TIO 2010 Orienteering Planner

This is the time to plan your orienteering for 2010 - whether it's for a holiday, competition or training. Unfortunately, with the current economic downturn, travel for orienteering may be further down your list of priorities than in previous years, but there should still be something out there for you. Twenty or thirty years ago we would travel to the UK by ferry and train for competitions, before the cheap flights era - nobody could afford tthe hundreds of pounds it cost to fly - and sleeping on the train and the deck of the ferry certainly cut down on accommodation costs! It's still possible to orienteer cheaply: entry fees are very low - compare this with €20 for the (cancelled) New Year's Day 5 k race in Dublin's Phoenix Park, for example. Travel and accommodation can be very reasonable if you shop around and book ahead (the Portugese international in February offers free floor-space). Entry fees often get more expensive the closer you are to the date of the event, so entering early can save you money.

With orienteering claiming tio be an environmentally friendly sport (though I was never convinced by this - look at the fuel costs of running an event or travelling to remote areas not served by public transport) we could look again at car sharing, running buses to events and making more use of local maps and permanent courses.

In Ireland in 2010 we can look forward to the continuation of the Dublin by Night series (next event at Massey's Estate on Saturday16th January, weather permitting), and to some major events but all on existing or updated maps: the Leinster Championships in Carlingford on May 9th, the Irish Championships at Magilligan, Co. Derry on April 24-25 (with a sprint race at the University of Ulster in Coleraine on the 23rd), the Irish 3-Day at Lough Eske near Donegal on June 5-6-7, the Munster Championships at Rossbeigh sand dunes, Co. Kerry on October 31st. Schools orienteering is growing, with regional events and Championships at both primary and secondary level (details on the IOA fixtures list here).

In Britain we have two major attractions in 2010: the Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival in Devon at Easter and the Lake District 5-Day at the end of August. On top of this, the Junior Home International at Perth in Scotland in September will coincide with a Park World Tour urban sprint race. If night relays are your thing - and you can't manage a trip to the Jukola in Finland - the 7-person Harvester Trophy (8-9 May) might fit the bill.

Internationally, the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Switzerland, the Junior World Championships in Denmark and the World Championships in Norway all have open events associated with them, while there are more than twenty races in the North American O-Festival in June and July.

Sand dunes feature quite a lot in 2010: the Junior World Championships in Denmark are on dunes, as are the Irish Champs, the Munster Champs and some league events (Bull Island, for example), so if you're not comfortable with contours, now is your chance to work on your technique.

Lots of fixtures information is at the World of O here.To read the CompassSport list, subscribe at www.CompassSport.co.uk. The list below is not comprehansive: it ignores Australia and New Zealand, for example. To find out about events in a particular country, go to their national federation's web site: you can usually find these via the International O-Federation's web site www.orienteering.org.

Britain

April 2-5 Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival, Devon. This event attracts a couple of thousand competitors and is run in a different region each year. This year sees a sprint race near Exeter, individual events at  Cookworthy and on the dunes of Braunton Burrows and a relay again at Braunton. Last entries 12th March. www.jk2010.co.uk

May 8-9 Harvester Trophy overnight relay at Eridge Park, scene of the blizzard-struck JK relays of 2008. Saxons OC - see here. Clashes with the Leinster Championships, though. The weekend also includes a sprint on Saturday and an open event on Sunday. Close to Gatwick airport.

August 22-27 Lakes 5-Day: five days in the English Lake District, based at Coniston. Great terrain but very popular with tourists so book early. www.lakes5.org.uk
September 10-12 Park World Tour, Perth, & JHI. The Junior Home International teams will be taking time out to watch the PWT Sprint at Scone Palace. There's an open event on the Sunday at Devilla in Fife. Details here.

The major British events are also listed here.

Europe
February

You can start the season with training and comperition in Portugal on February 13-16 at Figueira da Foz, 100 km north of Lisbon. Details here. Includes a night sprint and races of different lengths. The Irish Junior Squad have a tour to this event.
March
26-28 Spring Cup, Denmark - the start of the Scandinavian season after the winter Details here.
April
3-4 France. 3 Jours du Sud Ouest at Easter. Details here. Three races plus a sprint in Agen, but no sand dunes this year!

