Nocturnal Navigation

In order to explore the international dimension to the great night-O debate (but actually to avoid annihilation by the CNOC orienteering machine at Ballinastoe) four of us travelled to Mytchett, Surrey, for the 2009 British Night Orienteering Championships. The forests south of London are near perfect for orienteering; open and runnable with complex contour detail and undulating terrain. Mytchett is also criss-crossed with a multitude of tracks, some little ones from mountain bikers and some gargantuan ones gouged out by military vehicles. Recent wet weather had made the churned up forest roads into tank traps that were best avoided, sometimes forcing me to take a cross country route against my path-preferring night-O instincts. But the bramble-free open forest was a joy to run through.

The turnout of 250 on a cold, clear, Saturday night was unusually low for a British Championship event, however it should be noted that they, like us, have a 16+ age rule for night-O. I asked the organisers why the event was held on a Saturday and not a Tuesday and was met with a bemused blank stare.

I did an unscientific survey while waiting for my start slot: of the 27 people around me, three had small hillwalker-style headtorches (about 60 lumens), one had an interesting looking home made job, one woman had a dual-beam system that I think she unscrewed from her mountain bike, and the other 22 had the ever contentious (in Ireland) Silva or Mila 20-watt halogen Night-O headlamp (about 200 lumens).

The popularity of the 20-watt night-O headlamp was illustrated by the fact that the Ultrasport shop at the event was sold out of them before most competitors had even arrived. It was also interesting to note that modern high-power LED systems were in a very small minority at the event. One member of our group pushed the light bar even higher with a brand new 550-lumen Silva Alpha system that lights up the terrain by setting fire to the surrounding vegetation.

The courses were very well planned and challenging, testing our technique to the limit; even tiny lapses of concentration were punished with several minutes of tricky relocation. Proper international night-O is not dumbed-down for the lack of light or for the competitors’ choice of equipment; it has exactly the same level of technical difficulty as daylight-O and there is also little difference in course length. The men’s elite course was won in 6.9 minutes per kilometre.

Úna May of 3ROC was the star of our party, winning the W40 class (but not the British title; she’s still one of our own). Horror of horrors, Úna had a problem with the high power bulb in her headtorch and had to join the ranks of the photon-deprived with a mere 100 lumens, but even this impediment did not stop her magnificent navigation skills shining like a beacon through the darkness. The Lagan Valley junior development squad was also there, spending their UK Lottery money on shiny new Silva headlamps and compasses. Already a formidable force to be reckoned with, they performed very well in the M/W16/18 classes. Maybe we should arrange a night-time shoot-out between LVO and CNOC? He who has the biggest torch wins…

A great orienteering weekend was topped off 14 hours later on Sunday morning with a second very enjoyable run (orienteering, not hillrunning) at the nearby Yateley & Minley Concorde Chase event.

Here are the results of the event and here are the courses and routes on Routegadget.

By the way, in his 2009 event calendar I think John McCullough has found the ideal solution to everyone’s night-O concerns; it is possible to orienteer through the night with no need of a headlamp at this event: http://tinyurl.com/anqlau, the perfect politically correct compromise solution.

Marcus Geoghegan, January 2009

Editor's note: There is still some night-O to be had at home. It's a great way to sharpen up your navigation and add a new challenge to your orienteering. Check out the Fixtures List on the IOA page. In Leinster we've had two night events in Wicklow and there's one at Tara in Co. Meath on 1st February, plus Killiney Hill, Belfield and Phoenix Park to come. And who says that orienteering doesn't help your geography? Why shouldn't Wicklow and Meath feature in the Dublin by Night series?

2009 Orienteering Preview

2009 marks the 40^th anniversary of the start of Irish orienteering: why not mark the occasion by spreading your wings a bit?

A strong Euro, weak dollar, weak pound, recession: whatever the economic climate, now is the time to start planning or fantasising about your orienteering year. If you have never taken an orienteering trip abroad, it’s something every active orienteer should do at some stage and it may become part of your annual orienteering plan. It will bring you to interesting places, allow you to do something you enjoy and provide enough free time for non-orienteers in the party to do things they enjoy too.

Even if you don’t stray from Irish shores, you can take in multi-day events like the Irish Championships in Donegal or the Shamrock O-Ringen in Killarney. Without travelling too far, you could take in the Jan Kjellstrom in Northumbria at Easter or the Scottish 6-Day in Perthshire in August.

Every year the excellent CompassSport magazine (http://www.blogger.com/www.compasssport.co.uk) publishes a review of many of the events to feature in the coming twelve months and you are referred to this for a more comprehensive list.

Another good place to look for international orienteering information is the website "World of O".

If you have been to any interesting events abroad that you would recommend, please send in details and I’ll include them.

