April Activity

JK report

The Easter weekend saw some outstanding performances from Irish runners at the Jan Kjellstrom Orienteering Festival in Devon. Despite heavy rain on the run-up to the event, three of the days were largely unaffected by the conditions.
The format, as in recent years, was Sprint (at Bicton College near Exeter), two-day Individual (at Cookworthy forest and Braunton Burrows dunes) and Relay (again at Braunton Burrows).
Jonathan Quinn (GEN) took first place in M14A in the sprint race, a mixture of parlkand, formal gardens, woodland and college buildings, finishing almost one minute clear of the field, posting a time of 12.56 for the 2.3 km course. Ruairí Short (CNOC) also took first in the Mens Open class with his brother Conor in 3rd place.Other top ten sprint results were Clodagh Moran (3ROC), 3rd W10, James Logue (ex NWOC) 3rd M40, Frank Martindale (3ROC) 6th M75, James Millar (LVO) 7th M12, Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC) 8th W21 Elite, Niamh Corbett (CorkO) 9th W16, Ciaran Kearns (FIN) 9th M10 and Jack Millar (LVO) and Kevin O'Boyle (CNOC), 10th M16 and M20 Elite.
The map scale of 1:4000 with 2.5 m contours must have caught out lots of competitors, as things came up so quickly, though a warm-up map on the way to the start did help with the scale.
A very sad note was struck that afternoon when Berkshire Orienteers Dave Stubbs, husband of the sprint event controller Katy, collapsed and died while out on his course. May he reast in peace.

Day 2 saw us travel to a very muddy and undistinguished forest at Cookworthy, where knee-deep slop and marshes were common. Drains, earthbanks and vegetation changes provided control sites with few brown (contour) or black (rock) features. Though the rain had stopped, the assembly field was awash and the forest was dark and gloomy. All credit to the organisers who did their best in difficult conditions, but surely there are better areas than this in the south west of England? My particular sympathy goes to the unfortunate bus drivers who have to clean up after transporting the runners from the race back to the car parks.
Things improved on Easter Sunday, though, with a bright and breezy day at Braunton Burrows, a large sand dune area near Barnstaple, an unusual combination of UNESCO heritage site and military training area for off-road vehicles. Unusually, the area was mapped with 5 m contours (sand dune areas are often at 2.5 m) so that small features were not shown. Competitors to one of the three starts followed the "American Road" down the east side of the map, used as part of the training for the D-Day landings in 1944.
The track network was complex and confusing but the vegetation and contours were clear.
After the two days, Irish competitors had taken seven firsts and a number of podium and top-ten places: First place went to Cork O's James Griffin (M18S), James Logue (NWOC M40L), Liam O'Brien (CorkO M55S), Julie Cleary (3ROC W45S), Ruth Lynam (CNOC W55L), Helen Baxter (LVO W55S) and former secretary of Irish Orienteers Anne May (W60S).
Other notable results were 2nd for Jack Millar (LVO M16A), Eadaoin McCavana (GEN W12B), Róisín Long (AJAX W14B); 3rd place for Ivan Millar (LVO M21S) and a recovering Marcus Pinker (CorkO M35L), 4th for Ciaran Kearns (FIN M10A), Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC W21E), and Aonghus O'Cléirigh (AJAX) - a scant 3 seconds ahead of 5th place Brian Corbett (CorkO) in M50L. Peter James (ex NWOC and another former Irish Champion) finished 5th in M40L..
6th place went to Frank Martindale (3ROC M75), Clodagh Moran (3ROC W10A), 7th to Ruairi Long (AJAX M12B), Darragh Lane (CorkO M16B), Kevin O'Boyle (CNOC M20E) and Laoise Ryan (CNOC W10B). In 8th place was Leslie Loughlin (CorkO M18S) with 10th going to Sean Knight (LVO M18E), Padraig O'Donovan (CorkO M14B) and James Millar (LVO M12A).
The Men's Elite class was won by Matthew Speake (Interlopers) with CompassSport editor Nick Barrable (an M35) 5th. The best Irish runner was Nick Simonin (Bishopstown) in 7th place. Sarah Rollins (BAOC) won the Women's Elite with Niamh O'Boyle 4th - a fantastic run from Niamh.
Monday's Relays returned to Braunton Burrows where the courses were fast and less tricky than the day before. The longer courses looped around to return close to the start area for a spectator control with a bit more than 1 km to go to the finish, adding some extra excitement. In the W120+ class Ruth Lynam (CNOC) and Interlopers Lorna Eades were neck and neck at this point but the Scottish girl drew away to win by 20 seconds, relegating the CNOC ladies (Niamh O'Boyle, her mother Bernie, and Ruth) to second place. Also finishing second were the 3ROC team of Colm Moran, Cliona and Eoin McCullough in the biggest class of the race - the Mixed Ad Hoc, with almost 100 teams. The JK Trophy, now back to a 3-man team from the 4-man it has been for some years, was won by Sheffield University's Ralph Street, Dave Schorah and Graham Gristwood, and the Women's race by South Yorkshire Orienteers in an exciting finish, with 20 seconds to spare over Interlopers.
After the JK there were two other unusual events: on Wednesday a race at Wheal Florence near Plymouth on a small open area previously used for tin mining. The area was only about 900 metres long by 300 metres wide and was mapped at 1:2500 scale with 1.25m contours. It was intricate, with lots of depressions and re-entrants, but not as difficult as I had expected. The long course of 4.2 km /150 m/ 29 controls was won by world champion Graham Gristwood in less than 24 minutes while CorkO's Corbetts - Brian, Cillin and Niamh - did the Irish proud with times in the low 30's.
The second unusual event was at the Eden Project in Cornwall but someone else will have to write about that as the entries filled up before I managed to get mine in.
Full JK results are available at the SIEntries web site here.  - routes, courses and splits too.
The organisers of JK2011 in Northern Ireland distributed a very attractive flyer for next year's event at the end of April 2011: Sprint-O in Stranmillis College, Belfast; individual races at Tyrella (sand dunes near Dundrum, Co. Down) and Slieve Croob (1986 Irish Championships area) near Ballynahinch in Co. Down, and Relays at Tyrella again. Next year you'll be able to go to the JK without flying or taking a ferry - take the opporyunity to do it, and offer to help as well: you'll be welcome!

