Congratulations to Barney Steventon-Barnes who has been selected to join the GB Talent squad South. The performance pathway for junior orienteers has been improved this year by having three squads across the country (South, North and Scotland) and this will lower the amount of travelling for squad members and coaches. Barney was selected through his performances at a number of selection races in 2021. These squads are a natural progression from the regional squads for talented juniors.
Paul Murgatroyd, the Programme Manager, said "We are delighted to be working with such a dedicated and experienced group of individuals and we look forward to the challenge of rolling out our successful Talent squad programme to an expanded number of young and gifted orienteers. It is our hope that by growing the programme in this way, we should be able to raise the standards of junior orienteering across the UK and lead to increased levels of competition on both the national and international stage. Following the difficulties of the past couple of seasons, we hope that an exciting and engaging winter programme will be delivered across these squads and we look forward to seeing the results of all this hard work in next spring's major races.
Barney was also selected to take part in the 2021 training camp, held this year in Scotland instead of Sweden (because of travel restrictions). His account of the training, both in the dune areas of the Moray coast and in the beautiful Glen Affric, will feature in a future edition of the club "Punch" magazine.