Now read on …

Ireland has the usual Championships plus the Shamrock O-Ringen in 2009. The Leinster Championships, run by Fingal, are on April 4^th at Rossmore forest in Co. Monaghan, an area which has not been used for 20 years or more. Make a two-day of it with the LVO event on Saturday 3^rd at Crosmurrin, Co. Fermanagh.

The Irish Championships on open mountain in south Donegal on May 2-4 at Lough Eske. Closing date (cd) 18/3, 1/4. There is a proposal to run a Northern Ireland Sprint Championships on Friday 1^st May, so you could maybe manage 4 days orienteering on the trot. Later that month, the Shamrock O-Ringen is based at Killarney on May 30-June 1 with events at the Black Lakes, Crohane Mountain and Muckross, three great areas with a range of terrains.

If Trail Orienteering is your speciality, the Irish Trail-O 2-Day Championships are listed on the IOA fixtures list as being at Castleward near Strangford, Co. Down on April 25-26, run – of course – by LVO. For information on Trail Orienteering, see here.

The Setanta Rogaine, a 6 and 24 hour score event for pairs, moves back from midsummer to 18^th July in Wicklow.

On September 12-13, the NIOA hosts the BOF Junior Inter-Regional Championships which may be tied in with open events for the rest of us: if not, you could offer to help, or at least go along to see some of the future stars in action, while the Senior Home International comes to Fermanagh on October 3-4.

The October Bank Holiday weekend sees the Munster Championships at Ballydavid, in the Glen of Aherlow, Co. Tipperary on the 25^th, staged by Cork O and the major events of the year finish with the Connacht Championships on 29^th November, venue to be confirmed.

Britain

The big events in Britain include the Jan Kjellstrom festival at Easter and the Scottish 6-Day in August. There is a National Event in the Lake District the Sunday after Easter which you could take in as part of a JK trip.

April 10 -13: JK in the Northumbrian Hills. Sprint in Newcastle City, 2 days individual at Kyloe (JK85 anyone?) and Relay. Trail-O also. http://www.blogger.com/www.jk2009.org.uk Closing dates 31/1/09, 28/2/09, 20/3/09. (If you really like planning ahead, the JK will be in Northern Ireland at Easter 2011 …)

2-8; Scottish 6-days, Tayside with event centre at Perth racecourse. Easily accessible from Edinburgh or Glasgow. 6 days with a rest day in the middle. High quality orienteering in a relaxed atmosphere.

The major British events for 2009 can be found at www.bof.org.uk:

Jan 24 British Night Championships: Aldershot
Feb 14-15 Regional Event & Welsh Championships: Newport
Feb 21 Scottish Night Orienteering Championship: Aboyne
Feb 22 National event & Southern Championships & Interland: nr Beaconsfield
Feb 28-Mar 1BRITISH ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS: New Forest
Apr 10-13 JAN KJELLSTROM ORIENTEERING FESTIVAL: Newcastle
Apr 19 National event & Northern Championships: Ulverston
Apr 25-26 Lincolnshire Bomber Weekend: Lincoln
May 3 British Elite Championships – Long: Forest of Dean
May 3 The "Mike Nelson BOKTrot" National event: Forest of Dean
May 9 British Elite Sprint Championships: Nottingham
May 10 British Elite Championships – Middle: Loughborough
May 23 National event & Scottish Championships: Kingussie
Aug 2-8 Scottish 6 Days Regional Events: Tayside
Sep 5-6 Junior Home International: Newborough, Anglesea
Sep 12-13 Junior Inter Regional Championships: N Ireland
Sep 12 National event: Skipton
Oct 3-4 Senior Home International: Fermanagh area
Nov 14-15 Veterans Home International: Longshaw/Eyam
Dec 13 National event & Midlands Championships: Cannock

France
Easter in Eastern France? April 11-13: Easter in Kaysersberg, near Colmar. 2 x Classic, Chasing Start. C/D 25/1, 8/3.

On July 11-13 there’s a 3-day in the sandy, rocky forests of Fontainebleau, south of Paris. See here. It's followed on Bastille Day by an event called "The 77" including a course with 77 controls, 2 x 7.7. km loops, in Seine & Marne, Départment no. 77.

Scandinavia
The longest running and best attended multi-day events tend to be in Scandinavia, the home of orienteering.

The 61st Jukola overnight 7-person relay in Finland - the biggest relay competition in the world, with more than 1200 teams running - on June 13-14 (jukola2009.com) and the Junior World MTBO Championships (incorporating the European Champs and the European Youth & Masters Champs) at Birkerod in Denmark on June 22-28 may appeal.

On July 18-24, the O-Ringen (Swedish 5-Day) is based at Eksjo in Smaland, southern Sweden. It's is no longer that much more expensive than Ireland (unlike Norway) and a trip to the O-Ringen need not break the bank. They are unlikely to repeat last year’s attendance of 24000 but the events are all close together and cyclable or bussable from the event centre.

