Compass, whistle, medical cert ...?

O-La-La!
If you go down in the woods today, you'd better be prepared - if they're French woods, that is. Legislation passed originally in March 1999 and adopted by the French Orienteering Federation (FFCO) in March 2008 requires that anyone taking part in an orienteering competition in France must have either a competition licence issued by your O-Federation or a medical certificate to prove you're fit and are not taking drugs. It seems to be driven in part by the anti-doping policy of the FFCO.
The letter from FFCO General Secratary Gérard Lecourt to National Federations is here. If this is enforced it will be a major disincentive to foreign orienteers competing in France. The event organisers will keep a copy of the certificate in case of any incidents. French competitors evidently have an annual competition licence which involves a medical examination and a declaration by your doctor that you are fit to undertake an orienteering course - the French medical cert is here. If you'd like to read the full medical regulations (in French) you can see them here. The medical is expected to include ECG's and various other examinations and is aimed at finding out if you have any contra-indications which would suggest that you should not go orienteering. A comprehensive but non-exhaustive list is included in Appendix 1 of the document - the one malady which seems to be absent is hyp-O-chondria.
If this had been published on April 1st I wouldn't have been surprised, but it seems to be for real.

On the other hand, French World Champion Thierry Gueorgiou may be able to help your orienteering technique:

Simplification by Thierry Gueorgiou

Tero's technique (from a Swedish newspaper interview with Thierry Gueorgiou:)

"I have the experience necessary to not be bothered [by contact with spectators, cameras in the forest, etc]. I've also done orienteering training with headphones and a radio to practice my ability to keep concentrated despite external distractions," he says.

How do you describe your strength as an orienteer?
"I trust my ability to correctly simplify the map," he says.
When I give Tero a map and ask him to sketch how he sees the map between two controls, I get back - in a few seconds - a sketch that would be a completely functional simplification of the challenges the leg has.
Of about seventy map symbols, he has picked out five. What looked like a difficult orienteering leg now has the difficulty of a beginner's course. Through this approach, his course becomes easier than his competitor's, I think, and test my idea on the world champion, who laughs, "Yes, that is right; that's the right way to describe my orienteering technique."

 This ability to simplify the map is something Tero practices continually. And he doesn't need to go out in the forest to keep it.

 "You can train anywhere. You're brain doesn't notice the difference between a picture of reality and a mental image," he says. This method requires a lot of concentration. But staying focused for an entire race is, according to Tero, impossible. When competitors try to continually force themselves to have a deep  and long-lasting concentration, the professional from Saint-Etienne looks for  opportunities to rest.

 "Everyone talks about having to be 100% focused from start to finish, but that doesn't work. The key is to know when you  can relax. During my middle distance final in Ukraine there were several parts of the course when I was thinking about things other than orienteering," he  says.

New book from Seán Rothery

3ROC's Seán Rothery has just published another book, this time recounting his life in Africa in the 1950's. Best known for his books on architecture (his "Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland" (1997) features many buildings which will be familiar to orienteers from their travels around the country), Seán was one of the founders of Irish orienteering and also the father of frequent Irish Champions Eoin and Colm Rothery.
His new book, "Snow on the Equator - an African Memoir" is published by Ashfield Press.

Read what local free paper "Dublin People" said about it here.

October News

Fingal Orienteers take Leinster Inter-Club trophy competition.
A surprise result saw north county Dublin club Fingal Orienteers snatch the Leinster inter-club trophy from under the noses of CNOC and GEN at Corkagh Park, Clondalkin, on September 20th.
The event format has changed from year to year, ranging from a full-scale event, through score formats to this year's sprint, with equal points being awarded in every age class.
The club scores were
FIN 1383
CNOC 1360
GEN 1047
3ROC 927
AJAX 490
SET 320
The excellent new map by Pat Healy showed the area to be ideal for this type of race: the area had been mapped some years ago but the park has grown and matured in the meantime from the bleak, fairly featureless terrain it once was.
The photo shows David Healy of the organising club, GEN, presenting the trophy to Val Jones of Fingal. (Photo: Finn Van Gelderen).
One side effect of winning the trophy in the past was that the winners had to organise the event the following year. See the individual results here. More details on the GEN site here.