Irish Championships

Remember that cheap entries close for IOC2010 on 12th April and entries close on 19th April. Enter now on-line via www.orienteering.ie/ioc.
The competitions are a sprint race in Coleraine, with individual and relays at Magilligan sand dunes on the east of Lough Foyle, close by. This promises to be three days of excellent orienteering, so go ahead and enter. How many sports do you know where you can just go and enter the National Championships without all kinds of strings attached, qualification rounds and red tape? It's the Irish Championships: a no brainer: how could you missit? enter now! I have run in every Irish Champs since 1976 at Stranahely in the Glen of Imaal - (except the ones I've been involved in as an official) - it's what you do!

Mullaghmeen or Inch?

Another definite "don't miss" this month is Setanta's annual bluebell-fest at Mullaghmeen, Co. Westmeath on April 18th (unless you're in Munster, in which case go to the dunes at Inch, Co. Kerry!). This is a unique area - the largest planted deciduous forest in Ireland and the highest point in Co. Westmeath. The forest is beautiful at this time of year and well worth the journey. It's located near Oldcastle, Co. Meath close to Lough Sheelin and will be signposted from Castlepollard. Details on the Setanta website here. You can also visit the cairns at Loughcrew on the way home.

Leinster Championships

Another entry reminder: the latest date for cheap entries for the Leinster Championships at Carlingford on 9th May is coming up: enter by Sunday 18th April. Final entries close on April 26th. Details from 3ROC here. Look at previous courses on Routegadget here.

Irish Trail-O Championships

The eagle-eyed reader of the IOA fixture list will have noted that the Irish Orienteering Champs takes place over two weekends this year.  The early staging, on 17th April (Saturday next), is of the TrailO variety at Castleward, Strangford, Co. Down.  If you follow the links from it you will be taken incorrectly to the web site for the FootO champs which take place the following weekend in the Coleraine area.  See here for details.  The event is being held on the Saturday to allow the FootO community to run at Mullaghmeen the following day.  You could do worse, however, than return to Co Down for the Sunday TrailO which, despite being the NI Champs, is open to all and pit yourself against the British squad who are using the weekend for selection purposes. - Alan Gartside.
[Trail orienteering, if you haven't tried it, is the most intense brain and map workout you can give yourself: decision making (some of it against the clock) and pitting your wits against the devious Mr Gartside will give you a strangely satisfying yet frustrating experience, an indescribable love/hate day out rather like one of those shower gels that get you clean but leaves you all cold and tingling afterwards. I don't know quite what the extra ingredient is in trail-O, but try it if you can - you'll like it!]