The week before, you could squeeze in the Finnish 5-Day at Hameenlinna (July 12-17), not too far from Ryanair's Tampere.

Italy
This is a busy year in Italy, with the Junior World Championships on July 6-12. On September 5-9 there's the Puglia 5-days in southern Italy, with 3 days of Forest and 2 days of cities, http://www.orienteering.it/. You could also run in the highlands around Asiago, in wonderful prealpine forests, on 16-17 May at the Highlands Open.

Mid-November attracts hundreds of orienteers to a street-O in Venice which is reportedly a unique event. In 2008 it was on 16^th November and was attended by a group from Ireland. See http://www.blogger.com/www.orivenezia.it.

Other Europe
Some of the most memorable events I have run in have been in Switzerland. This year they are hoping to capture some of the magic of the mountains again, with a 6-day at Muotatal which unfortunately clashes with the Scottish 6-Day.

2-8: Swiss O-week, Muotatal, south of Zurich. 6 days with a rest day in the middle., http://www.blogger.com/www.swiss-o-week.ch. Event includes a town sprint, short distance, three in pre-alpine terrain and an alpine long distance to finish. It sounds a bit like the superb 2006 Swiss O-week in Zermatt.

At the end of May there’s a 3-Day at Breda in Holland (May 29 - 1st June) with extra events sometimes involving beer drinking and the like, http://www.blogger.com/www.holland-ol.nl

Spain & Portugal have a range of events, particularly attractive in the winter and spring, like the 2^nd Madeira Orienteering Festival (Jan 28-30) with 3 middle distance races and a night sprint.(http://www.blogger.com/www.mof2009.com)

If you want warmer weather, try the 23 - 30: Portugal O summer 6 day in July, Cantanhede, Beira, 100km south of Porto. http://www.blogger.com/www.ptosummer.com Runnable forested sand dunes, warm weather - not too far north of the WMOC08 terrain.

August 11 -16: The 5 Days of Spain. Up by the coast in the North, based just south of Santander. http://www.blogger.com/www.ocincodias.com/noticias/

Eastern Europe
10-12: Prague Easter 2009. Kokorinsko nature reserve, 45 - 75km north of Prague. Expect tricky sandstone terrain and cheap beer within 100m of the finish line at each stage. C/D 1/3, 29/3. www.dkp.orienteering.cz/pe

August - 9: Bohemia 5 Day, Novy Bor, Czech Republic. 90km N of Prague. Same area as used for the World Masters in 1998 - and winners from then can compete free of charge! www.ok-bor.cz/bohemia2009/. Maybe a cheaper holiday alternative to Switzerland and the Scottish. C/D 30/4, 30/6.

You might like to tie this in with the World Orienteering Championships at Miskolc in Hungary from August 18 to 23. Though aimed at the Elites, the WOC welcomes ordinary orienteers too: spectators help to make the atmosphere and to make the event financially viable. You can run in the Hungaria Cup from the 21^st to 23^rd. (http://www.blogger.com/www.woc2009.hu)

North America
August : 2008 Canadian Orienteering Championships in Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Manitoba, http://www.blogger.com/www.coc2009.com. There is a 2 day the weekend before

Elsewhere

Greenland June 24-27 Arctic Midnight. Certainly a different place for a holiday.

Australia
April 10-13: Australian 3 days. Launceston, Tasmania. Day 1 is a World Ranking Event. 4 more events up to the 19th make it a 10 day feast of orienteering.

In September the World Masters O Champs 2009 is at Lithgow, New South Wales, Entry fees are a bit pricey as it is part of the World Masters Games and you have to pay their accreditation fee too.

Israel
The World Mountain BikeO-Championships are at Belt Shemesh, in Israel on August 9-16. The International O-Federation are watching the political situation in Israel and will decide if they need to change the plans for the event closer to the date.

Turkey
One of the most unusual events this year will be the Istanbul 5-Day on November 4-8. It includes a night sprint event in the Grand Bazaar, with a map on two levels: green control circles on the upper floor, red on the ground floor! Last year the 5th event had more than 600 runners.

After that, you're on your own! Good luck with your plans and please write about it for TIO when you come home.

Computers in Orienteering: December 6th 2008

Orienteering and computers are inextricably linked, from mapping, through course planning, to results processing. A recent IOA seminar dealt with many facets of the issue ...

Marcus Geoghegan of the Irish Orienteering Association organised a Computers in Orienteering workshop in the Heritage Hotel near Killenard, County Laois. The outcome of the tightly packed, regimentally controlled schedule was a recognition that our knowledge sharing must continue and improve, as well as a pile of suggestions about how we can get the most out of the technology that we use.