3-5 Prague. Another alternative to the JK: Jicin has fantastical limestone pillars in the forests. See here.
May
1-2 Tio Mila, a 100 km overnight relay for teams of 10 in Sweden on the May Bank Holiday weekend. Near Skavsta airport (Ryanair). Leg length from 6 to 17 km - not for the faint-hearted! Details here.
22-24 Belgian 3-Day - see here.St Vith is the event centre; uses EMIT electronic punching.

27 - 6 June European O-Champs, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, with associated open events. Details here.

June

19-20 Jukola relay. Amazing overnight relay for teams of 7 in Finland, with the Venla (womens' 4-person relay) in the afternoon. Only 60 km from Helsinki and reasonably close to Tampere (Ryanair). Details here.

26- July 4 Tyrol. 6 days in the Dolomites, shared between Austria and Italy - see here.
30 - 4 July Greenland. Midnight orienteering in Greenland, anyone? Typically courses from 5 to 20 km, plus two other events Details here.
July
1-4 EYOC, Soria, Spain. European Youth O-Champs for M/W 16 and 18 classes. Details here. There is no mention on the event web site of open events for spectators.

4-10 JWOC, Aalborg, Denmark.Junior World Champs for classes M/W 20. Details here. There are five open events in association with JWOC: details here.
5-10 Kainuu orienteering week, Suomussalmi, Finland. Four races over a week. Details here.
9-19 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs and Junior MTB WOC, Montalegre, Portugal. Details here.
12-17 FIN5, 5 days competition in SE Finland. Details here.
14-18 Nordvestgaloppen, NW Norway. See here.
13-19 Croatia Open, Delnice. Details here.
19-23 World University O-Champs, Borlange, Sweden. Details here.
23-25 3 Jours de Franche-Compté, Besancon, France, close to WMOC in Switzerland and the weekend before.Details here.
24-30 O-Ringen, Orebro, southern Sweden. The biggest of them all: more than 20,000 runners over 5 days. Close to Vasteras airport (Ryanair).  www.oringen.se
24-31 3rd Swiss O-tour. Four contrasting events with a cheese-flavour, leading up to the World Masters. Details here.
31-7 Aug World Masters O-Championships (WMOC), La Chaux-de-Fonds, western Switzerland. Age classes 35 and up - individual entry, you don't have to be selected. Open events associated with WMOC too. Details here.
August
4-8 Czech 5-Days. Details here.
8-15 World Championships, Trondheim, Norway. Go and support the Irish team and take part in the open events. Open event (WOC O-tour) and WOC details here.

22-29 Highlands Open, Asiago, northern Italy: high level plateau with Alpine terrain, cuckoos and wild flowers.Details here.
26-29 Transylvanian Open, Romania. 4 days orienteering in beech forests around Cluj. Sprint, Long, Middle and Relay. Details here.
October 4-8 Puglia, southern Italy. A combination of forest and city races.Details here.
November
13 Venice street-O, Italy. read Sarah Ni Ruairc's account of the 2009 event on 23rd November TIO Blog. Event details here. (Check the date).

Elsewhere

The North American O-Festival provides a huge opportunity to run in the US and Canada, with over 20 events between June 26 and July 21.  It includes the US Champs in Washington state, the North American Champs in British Columbia, the Barebones 2010 near Vancouver, the Rocky Mountain O-Fest in Colorado. See North American O-Festival www.NAOC2010.com. If you can stick around you could take in the Canadian Championships at Ottawa from August 15-22nd on the way home.

... and finally, something to look forward to in 2011: the JK comes to Northern Ireland at Easter and the Irish Championships are in Leinster a week later. There will be events spanning the days in between to make it an Irish 10-day.