Springtime

Leinster Championships entries open

The 2010 Leinster Championships at Carlingford, Co. Louth, on Sunday May 9th, promise some outstanding orienteering. Carlingford Mountain, one of the best orienteering areas in Leinster, has been used for Irish and Leinster Championships before and its challange is undiminished.
Cheap entries are available until April 18th with entries closing on April 26th.
Entries and details via www.3ROC.org or here.Online entries are via the SportIdent entries site and SportIdent electronic timing will be used. The competieion centre will be the Slieve Foy Centre in Carlingford village, with parking, showers, cafe etc.
Have a look at the original Carlingford map above. (If you remember the Irish Champs in May 1993, there was thigh-deep snow on the top of the mountain for the event!)

Irish Senior Team Manager Ivan Millar is running a senior squad training weekend around Carlinford Lough on the weekend of the Leinster Champs, taking in the LVO NI Series race at Slievenagore and a Micro-O event at Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, on Saturday 8th May. Details here.

Jan Kjellstrom Trophy Update

A large contingent of Irish orienteers are travelling to the JK at Easter in Devon. The format of the event is a sprint event at Bicton Agricultural College, Exeter, on Good Friday, an Individual race at Cookworthy Forest on Saturday, and Individual and Relays at Braunton Burrows sand dunes near Barnstaple on Sunday and Monday.
For those staying the week, there are two inteersting races after the JK: one on Wednesday at Wheal Floenece, and old tin mining area near Plymouth, and one at the Eden Project on Thursday. (The latest news is that the Eden Project race has reached its entry limit).
The Wheal Florence area is at 1:2500 scale with 1.25 m contours and looks unbelieveably detailed. A previous event there was won in 12.5 minute kilometers! Details of these are on ther JK web site here.

Meanwhile, things are moving on quickly for JK2011 in Northern Ireland. The organising committee has been meeting regularly over the past months and have done a lot of the groundwork on mapping, promotion and planning: it looks good, with terrain ranging from university campus sprint to complex open sand dunes via fast open mountainside. Keep Easter 2010 (last weekend of April 2011) free for a trip North to do the JK without the hassle and expense of ferries and flights. If you've always promised yourself a trip to a major event, this will be your chance! More details later. The Irish Championships will be the following weekend in the Dublin/Wicklow area, with some events in between, so you could make a week of it - the Irish 10-Day?

Irish Championships

Remember that the Irish Championships in Co. Derry are open for entries. The events are on April 23-24-25, with a sprint at NUU Coleraine (run by LVO) and individual and relays at Magilligan sand dunes (run by NWOC). Details here.
Alan Gartside adds: 

TempO is to the TrailO discipline what Sprint racing is to FootO and, appropriately enough, there is to be a TempO competition alongside the IOC Sprint race at the University campus, Coleraine on Friday 23rd April.  The area to be used has been reviewed by the Sprint organising team and is deemed to provide neither similarity with or views into the Sprint terrain.  Registration will be open between 17:00 and 18:30.  There will be a model station and instruction in the format of TempO so why not come along and sample this version of TrailO, adopted by IOF only last year? A complication for the Sprint event is the plans to run a mountain bike event there the week before has led to the following warning for any Squad member considering going for selection for the World Champs sprint event: Following recent discussion regarding the staging of a Mountainbike orienteering event at the University of Ulster campus at Coleraine (venue for the upcoming Irish sprint champs and WOC selection race) – I would like to advise all Irish senior squad members wishing to be considered for WOC selection not to compete at this event as the WOC selectors would consider involvement to be a breach of embargo conditions. In the interest of fairness all seniors who intend to compete at the Irish champs sprint are advised to consider their involvement in this MTBO event. However, It must be stated that the organisers of this MTBO event have taken all steps possible to avoid the sprint area in planning their course.(Ivan Millar).

Schools Championships time

The Munster and Leinster Schools' Championships were on the 24th and 25th March at Carrigolligan, Co. Dublin and Colligan, Co. Waterford. See results here.
The Irish Schools Championships, run by Cork O under the auspices of IOA, are at Glengarra, Co. Tipperary on 15th April (not to be confused with the All Ireland Schools Orienteering Championships run by the Irish Schools Orienteering Association on 24th and 28th March at Gúgán Barra ...)

Intervarsity Orienteering

The Intervarsity Orienteering Championships were incorporated into the CNOC Spring Cup event on a new map of Emo Court, Co. Laois on March 28th. Bright sunshine and fast, flat forest with elegant grounds in front of the imposing Emo Court house provided the  setting. Christian Foley-Fisher (UCD) took the Men's A title (full results not to hand).
An unfortunate clash of dates saw some of the intending competitors at the World Ranking Event in the Trossachs in Scotland the same weekend.
The World Student Championships are in Sweden in July.
Orienteers featured prominently in the Colleges' Mountain Running Championships on March 20th too: the race, at Camaderry in Co. Wicklow, was won by Ger Butler, with Diarmaid Collins 2nd and Colm Hill 3rd; the women's race was won by Niamh O'Boyle with Ciara Largey 2nd and Roz Hussey 3rd. Well done! See results and race reports here.