Martin Flynn started the day off with a discussion about his program, Ór, presenting and demonstrating the best way to use the program and leading a practical session that stressed:

• the keyboard shortcuts and reading the help menu

• the need to make sure that SportIdent units are correctly programmed and synchronised

• the importance of ticking “rented” for rented SI cards and the competitor archive problems that failure to do this can cause

• the competitor statistics that are available during and after the event

• how to handle SI card reusability, a key feature of the latest version of Ór

• how to upload results and how competitor information (name, club etc) is harvested into the online competitor database

• how an orienteer can change his own club and class details

• how results are automatically loaded into splitsbrowser and how they can be easily loaded into winsplits online

Future plans for Ór might include the handling of relays & multi-day events and the reading of start controls, but Martin needs a lot of feedback and suggestions about what features we would like to see.

It was stressed that organisers must import a blank map JPEG and the courses file (from OCAD or PurplePen) into Ór before the event so that a RouteGadget is automatically produced when the results are published. Competitors can then draw in their route in Routegadget using a mouse. Those with a GPS watch can also upload their GPS track and they can all replay their routes against each other

Clubs were asked never post results or start-lists on the Orienteering eGroup and to use links to the results pages and club websites instead.

A short discussion about orienteering.ie followed, emphasising the need for all orienteers and clubs to send in fresh information to the TIO blog and eGroup. Martin demonstrated how simple it was for a club to get a personalised club-specific fixture list and club-specific results for inclusion in their club website via an RSS feed.

Fachtna Healy then discussed how CorkO handle online event entries and PayPal on the Shamrock O Ringen website. He demonstrated how a well-built system gives extremely useful up-to-the-minute to information to organisers and planners, such as the entries by class and course, and he showed how the CorkO system automatically produces competitor files that can be loaded into Ór. The workshop unanimously agreed that we need to build on this work to create an Irish Orienteering online event entry system that is available to all clubs.

Fachtna then led an interesting discussion about how to Laser print (as opposed to inkjet) maps from the boot of a car.

Brian Power discussed Sportident hardware and the responsibility of the event controller to ensure that everything is synchronised. SI TimeMaster and checking the time via the LEDs on the rear of the units was demonstrated. Unusual occurrences, such as a competitor punching the finish station twice, were highlighted. The IOA SportIdent northern and southern inventories were listed.

Brian then talked about map printing and his experiences of getting Snap Printing to purchase a stock of Pretex waterproof paper; the discussion also covered people’s experiences of map printing services from Print5 (UK) and Sport Software (Germany).

Aine Joyce then electrified the audience with a presentation on how to get reliable 220v AC power at an event, where we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of car batteries, leisure batteries, cigarette lighters, generators, battery powered printers and 9-cell laptop batteries in a lively debate.

Stuart Scott demonstrated IOLeague both from a competitor’s and a league organiser’s point of view. IOLeague is based on a fair scoring system that uses standard deviations and can be used not just for large leagues like the Munster and Leinster, but also for club and junior leagues. The forum agreed that there is great scope for expanding IOLeague, not least for inter-club leagues and to make it the basis of a National Ranking system.

Tony Doolin demonstrated the sophisticated Orienteering game called Catching Features, with an emphasis on how to convert an OCAD map into a Catching Features map file. For example, OCAD does not have a concept of slope direction, but Catching Features needs to know if a competitor is running uphill or downhill. Catching Features is a very effective 3D orienteering simulation and it even has online events where competitors from around the world compete via the Internet. The forum agreed that it would be great publicity for Irish orienteering to create a model Irish Orienteering Catching Features map and have it available online.

Pat Healy, the OCAD maestro who can sign his name using OCAD Bezier curves, gave a well researched and detailed demonstration of how to use OCAD’s course setting features. He stressed the need to get the scale and map print areas correct and showed how the control descriptions can be overlaid on the map in a variety of sophisticated ways. It was universally agreed that we need to get Pat to run some OCAD master-classes for Irish Orienteering – watch this space in 2009.

Gerard Butler then gave a very smooth demonstration of PurplePen, an alternative to OCAD for course setting, that covered creating a new course, choose the map file, choosing map scale, zooming, control placement, course drawing and control descriptions.

The choice between OCAD and PurplePen is depends on personal preference but one suggestion was to use OCAD for sophisticated events (but be aware that OCAD 9 Demo only supports 5 courses) and use Purple Pen for standard events e.g. interfirm league event.

Marcus Geoghegan then discussed other SportIdent software including Autodownload, OE2003, SIME, Helga, Orienteering Organiser, SiCard Reader and Ór’s ability to auto-send punch information to an online database. In choosing any event software you need to make sure to that the software understands our colour-coded concept where the same class can be on many courses in the same event, something that is unusual internationally.

Marcus then briefly demonstrated two performance analysis programs, QuickRoute and WinSplits Pro. Quickroute is used with GPS tracks to extract a lot of useful information about individual legs and is used by the Swedish international squads as a performance analysis tool. Winsplits Pro, the sister product to Winsplits Online, has literally hundreds of features; Marcus showed how it can be used to replay a race, analyse your performance compared to “superman”, how to see pack formation, the percentage advantage gained from following, and how to analyse your time-loss.