Happy Christmas

Just a quick "Happy Christmas" from The Irish Orienteer to all the orienteers out there! The recent weather will make for some interesting running conditions at the Christmas competitions on Three Rock Mountain, Co. Dublin on St. Stephen's Day (starts 10.30-12.00) and Currabinny, Co. Cork on Sunday 27th (starts 11.00 - 12.45) and NWOC's score event at Ballykelly, Co. Derry on Monday 28th (registration from 11.15, mass start 12.00).
This time of year usually has some other activities like mountain running (sse the IMRA web site here) or the odd 5 or 10 k race, so make sure you get out and get some fresh air and exercise. Many orienteers do the GOAL mile on Christmas day - see details here. Leinster orienteers might be tempted by the Setanta-organised hike in the Dublin hills on Monday December 28th. Details here, but the orgsanisers need to know numbers in advance.

New Year Resolution time

Now is also the time to kick-start your new training regime in time for some of the great orienteering planned for 2010. Soon the annual TIO preview of major events in the coming year will be published, so you can armchair-plan the year ahead.

Economic decline presents opportunities

The steep decline in the Irish economy in the past year means that many of us don't have the kind of income we have been used to, and many of us don't even have jobs anymore. Applications to third-level colleges will also increase as there will be fewer jobs for school leavers.
All of these factors can be turned to our advantage in some way: there are opportunities for local orienteering where we don't have to travel so much; people out of work may be keen to do some mapping or coaching or other voluntary work; lots of new college students are a fertile ground for sowing the orienteering seed. After I left college I was out of work for a year and I took on the job of Secretary of the Irish Orienteering Association: that was a great chance to do something positive in what was otherwise a very negative situation and it gave me something to get out of bed for in the mornings, so voluntary work does have significant rewards even if they are not financial ones.

Poetry Corner

Andrew Cox sent me this poem by Jean Tubridy-Fox , composed after a recent day's orienteering in the Comeraghs. We have a great sport - take a few seconds to appreciate it.

Mahon Falls
Reflections on Orienteering

Mother, son and dog day,
F52, M14, D1.5;
escape to the Comeraghs,
where new challenges come alive.

Map in hand, clear red line,
fourteen points: ‘Oh this is fine.’
Click the first, confidence soaring
Is it too easy, could it be boring?

Eyes divert to the glorious Falls,
frozen in time as if heaven calls.
Reality check, where’s number two?
‘Compass! You know I haven’t a clue.’

Man  running with easy gait,
jumping streams, avoiding  wet
‘Hi, can you help us to orientate?’
‘Oh you’re looking for 2, this is 8!’

Wind at our backs, oh what bliss!
Just look at that sea, sun-kissed.
An hour to get to our number two,
How do the others know what to do?

Get on a roll, three to eight,
Don’t be distracted, just concentrate.
This is how to navigate –
We’re flying, on the home straight!

But where the hell is number ten?
Contours, boulders, ankles bending.
Lowland marshland, streams wending
Is the search never-ending?

My heart wants this day to last
It’s not just about being fast;
Win or lose, savour the present
Forget the future and the past.

Jean Tubridy-Fox
November, 2009

December News

Connacht Championships

November ended with the Connacht Championships on the excellent Finner sand dunes between Ballyshannon and Bundoran in Co. Donegal on Sunday 30th An outstanding run by CorkO's Brian Corbett saw him win the M21 Long race by 35 seconds from CNOC's Colm Hill, in the closest finish of the day, while a surprise result in W21 Long saw Maeve O'Grady (DFO) take the scalps of internationals Ciara Largey (FermO) and Ruth Lynam (CNOC).
A training weekend for  the top Juniors meant that they were all there, with Niamh Corbett emulating her father's win in W16 and also in running up a class (or in Brian's case, three classes!).
Despite the recent severe weather, running conditions on the day were excellent, although running a Championship event in November on open terrain is a risky business - however, at sea level the risks of bad weather are probably minimised. Frank Ryan's courses used more of the complex dune network than some previous events, as he chose to start closer to the most interesting south western section.
Unusually for a sand dune area, Finner has 5 metre contours so that only the bigger features were shown on Padraig Higgins's revised map. Perhaps for the next revision, a larger scale might be clearer, with either 2.5 or 5 metre contours. It is such a good area and the map should do it full justice.
Once again, it is impressive that the small band of Connacht orienteers can run events like this.
And before you all write in, I know that Donegal is in Ulster!
No routegadget of the event is available as yet, but the results are here.