Northern Ireland Mountain Bike O-Championships postponed
It is regretted that due to access problems LVO have been forced to postpone the MTBO Champs which were to be held at Castlewellan forest on 10th October, (not 10th November as stated in an earlier TIO blog - Ed.). It is hoped to re-stage the event near the end of November so keep an eye out for that!!



Munster Champs closing date reminder
The closing date for the Munster Championships at Toureen Wood, Ballydavid, near Cahir in Co. Tipperary on November 1st is Wednesday 14th October. For Dublin orienteers, there's motorway most of the way now, so you should make it in two hours or less ... Enter on-line here.

Teaser: Here's a question for you: Which is the odd one out: Munster Championships, Connacht Championships, Leinster Championships, Northern Ireland Championships? (Answer at the bottom of the page).

Junior Squad Train
The Irish Junior Squad had another intensive training weekend on October 10th/11th, starting with the well-established time trials in Dublin's Phoenix Park. If anyone tells you that the Park is flat, just ask any of the juniors who gave their all running laps of the gruelling circuit in the Furry Glen! This was followed by compass work training at Massey's Estate (beside the Hellfire Club) on Saturday afternoon, and more technical exercises at Knockree Youth Hostel that evening. Sunday's training brought the squad to the open mountainside of Trooperstown Hill and finished in the mixed Scandinavian or Scottish-style forest beside the Avonmore River.
Once again, all due to the efforts of IOA Juniors Officer, Ruth Lynam.
Read more about the Junior Squad here.

Busy weekend in November
The weekend of November 14-15th is a busy one for orienteers: the Veteran Home International takes place in the Peak District of Derbyshire between Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales; there is an OCAD computer-mapping course in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, given by Pat Healy (Details here); some Irish runners are going to the annual street-O event in Venice (read about it here); and local events at Ross Castle (Killarney), Corrin Hill (Fermoy) and the Glen of the Downs (Wicklow).

Teaser: The odd one out is the Munster Championships. It's the only one to have always been run in the area described by its title. We've had the Leinster Champs in Ulster (Monaghan, 2009), the Connacht Champs in Leinster (Offaly) and Ulster (Donegal), and the recent Northern Ireland Championships in Cavan, in the Republic!

Ireland 3rd in Senior Home International

Ireland defeated Wales in the Senior Home International run by Fermanagh Orienteers this weekend. The competition was on the limestone hills on the Cavan/Fermanagh border, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Championships.

Read all about it on the Senior Squad blog here. See maps, courses and Routegadget here.

Swiss 6 days. Muotathal

This year’s Swiss 6 Days were characterised by a lot of changes, be it the weather or the orienteering plans themselves. Our arrival in Muotathal – South of Zug – coincided with the Swiss National Day and from the campsite we were gratified with major fireworks. The mountains created some spectacular sound effects and the lights from the fireworks made a beautiful show. This festival feeling was soon to subside to be replaced with some unfair weather.

One of the characteristics of orienteering in Switzerland is that you are never really encouraged to take your car - quite the contrary. The Swiss did not disappoint again this year with the use of public transport as well as Duros (military vehicles) to take us to all the events., showing that it can be done without the car!!!

Day One was a sprint event in Schwyz, a large town about 10 minutes away from Muotathal. We were brought by bus to the centre of the city as the rain was literally pouring down. We were among the over 3,000 participants to find shelter in a sports hall before we were to start our event, where we could leave our bags in a dry place. Paul and I got around fairly quickly and found ourselves finishing in the first half of our respective age groups. These first results were fairly encouraging.

The next two days were Alpine days with day 2 in Schwialpass. This time we travelled in Duros at a time set for each one of us. The trip was a good 25 minutes long. We then had to walk for another hour to the start. The weather forecast was for heavy rain, and once again the Swiss weather did not disappoint as we never got to see the top of the mountains! The heavy and damp terrain made it quite hard to progress rapidly from one control to the next. Even though we could not see much, we could still hear all the local cows and goats, which are equipped with bells, fairly well. This proved to be a plus, as they were providing a nice melodic company during the event!