Finn Van Geldern had been scheduled to discuss orienteering video publication but was unfortunately unable to be there.

A huge amount of information was shared at the event and there was agreement on the need to keep up the momentum and develop some of the systems that were discussed, and to make the forum an annual event.

We are indebted to the following presenters without whom this event would not have happened: Fachtna Healy; Brian Power; Aine Joyce; Stuart Scott; Tony Doolin; Pat Healy; Gerard Butler and Marcus Geoghegan; with thanks to Ailbhe Creedon and Fiona O’Riordan for the record of the day’s proceedings and to Pat Healy for his encouragement and support, and to Harold White for the original suggestion to run the workshop. But above all we would like to thank Martin Flynn for his immense contribution to the event and for the hours of preparation that he put into it. All presenters received a complimentary 4GB memory stick and Martin was also given a €75 outdoor sports gift voucher as a small token of our appreciation.

Attendees (31 people from 14 clubs)
3ROC: Ger Butler, Lindie Naughton; Ajax: Martin Flynn, Marcus Geoghegan; BOC: Sharon Lucey, Patrick Murphy; Boru: Ed Niland; CNOC: Bernie O'Boyle, Pat Healy; CorkO: Rob McEvoy, John Scannell, Ailbhe Creedon, Fiona O'Riordan, Brian Flannelly, Fachtna Healy; Fingal: Ian Murphy; GEN: Laurence Quinn, Aine Joyce, David Quinn, Stephen Doorly, Mary Healy; GMITO: Kevin O'Callaghan; LVO: Harold White; Setanta: Roxanne White, Terry Lawless, Brian Power, Tony Doolin; UCCO: Kieran Beausang; UCDO: Stuart Scott; WatO: Andrew Cox, Hugh Dobbs.

Ailbhe Creedon, December 2008

Home Internationals 2008

Scotland regained the title at the 2008 Senior Home International on the 25th-26th October in Perthshire with the relays at Dalnamein on Saturday and the individual event at Craig a Barns on Sunday, writes team member Kieran Rocks of LVO (on left).
Unfortunately the lack of a full Irish team at this year's event (particularly the attendance of only one M/W20) meant that there was only one competitive Irish relay team fielded, thereby ensuring the wooden spoon position even before the event began (barring a lot of non-finishers among the other national teams).

The following orienteers, managed by Fionne Austin, represented Ireland at the event:
W21 - Aislinn Austin, Fionne Austin (both CorkO), Ciara Largey (FermO), Ruth Lynam, Niamh O'Boyle (both CNOC), Faye Pinker (CorkO).
M21 - Niall Bourke, Shane Lynch (both CorkO), Declan McGrellis (LVO), Marcus Pinker (CorkO), Kieran Rocks (LVO).
M20 - Fiach O'Rourke (Fingal).

The relays were held in some fairly wet and windy conditions, although the rain did stop for a period and the forest provided shelter.
Dalnamein is a forest divided by an uncrossable river with open moorland on 3 sides, next to the A9 main road. The courses were based on a bridge over the river with a longer part firstly in the eastern half of the forest and moorland before returning past the start/finish area again for a shorter and faster finishing loop to the west. The only Irish competitive team saw Shane off first, before handing on to Fiach with Marcus running the last leg. Shane had a solid enough run, coming in ahead of two Welsh teams. However, Fiach had a bit of a problem with one of the controls so even though Marcus was able to pick off one of the Welsh teams again, they didn't score any points for their efforts. The other male team (Niall, Kieran and Declan) had a couple of mispunches and controls not registering, but the result was irrelevant anyway.
The female teams had quite solid runs and recorded the 5th (Aislinn, Faye & Niamh) and 8th (Ciara, Fionne & Ruth) best times, although again not being classified.

Overall Scotland had claimed 1st, 2nd and 5th in the men's and 1st, 3rd and 8th in the women's to claim victory.

The weather called for a quick dart back to the cars after running and on to some hot drinks and food in Pitlochry. All of the national teams were housed in Aberfeldy where the lasagne dinner was devoured on the Saturday evening. The O Mountain Marathon crisis/farce was the focus of much attention in the hostel lounge and the pub, but even Shane at his most charming could not persuade the pub landlord to turn on the news - "we'll all leave if you don't turn it on" didn't work ... so we left.

Sunday's individual event was in much dryer but colder conditions on a tough and technical area with every sort of terrain, changes of direction and leg length. Reigning Irish Champion Marcus had a great 3rd place finishing within a minute of the winner due to a steady race, particularly in the 2nd half while others made mistakes, while among the women both Niamh and Ciara claimed top 10 placings on an enjoyable course.

Scotland completed a clean sweep with M21 being won by Ewan McCarthy and W21 by Mhairi MacKenzie.