Controlling and Planning Conference

Top British mapper and BOF Major Event Advisor Dave Peel was  the main speaker at last Saturday's Controlling and Planning Conference at the Heritage Hotel, Killenard, Co. Laois. Almost twenty people from clubs across the country attended the event, hosted by IOA Controller of Technical Standards Harold White.
The group discussed the current and proposed standards for colour events, both in terms of tecnnical and physical difficulty, and also looked at the requirements of long, middle distance and sprint orienteering, and at planning for Championships.
The presentations are available on the IOA web site here. (scroll down the page till you find them).
Did you know, for example, that colour events should be planned so that most finishers on any course finish within a specified time band (75 to 120 minites for the brown, 55 to 90 for the Green course and so on) and that there are rules laid down about what kind of legs and control sites are appropriate for each couse? To be honest, maybe not all the planners and controllers know this either, judging by the times of finishers at a range of colour events surveyed by Harold for 2009. The percentage of finishers in the correct time band ranged from 0 to 100%, with events as a whole rangeing from 47.8% to 73.3% finishing on time. Admittedly, the event organisers have no control over who comes on the day, or over what course thay do, and they don't contriol the weather which can affect results, but the planning guidelines should be familiar to both competitors and officials alike.
Improving the standard and the consistency of courses is necessary so that orienteers can progress from one level to the next, or find a level that they are happy with, rather than going orienteering week after week and never knowing what to expect.
Unfortunately I missed the second half of the day, but we may get a report from one of the participants...

Orienteering Today folds

Orienteering Today, a glossy orienteering magazine produced in Norway, has ceased publication and is looking for a new owner. The production standards of the magazine were outstanding, with photos and maps from around the world. O-Today took over from orienteering World (previously published in the Czech Republic).

This leaves CompassSport (this year celebrating its 30th anniversary) as the orienteering magazine of choice. Editor Nick Barrable, currently based in Sweden, works virtually full time on the magazine, which is published in Britain and is available by subscription. The December issue carries details of major events around the world in 2010 - vital information if you are planning an orienteering trip abroad. Subscription and other details here.

JK Entries Open

Entries to the Jan Kjellstrom orienteering festival (the "JK") have opened. The event is one of the biggest in Britain and regularly attracts more than 3000 runners from across Europe. This year's competition is in Devon in the south west, over the Easter weekend. The sprint event on Good Friday (2nd April) is at Bicton Agricultural College near Exeter; Saturday's race is at Cookworthy forest near Okehampton, and the Sunday's individual and Monday's Relays are on the open sand dunes of Braunton Burrows near Barnstaple. And remember ... the 2011 JK is in Northern Ireland!

Enter online here. See the JK web site here.

Extract from the 1989 JK programme:

Jan Kjellström was killed in a road accident in January 1967.  Much of what the pioneers of orienteering in this country knew was taught to them by Jan, and the Jan Kjellström international competition was instituted in his memory that year, by the English Orienteering Association.

Jan was the son of Alvar Kjellström, one of three top Swedish orienteers in the 1930s.  Alvar, with his brother Björn, ran Silva Compasses.  British orienteers first met Jan in France in 1964.  He visited this country in the summer of 1965 and 1966, never sparing his energy and enthusiasm in helping those who were trying to get orienteering established as a sport, teaching them both competitive skills and better methods of organisation.  He also acted as mentor to the British team abroad.
Jan was only a 3rd team member of his club Rotebro IS.  Yet his skill and speed in the forest gave British orienteers a vision of what they themselves could attain.
The early JK weekends were not quite so complicated to stage as the one you are about to enjoy.  The area for the first one was decided one week beforehand, after another area had been rejected on the previous Wednesday.  For the first two years there was no Relay as such, the Jan Kjellström Trophy being given for a team competition based on the senior men’s race.  In 1969 the sport had changed somewhat.  There were now four individual courses instead of just one each for men and women, and redrawn maps had appeared.  Three colours were used, the scale was 1:25,000, and forest rides were omitted with the intention of increasing route choice.  A proper relay was organised but it was remarkable that it took place.  The intended forest (Slaley in Northumberland) was snow-bound and the event was re-planned overnight in another forest, on OS 1:25,000 maps which had been hurriedly driven up from Southampton.
The sport is different now.  But the enthusiasm of orienteers has not changed, and the JK weekend is now the social occasion of the year for British orienteers.
It is a fitting memorial to Jan that his trophy is given in a relay competition, in which club spirit plays so great a part and the ordinary orienteer has a chance to shine.
Arthur Vince