Day 3 was to be – in the words of the organisers – a “memorable day”. It certainly was characterised with the sun (oh beautiful, what is this yellow thing in the sky?) which we had not seen for a few days, heat and a very long walk. For this event in the Glattalp, we were first taken by bus to the base camp, and we were then to walk 4.4K, and 700m climb before reaching the start/finish of the event. We had been advised to take our camera as the views from above were indeed spectacular. Obviously having to walk up such a distance is not exactly the best way to be ready for the event, but at least every participant got a good warm up. When we reached the top, some heavy mist appeared suddenly, leaving us with hardly any visibility for the start of the event. Orienteering there was certainly the highlight of the week, with gigantic mountains, lakes (which had got even bigger with the heavy rain), snow, etc...

Day 3. Glattalp

We then had a rest day during which the organisers decided to swap the venues for Day 4 and Day 6 because of a landslide which had washed the road away. They could not risk getting all the participants to the event and then have them stranded! So on the Thursday we headed to Chinzig-Seenalp, in the mountains again. The day was glorious and the trip 45 min up the mountains in the Duros was quite chaotic due to the rocky terrain. We were then to walk for 30 min to the start. The sun was shining and we could really appreciate the beauty of the place. It was a typical alpine terrain and once again we were to run among surprised cows! It was a fast terrain still which meant that it was essential to stay with the map at ALL times. The planning of the event was pretty much to get us down, so no real trick there, which made it very inexcusable to make any mistakes, really!!!

Day 5 was a “forest day” in Gibel. The advice there was to wear long legs and sleeves for fear of ticks. The course was short enough and it was essential to plan your route very precisely and accurately as the forest was quite dense in many parts. Gibel was also used for the “Euro Meeting” - these upcoming elite orienteers from Europe were to use the other side of the map of Gibel.

Day 6 finally arrived and more rain was again scheduled, so it was decided that we would get to use Gibel again. Overnight, the organisers had planned courses so that we would all get to finish our 6 days. We even got to use a pen to circle our controls!! It was like being back in the old days. The terrain was quite wet still but again very fast with few paths. So staying close to the map proved very useful.

All in all the week was very memorable, not only because of the places that we got to orienteer into but also because the Swiss organisers did not get defeated by the weather. What is really great about the Swiss O-week is obviously the majestic landscapes. The organisers are proud to take us in the most beautiful parts of the country, even though it means that the participants have to walk up to 2 hours to reach the start.

Furthermore it is really great to be able to orienteer with maps that are so accurate. The smallest boulder would be mapped, thus allowing for improvement in reading the map and navigating more accurately. And finally it is always a bit of a cliché to praise the Swiss precision for logistics regarding the transport, but they certainly managed to get over 3,000 participants from all over the world as far up in the mountains as they could and then they relied on us to carry on by foot without a word of complaint!

Isabelle LEMEE/Paul NOLAN

For results and other details, see here.

For anyone thinking of orienteering in Switzerland, the World Masters O-Championships (for over-35's: not to be confused with the World Championships) is on in the Jura Mountains in Western Switzerland next August. See here for details. There are open events that anyone can run as well.

Mike Long leads Ajax to Lug Relay win

Stone Cross to Lug Relay, September 26th 2009.
There's a sweet dip at Sally Gap crossroads that drops the first leg runner into the changeover, ending the hour and half battle from Ballinascorney over Seefingan and Kippure. Sweeter still for Mike Long knowing that he had left three Setanta teams in his wake and set up the lead. One - nil for Ajax.
Drifting wide in the forest Shane Enright and Donough O'Keeffe had taken Seahan first, but not by enough to stop Mike taking the lead into Corrig and the relentless climb into Seefingan. Pursuing him across in cloud to Kippure Shane got up to him but could not stay on the 2km drop off Kippure across the heather to the road.
Ajax second leg, Peter Kernan's, first glance back on Carrigvore picked out an olive green top...Philip Brennan, Setanta...the steady leg plan got changed to hold the lead. A fall off Carrigvore and a stitch from the pace change over the tops of Gravale and Duff hill were probably good signs ... at least the body was trying. Mullaghcleevaun East, glances in cloud picked up nothing...was he closing or not? Turning to just off south from Mullaghcleevaun, it was simply a push as quick as possible to Stony Top, crawl up it and Tonlegee and a clean drop to the Wicklow Gap. Two - nil.
Greg Byrne accelerated out of Wicklow Gap knowing that Paul Mahon was sitting in the traps waiting to be released behind him. The last, longest leg needed a clean run.
Cutting road corners up Turlough hill, Greg goes direct for Conavalla, hits the 702 spot height NE of it and has to recover across open bog. Not knowing the gap back, doubt sets in, had Paul Mahon overtaken?
A direct charge for Table Track, onto Camenabologue and the northern cliffs of Lug, between clouds, walkers but no runners. Sweep down clear to the bottom of Camara Hill and Fenton's. Three - nil, game over.
Mike Long's efforts over the years coaxing Ajax into the Wicklow Way relay or the Lug Relay had paid off.