There was a final team gathering at the Birnam Arts Centre for feeding and drinking before we split up for the journey home with the Irish-bound flying and the exiles having a long trip back down south.

Thanks to Murray Cowan for getting the selection off the ground late in the day and to Fionne for taking on the managerial role. Hopefully next year back on home soil again in Fermanagh we will have a full selection of competitors and be able to do more justice to orienteering in Ireland.

Full results are available here with Routegadget of the individual here.

Read Andy Kitchin's account of the weekend from the Scottish perspective here.

JHI 2008

The Junior Home International took place on September 19-20 at Ainsdale Dunes near Southport in Lancashire. In the closest JHI so far, the final result between Ireland and Wales came down to the last two runners. Unfortunately for us victory went to Wales.
England 128, Scotland 114, Wales 60, Ireland 58
Notable Irish performances were Áine Mc Cann 2nd W16 and Jack Millar 3rd M14.
The Irish juniors displayed pride, courage and determination to show their country in the best possible light. Their attitude should provide optimism for the future of our sport - let's hope they can carry this through to senior level!
With every year that passes the Irish juniors appear to believe in themselves more and more. Without doubt we will soon lose our customary bottom slot.
Thank you and well done to all.

The team was:
W14. Niamh Corbett, Dearbhla Knight, Cliona McCullough, Deirdre Ryan.
W16. Aine McCann, Andrea Stefkova.
W18. Fiona Hill, Hannah Maxwell, Katarina Stefkova.
M14. Jack Millar, Eoin McCullough, Alex Simonin, Mark Stephens.
M16. Cillin Corbett, Sean Knight, Colm Moran, Conor Short.
M18. Niall Ewen, Alan Lane, Padraig Mulry, Kevin O'Boyle.

Greg Mc Cann
JHI Team Manager

Full Results here.

Irish Results here.

More photos here.

Veteran Home International
The VHI was on home ground on 4th-5th October, combined with the Northern Ireland Championships.
The individual race on Saturday at Magilligan brought the runners out into the open dunes into the teeth of gale force winds and rain. Sundays relays at Woodburn, close to Carrickfergus, was a more conventional, if brambly, forest.
Despite wins for Ruth Lynam in W50L and Steven Linton in M40L, the finishing order was Scotland 269, England 267, Wales 224 and Ireland 130.
For a report from Scotland's Martin Dean, see here.
For NIOC results see here.

Solid runs at European Youth Champs

The 7th European Youth Championships (EYOC) were held in Switzerland last weekend. EYOC is becoming a popular and prestigious competition for European 16’s and 18’s, 29 countries attended this year with a total of 370 competitors. Ruth Lynam reports ...

The Irish team members were M18’s Niall Ewen, Alan Lane, Padraig Mulry, Kevin O’Boyle, and M16’s Seán Knight, Colm Moran & Conor Short. For Padraig & the M16’s this was their first International selection event. They were led by Ruth Lynam & Darren Burke.
The 450 or so attendance - runners & leaders, were organised with (mostly) exemplary Swiss efficiency. The food was good & plentiful. The afternoons were sunny but early morning fog kept the temperature down & the running conditions were excellent. The rising mists, autumnal forests, & white crags of the Jura Mountains made a beautiful backdrop for those who had time to look.

On Thursday the team arrived in time to do the model event in delightfully runnable mature forest with very good visibility & lots of paths. The terrain for the Long & Relay on Friday & Saturday was similar, but decidedly more overgrown though still passable. The Long required a mix of skills, using contour detail & vegetation as well as untangling the paths. Kevin O’Boyle in M18 had the best Irish run coming in 59^th out of 106 runners, and the M16s on the whole ran steady races, Conor coming in fastest, 67^th of 96.

The Relay area was similar but flatter, good fast relay terrain. Sean ran a good first leg to set the M16 team up for 19^th place, ahead of the Danes, among others. Niall on the last leg had the best run of the M18s.

There was some Irish interest among the higher placings. Emma Klingenberg, whose mother is from Northern Ireland, had a convincing win in the Long, & anchored the Danish W16s home first in the Relay, and Severi Kymäläinen’s Finnish team were 5^th in M18 relay.

The Sprint on Sunday was in Solothurn. Darren & I were not allowed visit the competition zone in the reportedly beautiful baroque city, & the juniors brought back no descriptions, but we did see the dramatic Finish area. The run-in followed what must have been a wide moat below high city walls, & the race featured a dramatic run-past along the ramparts overlooking the Finish area. Kevin put in a very good run here to take 39^th place, just 1min 40sec down on M18 winner Kristian Jones of Great Britain.

Sprint & Relay are not Irish strong points as there are so few opportunities to practice, so this was a terrific performance by Kevin. All the Irish juniors put in real effort & showed great enthusiasm, & on the whole ran good controlled races keeping any errors small. With experience they can improve at Relay & Sprint, and learn to race assertively on strange terrain.