More November News

Maxwells to run Everest Marathon

Lagan Valley Orienteers' Fiona and Bill Maxwell are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary by running the Everest Marathon, the highest marathon in the world, on December 4th. They are running to raise money for the Everest Marathon Fund, which helps projects in Nepal, and for Maggie's, a Scottish-based cancer support charity.
Both Bill and Fiona have had cancer and have chosen Maggie's as one of their charities. (You may have seen a Maggie's centre in London received a RIBA architecture award this year: see here).
Fiona and Bill have both run on the Irish Veteran Home International team and the VHI team made a donation to their cause. Their daughter, Hannah, may also be familiar to you as she was on the Irish Junior team a number of times.
Their target is £2600 which works out at £100 per mile. Best wishes to them both.
To donate, visit the www.justgiving.com website here.

MOV 2009: Water, Water Everywhere

Sarah Ní Ruairc (FIN) went to the Venice Street-O event on November 15th ...

The annual Meeting Orientamento Venezia/Venice Orienteering Meeting (MOV) or more simply called the Venice Street-O in the vernacular is a well-regarded and highly popular orienteering event.  Navigation, while not difficult, is surprisingly tricky and a high level of concentration is required in what is by any standard highly unusual terrain.  This year’s event took place on Sunday 15^th November with a smaller Park-O event on Saturday 14^th.

The event as been attended by disparate groups of Irish orienteers over the years who often combine it with a visit to the city itself, some sightseeing and, of course, the consumption of that Italian speciality, gelato (ice cream).

This year, five orienteers from Ireland attended the event: myself, Kieran Rocks (LVO), Sharon Lucey (BOC), Stuart Scott (UCDO) and Brian Flannelly (CorkO).  Stuart and I both attended the event last year and enjoyed it so much that we decided a second bite of the cherry was required.  Kieran an old hand at this event; this was his third MOV.  His maps from previous events came in useful when navigating around the city.  Neither Sharon nor Brian had attended the event before.

The journey to Venice from various locations in Ireland is a complicated tale of trains, cars, planes, 4-hour waits in Gatwick, long emails and butlers and is probably worthy of a novel itself but we won’t dwell on that.  Suffice to say that we were all re-united in Venice by about 7.30pm on Friday 13^th.

The Park-O on Saturday 14^th is a warm-up/training day and acts as a prelude to the main event.  Its purpose is to give the participants of Sunday’s event an idea of the terrain, the scale, the type of map and the features marked on it.  Only a few hundred orienteers partake in the Park-O as distinct from the 3,600 or so in the main event.  It also provided a distraction ahead of the Republic of Ireland vs. France world cup qualifier held that evening, and watched in the Irish pub conveniently located across the street from our accommodation.

 The event centre for both days was the same as in previous years, with the finish for Sunday’s event located close to it.  However, unlike previous years, the start was located on the far side of Venice (see map).  A special boat was organised to bring competitors from the event centre to the start.

There were four courses available to run in the M/W21 category.  Kieran and Sharon opted to run M21E and W21E respectively.  Brian and Stuart went head-to-head on the M21B course and I decided to promote myself to running W21A, as I had run W21B the previous year. 