None of this adventure would have seen the light of day without a director. Niamh O'Ceallaigh took over the role at short notice, organising the race with a calm, friendly ease that was impressive. Many thanks to her.
- Peter Kernan.

Photos: Gerry Brady, Justin Keatinge IMRA site here. IMRA race report etc here.

Championships Approaching

Four regional Championships are coming up between now and the end of November and closing dates are approaching fast.

Northern Ireland Championships
The Northern ireland Championships on October 3rd/4th have a latest entry date on next Monday, September 28th. Looking at the entry list (see here) shows numbers so far to be small enough.

The event is combined with the Senior Home International, the Ireland v England v Scotland v Wales competition for classes M and W 20 and 21. The areas being used, the Burren on the Cavann/Fermanagh border and neighbouring Crossmurrin, are largely limestone-based open ground with plenty of pits and depressions, but fairly dry underfoot.

Details of the events are on the Fermanagh Orienteers web site. FermO are a small club who have put a big effort into running these events and need our support. Saturday's race is the classic (normal distance) championships and includes the SHI Individual. The area was used for the 1994 Irish Championships where we crossed a fence marking the border between Fermanagh and Cavan on the way to the start - amid jokes like "Have you got your compass? Whistle? Passport?". You can see the map here.

Crosmurrin, featuring the spectacular Marble Arch Caves, was used for the Irish Championships and Trail-O Champs in 2007. This time it will host the SHI Relays and the NIOC Middle Distance event.

Entry for each day is separate and you can enter vis the SportIdent web site here.

Munster Championships
Cork Orienteers are staging the 2009 Munster Championships on Sunday 1st November at Toureen Wood, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, on what CorkO Chairman John Scannell describes as "... perhaps one of the last remaining mature forests on the Northern slopes of the Galtees. To run in this forest will be an experience and will demand both physical fitness and good navigational skills. The area selected has mature coniferous forest with good visibility and is free of brambles except for parts where long grass and stones will impede running. The forest has a good road track network with steep sided ravines and dry gulleys which run down the slopes which are
characteristic of Galtee maps."
The area is new to orienteering and was mapped this year by Brian Corbett and Pat Healy.
On line entries are open now here. Entries close on 14th October.

Connacht Championships
The Connacht Championships are being run by Western Eagles Galway Orienteers on Sunday 29th November. More details will be available later. Keep an eye on the WEGO web site here.

NI MTB-O Championships
If mountain bike orienteering is your personal addiction, don't forget the Northern Ireland MTBO Championships at Castlewellan, Co. Down on Saturday November 10th, run by Ivan Millar. Watch the LVO website for details here.

Coaching Ideas
On a different note, David Healy has proposed an exciting training initiative for Dublin orienteers, adding more technical training every week to supplement the physical training many are already doing. He plans a meeting at the Scarr event this Sunday: details are on the O-Group here.
He also alerts us to lots of ideas from a coaching conference in Austria. It looks great - read it here.

September News

Mountain Meitheal invade Cruagh Wood
Sunday morning, Kevin kneels in Cruagh Wood beating the hell out of an upturned wheelbarrow. "I'll fix this for you Peter.., ..bet you didn't know I used to be a panel beater."
He's using the sort of hatchet I last saw a Red Indian laying into some unfortunate cowboy with in a movie. The tomahawk slams in again ..I don't argue.
Despite Kevin's efforts I watch out for an opportunity to get hold of one of the new barrows he's prepared.
Any advantage pushing boulders, hard core and grit for a couple of hours is worth taking.