Results in brief below. Full results are on the EYOC website http://www.eyoc2008.ch/dyn/eyoc/results/

or better but in German at

http://www.swiss-orienteering.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=33

Some pictures at http://irishjuniorsquad52.fotopic.net/c1595509.html

Ruth Lynam

Results in brief
Long
M16 6.9km 290m. 96 entries
1 Jan Petrzela CZE 41:27, 67 Conor Short IRL 59:07, 75 Sean Knight IRL 60:22, 81 Colm Moran IRL 64:48.

M18 8.5km 375m. 106 entries
1 Matthias Kyburz SWI 53:28, 59 Kevin O’Boyle IRL 69:08, 85 Alan Lane IRL 78:11, 95 Niall Ewen IRL 87:15, 100 Padraig Mulry IRL 102:17.

Relay
M16 6.7km 150m/7.1km 180m/6.7km 150m. 24 teams.
1 Russia 2:01:59, 19 Ireland 2:43:55 - Sean Knight 47:01, Conor Short 56:22, Colm Moran 60:22.

M18 7.9km 230m/8.9km 230m/7.9km 230m. 27 teams
1 Estonia 2:15:17, 23 Ireland 3:13:21 - Kevin O’Boyle 57:39, Alan Lane 79:39, Niall Ewen 56:03.

Sprint
M16 2.4km. 96 entries
1 Christoph Prunsch GER 11:22, 80 Sean Knight 13:42, 83 Conor Short 13:59, 90 Colm Moran 14:49.

M18 2.6km. 106 entries
1 Kristian Jones GBR 12:05, 39 Kevin O’Boyle IRL 13:45, 89 Niall Ewen IRL 15:41, 92 Alan Lane IRL 15:52, Padraig Mulry IRL mp.

(PS The title of this report was chosen by JMcC, not Ruth, and is not an endorsement for Arret, Imodium or any other such product!)

Dublin technical training experiment

It’s time for some technical training.
David Healy is running four technical training sessions on Wednesday evenings at Three Rock Wood, starting on 22nd October. Anyone who is a reasonably competent orienteer can come and will benefit: once the clocks go back next Sunday (26th) it should be good training for Night-O. Note **The later sessions have moved to Saturday mornings**

Wed 22^nd October – Three Rock Wood.

Wed 29^th October – Three Rock Wood.

Saturday 8thNovember – Three Rock Wood. 10 am

Saturday 15^th November – Three Rock Wood. 10 am

Event Format - skills training (there will be different exercises each week)
Start time - 6:00pm Wednesdays, 10 am Saturdays
No signposts
Contact - davidbreadmaker@gmail.com
Grid ref - O 171 240
Car park: The same car park as the league event onSunday 19^th October. Find location map here.

This training is free of charge. It is going to be provided by myself to get an idea of who in Dublin wants to train their skills and how often they’d be interested in training. If there is a good turnout I think there could be some more training arranged in the future, Saturday mornings would be a better time. Or is it? It depends on who comes out to this experiment and voices their opinion on what training they’d wish to receive. If you cannot make the Wednesday trainings but are very interested, please show the interest by getting in contact with me through email.
Please note that this is not an introduction to orienteering, beginners will not be catered for. It is for intermediates and advanced. However I would encourage beginners to come along anyway and I could explain some stuff to you. Since the training is free you might as well give it a shot. Please email me if you are at a beginner level so I can be prepared.
I’d like to thank 3ROC for the use of their map for this training experiment. Hopefully I’ll see some enthusiastic orienteers on Wednesday. Get out to the first one as the light is fading very quickly!!

David Healy
Great Eastern Navigators (club trainer)

Junior European Cup, Belgium, 31st August - 1 September

Six Irish Juniors ran at the Junior European Cup in Belgium at the beginning of the month, accompanied by leaders David Healy and Ruth Lynam. Nick Simonin was out of action due to illness, so the team was: M20 Ruairi Short, Colm Hill, Fiach O'Rourke, and M18 Alan Lane, Kevin O'Boyle, Niall Ewen.
Based in Arlon, on the Luxembourg border, the terrain was generally flat forest with a few steep-sided valleys, intricately mapped vegetation, and myriads of charcoal-burning circles & tree stumps. Apart from a couple of route choice legs among the valleys, the navigation relied largely on compass work, counting off paths, and interpreting vegetation changes near the controls - the straight route was nearly always best.
The competition consisted of Middle Distance on Saturday, Long on Sunday and Relay on Monday. Switzerland, France, Czech Republic & Russia hogged the prizegiving in the individual events. The turnout was poor though - only 12 countries attended, and the standard was very high - the Irish results should be judged by relative times rather than by placings. In general the Irish – and notably the inexperienced M18s Alan, Kevin & Niall - ran well-controlled races, not error-free but keeping time losses small and relocating very well. Fiach fell foul of Emit in the Middle Distance, and Ruairi mispunched in the Long, redeeming himself somewhat with a very good run in the Relay.
The Relay provided the most excitement. The terrain was similar to that of the previous two races, with the addition of a small very technical contour area which caught out lots of the best teams. Austria & Germany surprised everyone including probably themselves by taking 1st & 2nd in the Mens' Relay. From the Irish point of view Colm, Kevin & Niall set up a suspense-filled final leg against Spain. Full results are here.