The map below gives an idea of the type of terrain and the standard of mapping.  The white colour, contrary to usual standards, does not represent runnable forest but streets and bridges.  The brown colour on some of the streets indicates the areas that are likely to be crowded with tourists, some of whom are likely to be armed with suitcases on wheels - a menace to every orienteer.

Navigating between controls is not as simple as taking a bearing and heading in (hopefully) the right direction.  Orienteers have to start thinking about bridges and crowds and decide things like, “Should I head for the long straight run or cut through a maze of tiny streets with lots of stop-start orienteering and constant checking?” or “Should I run down the street that is likely to be crowded or try the empty (ish) back streets?”  It is very easy to lose your place on the map and find yourself running along a street thinking, “Where is this?”

As can be seen from the image I had a long leg between controls 14 and 15.  Sharon and Kieran both had similar legs, as did the MA and M20 courses.  My first thought on seeing the leg was, “Why didn’t I bring money for a gondola?”  However, the only thing to do on that leg was to mentally divide it in two; the first half of the run between control 14 and the bridge (the Rialto Bridge) and the second between the bridge and control 15.  I tried to choose as many long and straight-ish runs as possible with the least amount of turns and least amount of concentration.  However, the leg still took me over 20 minutes and I managed to get in the way of more than one tourist’s photograph. 

Once I reached control 16 it was a relief to run out to the seafront and over two bridges to the last control.  Some of the busier bridges have ramps laid over the steps to facilitate wheelchair access (I can confirm that the Venice event is not suitable for buggies).  All the orienteers were running on the ramps rather than taking the steps and it was strangely gratifying (not to mention good for the ego) to see a man standing at the foot of the ramps with a sign warning innocent bystanders that athletes would be running on the bridge. 

I was shattered at the end of the race, so much so that I missed television coverage of Ireland vs. Australia.  Although the course length was given as 7.8k I covered almost 12.  I found the course a lot tougher than last year and not just because I chose a higher level.  Kieran and Stuart both agreed that the courses were tougher than previous years, possibly because there was a new planner.

The orienteering community being small and close-knit, we met Farina Freigang and Soeren Riechers at the event, both of whom spent a while orienteering in Ireland last year.  We also met some of the organisers of the Velikden Cup that was held in Bulgaria last Easter. 

The city of Venice had to endure two unusual events that weekend.  The first was a protest by locals over the perceived decline of the city at the hands of the tourist trade.  The second was the sight of brightly-clad people running around the streets clutching maps and with perplexed expressions on their faces as they stopped and started, turned, ran around in circles, down blind alleys, hollered with frustration and then sprinted over a ramp stating how much they enjoyed the event and threatening to return in the future.
The pictures show an aerial photo of Venice, Sarah's course and a GPS plot of her route. Visit the event web site here.

Unsung Heroes

Finally, spare a thought for the unsung heroes of orienteering - the control collectors. When we're all back from our runs, getting into the car to go home after the race; when the weather is closing in; when the darkness is coming: who has to go out into the rain and the wind to wrap up the event? The poor control collectors: many of them will have been there all day, some may have run their course, but they are prepared to do us this one last service, no matter what the conditions.
Last Sunday's splendid Ajax event at Cronybyrne (now called the Vale of Clara Nature Reserve) was a case in point: the organisers had laid on premarked waterproof maps, GPS plotting, tea and biscuits, tents, instant results and great orienteering. Then, right on cue, as the courses are getting to closing time, the deluge starts. So, in case we don't fully appreciate it: Thanks, guys!
Results, Routegadget are here.


