Niamh and Nick come out on Top

Update from Ivan:

The Nick and Niamh fan clubs had plenty to cheer about in Grannasen ski-centre today. Ireland's two Long distance finalists had great runs in front of the thousands of spectators. Niamh came home in a fantastic 34th place in her race. She put all her Trondheim training to the good and ran a clean and strong race. Coming through the arena with a very tough last loop of 1.5km she was in good shape and continued hard right to the end finishing in style to the delight of all her supporters. A large Irish contingency were in Trondheim for the event.

The 9.9km womens race was won by the unstoppable Swiss runner Simone Niggli who captured her 17th World champs gold medal.


Then it was the men's turn. With Nick one of the earlier starters we could follow his progress through the forest with the excellent television and tracking coverage. Nick too had a strong race and performed admirably in what will surely be the first of many World champ finals for him, coming home in 39th position.

The home favorite Olav Lundanes was eventual mens winner, the 23 year olds first gold.

View full results here

David Healy runs in the middle distance final on Saturday and Sunday sees the excitement of the Relays – The Irish relay teams will be announced today – watch this space.

WOC 2010

Things are really beginning to hot up in the Irish camp at WOC. Sunday saw Nick compete in the Sprint finals to finish a fantastic 41st position. Two other team members missed out on qualifying by the narrowest of margins.

Monday was the turn of David Healy to impress as he qualified comfortably in the Middle Distance.

Tuesday saw the stars shine bright again as all Irish runners pulled out their best performances for the Long Distance qualifiers. Once again, Nick stormed around the course to finish in 14th position, seeing him through to his second final this week. Perhaps the performance of the day came from Niamh O'Boyle who fought hard throughtout the course to make up for missing out on the Sprint Final by a mere 9 seconds, and finished in a remarkable 12th position. Niamh had over a minute to spare. Our second Irish lady also provided us with an amazing run. Ciara Largey ran strong and smoothly throughout the course and was disappointed to miss out by just 16 seconds. A bitter blow to be so close in a long distance discipline. However, 17th is a great result at this level.

Andrew Quin finished in 24th position in his heat, with an impressive time, while David finished in 26th. You can catch a re-play of their routes here.

Don't forget to tune on Saturday to see Dave run in the middle distance final and tomorrow to catch Nick and Niamh battle it out amongst the biggest names in the sport in the long distance.

This has to be the most successful WOC tour Ireland has ever had. The relays should be highly entertaining also - they take place on Sunday

Ireland Success at WOC

Nick once again did BOC and Ireland proud as he stormed through the Sprint Qualification at WOC in an impressive 10th position. He became Ireland's first WOC finalist since Andrew Quin in Denmark 2006. This is an incredible achievement for Nick, who is the youngest member of the WOC team. Both Niamh and Shea missed out on qualification by a matter of seconds, a bitter sweet feeling for both. Had they been drawn in different heats, both the O'Boyle's would have sailed into the final. Nick finished in 41st position in the Sprint Final held a couple of hours after the qualification.

Today see's Rosalind Hussey, David Healy, Neil Dobbs and Andrew Quin take part in the Middle Distance qualifications, with the long distance heats to take place tomorrow. The Irish Elite Team have started this year's WOC with such force that the next few days hold lots of excitement and anticipation for one of the best year's for Irish orienteering at this level.

Follow the team live and keep up-to-date with the action on the team's blog. Nick runs again in tomorrow.

Women’s team
Rosalind Hussey: Sprint, Middle and Relay
Susan Lambe: Sprint
Ciara Largey: Long and Relay
Niamh O’Boyle: Sprint, Long and Relay

Men’s team
Neil Dobbs: Middle
David Healy: Middle and Long
Shane Lynch: Sprint
Seamus O’Boyle: Sprint
Andrew Quin: Middle and Long
Nicolas Simonin: Sprint and Long