Ruth Lynam.

Niall Ewen adds ...
The 2008 Junior European Cup was held in the spacious forests surrounding the city of Arlon in southern Belgium. The team consisted of Ruairi Short, Colm Hill and Fiach O’Rourke running M20 and Niall Ewen, Kevin O’Boyle and Alan Lane (M18), all under the watchful eyes of Ruth Lynam and David Healy.

Receiving a telephone call while still in bed at 5:50 on Friday morning announcing the car is waiting outside, and fully believing that I had another hour before I had to go, is always fun but it was decided that some of us were already working on Belgium time.
After a short hop to Brussels Charleroi we drove to Neufchateau about 30 km north of Arlon where it was possible to stay in a sports centre that night and collect training maps.
We woke early on Saturday morning and drove to Arlon and the Middle Distance event.
At this point it should be mentioned that the maps consisted of about 1500 tree stumps marked “x” and an equal number of charcoal burning platforms marked “o”, wide contours, every shade of vegetation and one shoe-stealing fence just before the run in. This required a completely different thought process and approach to routes (mainly straight through everything).
The accommodation was in the grounds of a sports centre in six-bed chalets, food was spot on - mainly pastas and fruit. A free pool sealed the deal and provided a cool place to pass the day post-race.
The long distance was, well, …. long and the temperature was pretty high. That night I woke to see one of the squad members (who will remain unnamed) leaving the chalet and after sleepwalking into the Czech chalet woke to find one of its occupants staring at him, so, dazed and confused, he ran back into what he thought was the Irish chalet, only to awake to the sound of two of the JEC organisers talking, but third time he returned to our chalet.
Day three and we arrived at the relay passing signs for army tanks in the forest. Teams were, Team 1 Fiach, Ruairi, Alan and Team 2 Colm, Kevin and myself. The men’s relay started and slowly started to return through the first spectator control. Fiach passed and began loop two, still no Colm. Fifteen minutes later Colm arrives through the first spectator shouting that he had stood in a wasps’ nest and needed sting cream at the second spectator control. When Colm stood on the nest he had to run in any random direction away from a cloud of angry wasps and map contact was somewhat lost. Colm then flew through the second spectator control saying very politely that he in fact did not require any cream at that point and would continue the race. Kev was tagged and flew through his course. I waited in the start box next to the last Spanish runner. Kev came down the run-in followed by the Spanish second leg. After a mistake in the forest the Spaniard had 20 seconds on me at the first spectator control; by the second spectator control I had 20 on him seconds after dropping him in a technical contour section; at the third last control I made my move and lost the Spaniard and as I punched the control I could hear Colm’s voice echoing through the trees.

Driving back to the airport after the largest chicken dinner ever in the sport centre, we came upon some road works, first there were rows of six inch high nails sticking out of the road, then a series of deep pits. Dave made a joke saying it was like something out of the prince of Persia computer games and was waiting for swinging blades or something. A minute later we passed four huge circular saws sticking out of the road: the car erupted in laughter.

Results in brief:
Middle Distance
H18 4.3km, 37 competitors: 1 Lucas Basset FRA 24:39, 28 Alan Lane IRL IRL 39:57, 29 Kevin O'Boyle IRL 40:13, 32 Niall Ewen IRL 43:37
H20 4.6km, 29 competitors: 1 Benjamin Lepoutre FRA 28:51, 16 Ruairi Short IRL 37:46, 24 Colm Hill IRL 56:02, Fiach O'Rourke IRL nc
Long Distance
H18 9.9km, 37 competitors: 1 Florian Howald SWI 59:32, 30 Alan Lane IRL 79:42, 32 Kevin O'Boyle IRL 85:14, 36 Niall Ewen IRL 104:19
H20 10.8km, 29 competitors: 1 Thibaut Poupard FRA 65:38, 24 Colm Hill IRL 88:29, 26 Fiach O'Rourke IRL 89:52, Ruairi Short IRL mp
Relay 5.2km, 19 teams + 3 mixed: 1 Austria 31:34, 31:59, 31:39. 16 Ireland 1 Fiach O'Rourke 44:45, Ruairi Short 35:10, Alan Lane 51:30. 17 Ireland 2 Colm Hill 60:13, Kevin O'Boyle 49:05, Niall Ewen 53:55.