Claravale Event Report by Peter Kernan

Ajax Vale Of Clara event on November 22nd - 3ROC's Ger Butler, Colm Moran lead in the trees. Despite dropping to seventh at control 4, Ger Butler pulled the pack back and raced ahead through the trees to win the Brown by 6 mins from Christian Foley-Fisher of DUO. 
His clubmate Colm Moran needed only two controls on the Blue to take the lead and hold it over 21 controls winning from Setanta's Dave Weston. A strong run by 3ROC's Eoin McCullough saw him take 3rd, seconds behind Dave. Conditions on Sunday were considerably better than Saturday when Marcus Geoghegan, standing in water streaming out of the car park onto the road, reflected on the chances of cancellation.
Months of preparation prevailed and Sunday saw him deliver map, planning and Grade A orienteering to a forest-starved audience.
Complementing his efforts, finishers also got to watch results on screen and drink coffee in the finish tent courtesy of Martin Flynn and Donal Wickham. When the weather turned raw for the last finishers, offers of coffee, met initially with disbelief, hit the right button. It wasn't all plain sailing: Denis Reidys' tale of a tree dropping as he placed control 21, reports of the Yellow course "blowing away", the tent window splitting in the wind, added an edge of uncertainty that was only dispelled when finishers began to flow in well. The Orange course also saw a group of Bootcampers take to the forest as well as CNOC first timer Fergus Foley. Cleared up by 4 pm, the organising club Ajax deemed the event a big success. 
See results here.

Photo by David Healy - Hazel Thompson, Setanta.

Disappointing VHI Performance by Ireland

Fine runs by Ruth Lynam (2nd W55), Ann Savage (5th W50), Bridget Lawlor (6th W35) and Brian Corbett (6th M45) weren't enough to save Ireland from the wooden spoon at last weekend's Veteran Home International in Derbyshire, hosted by Derwent Valley Orienteers (DVO).
The strength in depth of the English and Scottish showed, with both countries clear of the Irish and Welsh in both Saturday's relay and Sunday's individual races.
The competition, for age classes M and W35 to 60, rotates between the four participant countries and this year was England's turn. The relay at Longshaw, near Bakewell, was run on the side of a steep valley covered with largely deciduous forest with open heath on the flatter area above. The relay team composition must be two men and two women and their age-related handicaps must add up to 18, so there are complications in forming teams. An outstanding run by a Welsh team saw them take 32 points as winners in 108.07, with the following six Scottish and English teams finishing in less than 6 minutes. The best Irish time was 149.58, finishing in 19th place. After the relays the scores were England 98, Scotland 82, Wales 72, Ireland 20.
Sunday's Individual at Eyam Moor was on a largely open area, part of which was covered in high heather with vague features, and finished in a complex open area with large knolls and interesting contour detail. The event was combined with a regional event which attracted some hundreds of runners. Several good individual performances were not enough to salvage the Irish team, however, and the score in the individual race was England 144, Scotland 124, Wales 98, Ireland 56.
Luckily the weather was good for running on Sunday - cool, breezy and dry, and on Saturday most runners got around dry, though later starters did get caught in heavy showers.
The overall result was England 240, Scotland 208, Wales 170, Ireland 76.
The teams stayed in the splended Hartington Hall Youth Hostel, a 17th Century manor house with its own bar and restaurant (sadly, closed by the time some of the Irish arrived on Friday evening).
It seems to be an unwritten rule of the VHI that the events are on exposed open terrain in November and that the relays, in particular, are staged in a bone-chillingly cold location! The Juniors (September) and Seniors (October) escape the worst. There was some discussion on the choice of date for future years (next year's event in Wales is in October) and on the inclusion of the M/W65 classes at the expense of the M/W35's, but more details of these changes will be available before next year's event.
Thanks to Tish McCann, who didn't get a run at all, for managing the team.

The question remains, though - what do we need to do to improve? We don't have the same level of competition as in England or Scotland; Welsh orienteers, though few in number, do have ready access to top class terrain and top class competition. if you compare an age class here (say M55) with events in the UK, the numbers are quite different. Take the Munster Championships, for example: MOC 2009 had eight M55's. Last Sunday's DVO event had twenty three M55 Longs, including eight from the VHI compatition and a further eleven M55 Short.

What do we need to do to beat the Welsh? We can do it at Rugby, why not at orienteering?