Mountain Meitheal has plenty of helpful stalwarts like Kevin, every week there's new faces and new old faces you've not seen before.
Volunteers of every brand ... students, climbers, walkers, hill runners, solicitors,.... from Ireland, England, Poland, Venice, Romania, Germany, etc ....
On any given day material arrives , volunteers turn up, tools clatter out, an arm is pointed..over there..be careful..the troop almost without direction fall into lifting, hammering, digging, talking, moving rock, lifting timber, stop for lunch, talk nonsense, start again.
Talk knows no bounds, this mountain, that mountain, football, politics, holidays, state of the nation, sandwiches, the dog who took them,... Angela bemoans the untidiness of crow's nest construction.....

Tiredness stems the chatter of the last hour, closing words disperse the crew home or to the Merry Ploughboy.

Undeniable is what gets done, an astute picking of projects, organisation, is followed by hands on grafting to produce results that even before they're finished passers by remark at and appreciate. They're a crew who do what they talk about doing.

This summer, Cruagh Wood has seen both a boardwalk linking the top track out onto the open mountain and a grit track connecting up Cruagh to Massey's estate constructed. Both are worth taking a trip out to Cruagh for. One day, no doubt, you will see them appear as features on the next orienteering map from 3ROC.
One day you could do well to join them.. you don't need an SI card, compass or map, just need to be pointed in more or less the right direction. Get more details here.

- Peter Kernan

Marcus Pinker injured in bike crash
Irish Champion Marcus Pinker suffered serious injuries following a bike crash near Sheffield last month. He is recovering but it sounds like it may be a while before he's back to racing fitness. Marcus won the Irish Middle Distance and Classic distance championships in Donegal in May, and on Day 3 was on the winning CorkO relay team. We wish Marcus a full recovery. Here's his account of what happened:

It's about time I caught up on what exactly happened last weekend. I was near the end of a two hour cycle which I had thoroughly enjoyed and was cycling pretty well, I had gone down through Eccy Woods and turned left to take the quieter residential road to join Abbeydale Road. This road is slightly downhill and has speed ramps once you get out of the woods. I guess I was doing 30mph or so and obviously had to focus on the ramps so they didn't throw me off. I looked up from one of these and saw a car crossing the road right in front of me. The image of the car is a blur and I think that I tried to get me feet unclipped and put them down (I think I got the left down). I reckon that there was approximately 10m between when I saw the saw the car and when I hit it so there wasn't any time to think about it. I can (again, in a dream like manner) remember heading towards the car but nothing after that. I was told that I was unconscious for about 15 minutes and when I came to the paramedics were around me. I was in pain but too much, but I don't recall leaving the scene or the journey to the hospital at all and didn't wake up until I was in A&E. According to the police there were no cars parked around the junction and no other traffic around. I usually make a habit of looking for cars on side roads as (especially when on a bike) you never know if someone will pull out on you. However in this situation I think that the speed ramps were taking all my focus. The driver said that he looked both ways before pulling out but obviously didn't see me until it was too late. Unfortunately he was going straight across the junction (I was on the through road) so when he did see me he was side on in the middle of the junction leaving me nowhere to go. I apparently hit the front wing (leaving a big dent) and judging by my injuries, it was with the upper right of my back. I hit the ground next to the car (so did 30mph - 0mph instantly) but my bike carried on over the bonnet (haven't quite worked how that happened yet). My helmet is cracked throughout with a strip missing around the rim (haven't worked how that happened either) but my bike appears to have come out unscathed. Personal damage wise I think that I have been very lucky, my limbs and head have all escaped injury (aside from a bruise on my left side of my head). Sure as my trunk is quite battered it makes all movement difficult but it could so easily have been a lot worse. I think that I have 18 fractures (7 along the side of my spine and the 7 adjoining ribs, my right shoulder, a vertebra and 2 ribs at the front). Time for some R & R!