 for 3rd etc. The top nine OD scores summed to 4@100 + 5@99 = 895.

Here are the results summary from the LEI website:

Our 100 point scorers were: John Cherry (Y), Rhiannon Cope (O), Julie Emmerson (G) and Matthew Elkington (G)

Our 99 point scorers were: Pippa Smart (Y), Ella- Rose McCartney (LG),Stephen Elkington (LG), Nathan Lawson (G) and Harriet Lawson (G)

Thank you to all juniors (and their parents) who came and ran for the club, let's hope we can see you at the up and coming final in July.

For full qualifying results, please click on the following link http://www.leioc.org.uk/results/2013/bradgate13/YBT/team_yvette_baker_trophy_final.html

Please do check if you can come to the YBT final on Sunday 7th July and let me know as soon as possible, at dizzy.ross@gmail.com. We need as many juniors at this event as possible because our qualifier was quite a close call and there are some strong teams from other parts of the country too. More details will be issued nearer the time.

Details for this final will appear on the following website soon……… http://www.logonline.org.uk/wp/events-calendar/

Debbie Morse, OD Junior Squad Coordinator

dizzy.ross@gmail.com

Yvette Baker Trophy 2013 and coaching for OD Juniors,  written by Julie Emmerson

The Yvette Baker Trophy is the premier annual competition for juniors in all English and Welsh "O" clubs.  OD won this competition in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and was the runner-up in 2006, 2011 and 2012.  We hope to do well again this year but we need all club juniors from M/W10 to M/W18 to represent the club!  

Our regional qualifier is on Saturday 18th May in Leicestershire (we are not attending the West Midlands qualifier as a lot of our top juniors will be away that week-end). Nearly all juniors with limited orienteering experience will only need to run Yellow or Orange standard courses but this is where we struggled last year and we need more juniors this year!

To improve our chances of success there is intended to be a 2 hour coaching session for OD juniors in Hay Wood near Warwick (one of our best areas) on Sunday 12th May.  That event is still subject to obtaining permission to use the area but I expect it to go ahead.  More details will be emailed out as soon as I know.

Before that there will be some OD coaching  next Saturday at the Tudor Grange (Solihull) event that is advertised elsewhere on this website.  This will be useful for everyone who orienteers at White, Yellow or Orange standard.  Even though the area is easy, the techniques we all need to practice are the same no matter what the terrain and it will give you all the chance to improve your skills in an open area before using them in the trees of Hay Wood.

If you can get to Tudor Grange next Saturday the coaches Andy Emmerson and Chris Mackenzie will be pleased to see you.  If you have not done so already can you email your intention to come to  coaching@octavian-droobers.org please?

OD Junior Report, January 2013 Julie Emmerson

The 17^th November was the selection race for the World Schools Orienteering Championships 2013, to be held in Portugal in April, and OD were very successful. The KH8 girls’ team of Aimee Morse, Zoe Nicolson, Rachel Johnson, Rajani Murthy, Rhiannon Cope and Gursimran Kular were selected to send a team of 5 as the England senior girls’ school team. Harrison McCartney, also KH8, is part of the junior boys select team and Heather Rogers, Hamish Rogers and Julie Emmerson from Kenilworth School and Sports College are selected for the junior girls, senior boys and senior girls select teams respectively. As well as these 9 athletes, Sophie Kirk is going as a coach, Debbie Morse will accompany the KH8 girls and Mel Elkington is going as the Deputy Head of Delegation so the Droobers will be out there in force.

The day after the selection race was the British schools champs where there was more success for OD. There were two victories for Harrison McCartney, Yr10 boys, and Julie Emmerson, Yr12 girls, and Matt Elkington also made the podium with 2^nd place in Yr12 boys. There were also two team victories for Kenilworth School’s Yr12 girls’ team and Yr13 boys team. In the overall school results, Kenilworth School achieved 3^rd place while King Henry VIII took 7^th place.

The following weekend was the Junior Regional squads training weekend for 16 yr olds and Mel Elkington and Iain Embrey took 5 OD juniors from the West Midlands squad for a weekend of training in the Lakes. We got the opportunity to train on some great areas and we also took part in a night sprint relay around the grounds of Hawkshead Youth Hostel.

December began with the OD club champs and Alfie Bullus, Emily Moore and Rachel Emmerson retained their titles while Stephen Elkington and Daniel Kotecky also picked up trophies in the junior classes.

A week later was the Yvette Baker Trophy final. We won 3 out of the 8 classes with Ella-Rose McCartney, Harrison McCartney and Julie Emmerson winning their courses while Aimee Morse and Stephen Elkington both finished 3^rd. This helped OD to 2^nd place behind Bristol Orienteering Klub, our 8^th consecutive top 2 finish!

5 OD juniors will be travelling to Holland in March after being selected to represent England at Interland. Harrison McCartney, Matt Elkington, Nathan Lawson and Harriet Lawson are in the team while Aimee Morse is going as a travelling reserve.

Finally before Christmas, there was a West Midlands junior squad training session at Sutton Park on the 23^rd and there was a huge turnout from OD. We had the chance to practice being accurate in the green area and then go head to head in a noughts and crosses style orienteering game. The session finished with the traditional ‘Tinsel-O’.

We must thank Sheila Carey for raising £13 for the junior squad by charging 50p to have a photo with her Olympic torch at the OD Christmas relays. While I’m on the subject I’d like to congratulate Sheila on her MBE, a true inspiration to all the club’s juniors.