For the record, the team was:
M35 Declan McGrellis (LVO), Tony Lawlor (CNOC)
W35 Bridget Lawlor (CNOC), Hazel Thompson (SET)
M40 Colm O'Halloran, Igor Stefko (LVO)
W40 Kathryn Walley (FIN), Mary Knight (LVO)
M45 Brian Corbett (CorkO), Dave Weston (SET)
W45 Heather Cairns (LVO), Roxanne White (SET)
M50 Sennen O'Boyle (CNOC), Don Short (CNOC)
W50 Ann Savage (LVO), Bernie O'Boyle (CNOC)
M55 Raymond Finlay (FermO), John McCullough (3ROC)
W55 Ruth Lynam (CNOC), Ger Power (3ROC)
M60 Colin Henderson (LVO), Bill Hopkins (LVO)
W60 Trina Cleary (3ROC), Clare Nuttall (BVOC)

Results and Routegadget (courses & routes) are at the DVO web site here.

(Photos: Raymond Finlay (M55); Hartington Hall YH.)

November News

Munster Championships

What a novelty - orienteering in a forest! Toureen Wood, location of the Munster Championships on November 1st, is a largely runnable forest near Cahir, Co. Tipperary, on the northern slopes of the Galtees. Recent rain made the going slippy underfoot, but the map was mostly white (indicating runnable forest) with a network of roads and tracks. Starting high and finishing low, Jim O'Donovan's courses made the most of the terrain, giving choices between contouring through the forest or taking longer road routes with more climb. The typical Galtees feature of large gullies running down the hillside broke up the forest into blocks. Two hundred competitors took part in the event, organised by Cork Orienteers. The map, surveyed by Pat Healy, was at 1:10000 scale and was printed on waterproof paper - quickly becoming the norm for bigger events.

CorkO's Darren Burke finished first in the M21L class and Niamh O'Boyle won the W21L class.
See results, splits, routes here. (Photos by Finn van Gelderen and John Shiels. To see more of Finn's MOC photos see here; to see more of John's, see here.).

Veteran Home International

The Irish Veteran Team is travelling to the VHI in Derbyshire next weekend. There are several new faces on the team and ireland can expect some course wins, with Ruth Lyman (W55), Colm O'Halloran (M45), Brian Corbett (M45) and Declan McGrellis (M35) running well at the moment.
The weekend kicks off with the relays at Longshaw on Saturday where six teams of four runners from each of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England will run. Sunday's Individual event at Eyam Moor, near Sheffield, will feature open mountainside with some steep forest, and all eyes will be on the critical Ireland v Wales struggle, while in the secondary competition England and Scotland will battle it out for first place. The Eyam event is combined with a BOF regional Event (which would until recently have been rated a National event) so there should be big numbers and intense competition.

OCAD Course

This Saturday (14th) there's an OCAD course (for drawing O-maps by computer) in Dunboyne.The course was originally to be run on September 26th but was postponed. There are a few places available on the November 14th OCAD course. The venue is Dunboyne Castle, Co. Meath. It is an all day course on Saturday, Nov 14th for all levels of OCAD skills. The course is given by Pat Healy of CNOC.
To secure your place please send a cheque for €25 to the Irish Orienteering Association, Second Floor, 13 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4
For those already signed up, also send your cheques to the above address.
Aine Joyce IOA Admin Assistant (osec@orienteering.ie)

Orienteering In Venice

There are a few Irish orienteers running in the annual Venice street-O race on Sunday 15th: good luck to you all - hopefully we'll get a report on the event afterwards.

NI MTBO Championships

The Northern Ireland Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships has been rescheduled for Saturday November 28th at Craigavon Lakes. The event was to have been at the more demanding Castlewellan Forest but access restrictions forced the change. See details of the event here. See previous courses and routes here.

Connacht Championships

Finner, Co. Donegal is the venue for the Connacht Championships on November 29th. Entries are still open but the cheapect entry deadline has passesd. WEGO are accepting e-mail entries. Details here. Entries are possible up to November 20th - maybe even later?

Finner is a good area of open sand dunes, more physical than many sand dune areas: steeper and with long marram grass. The area has been used for previous Connacht Championships and even Interprovincials (remember them?) as well as part of a Junior Squad training weekend in 2008. Make a weekend of it by taking in the NI MTBO Championships on the Saturday.

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.