Look out for ...

Springtime in Westmeath: Mullaghmeen, a wonderful deciduous forest between Oldcastle and Castlepollard, is the venue for the next Leinster Spring Cup event, two weeks after Easter, on April 18th, run by Setanta Orienteers. At this time of year the beech trees are just coming into leaf, the bluebells are pushing up, and it's a rare chance to run in a real live forest. Definitely worth the trip. Details here closer to the event.
The Northern Ireland Championships moves from its traditional September slot to Saturday 19th Juine at Tollymore, near Newcastle, Co. Down, with a night event to follow and more orienteering the next day. More details later.
The Irish and Northern Ireland Trail Orienteering Championships at Castleward and Delamont, Co. Down on 17th/18th April. Details here.

How the Best Train

Finally have a look at this - details of the Swedish World Championships team's training camp in France last week ... here.

Write On: If you have been to any interesting events or have any suggestions or points to raise, why not write about it for The Irish Orienteer?

March News

March Highlights

Watch out in March for the first NIOA Series event of 2010 at Drum Manor, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, on Saturday 6th, the Leinster Spring League event on Dublin's Bull Island (Sunday 7th), the Leinster Secondary Schools Championships at Carrickgolligan, Kilternan, Co. Dublin on the 24th and the Munster Schools Championships at Colligan, Dungarvan, on the 25th, and another Leinster Spring event on a new map of Emo Court, Co. Laois, on the 28th.. The Spring Cup in Denmark is on 27-29th - details here. Full IOA and NIOA fixtures are on the IOA website.

[Question: Where is the area shown on the map? Click to enlarge]

Entries open for Irish Championships

Entries have opened for this year's Irish Orienteering Championships on April 23-25. The events will be in Co. Derry, starting with a sprint race at the Coleraine campus of the NUU on Friday 23rd, followed by the Individual and Relay on an extended map of the intricate open sand dunes of Magilligan. LVO and NWOC are the hosts.
The IOC sprint race will be used for selection for the World Championships sprint and the other IOC races will also be part of the selection process for the Junior World Champs and European Youth Champs.
The cheapest entries are up to 12th April. Visit the web site here.

Irish Tour Portugal

A large group of irish orienteers travelled to the Portugal O-Meet  on February 13-16th at Figueira da Foz, on the coast about 170 km north of Lisbon. the event is traditionally held the weekend before Ash Wednesday, with another competition further north the following weekend.
A group of 11 juniors also took part in the event, run on fast forested sand dunes. The competition featured two long distance and two middle distance races and there was a night sprint event in a small fishing village on the first day as a bit of variety. This was a lot of fun, with tiny lanes barely wide enough to get through, and a run-in along the beach. The main competition provided very fast and technical orienteering and was a great way to spend a few days of a mid-term break. Best of the Irish were Mary Healy (2nd W55), Ruth Lynam (4th W45) and Niamh Corbett (4th W15). The Irish Junior Tour party were ranked 10th out of almost 350 clubs, so they did well.
Results were better in the night sprint event: 1st place to Mary Healy (W55), 2nd to Niamh Corbett (W15), Declan McGrellis (M35) and Ruth Lynam (W45), 3rd to Niamh O'Boyle (W Elite). Full results are here.
Portugal has become a popular destination for orienteering training. with lots of maps, technical runnable forests and (normally) good weather. The event was obviously popular with Scandinavians fleeing the winter, though this year's weather was more like Siberia than Portugal. Veteran globetrotter Peo Bengtsson from Sweden was 1st M70.
The Junior Tour was billed mainly as a training trip rather than a competition, and some useful lessons were learned, not just by the juniors: make sure you have your SI card and compass when you go to the start; check your control codes carefully; it doesn't matter how fast you run if you haven't got all the controls; take that extra quarter second at the control to check that the SI unit beeped.
Next year's event is the first weekend in March but won't coincide with mid-term, so hard luck, Juniors - only the parents can go! (Well, maybe some Transition Year people ...)

Trail-O

Trail-O impresario Alan Gartside would like to hear from anyone wishing to be considered for selection to the Irish teams competing at the World and European Championships in TrailO this summer.  The European Champs are in Sweden from 3rd-7th August and the World Champs are in Norway from 8th-13th August (alongside the FootO World Champs).  A country can enter up to 6 competitors in the Open class in EuTOC and up to 3 in the Open class in WTOC (it can enter similar numbers in the Paralympic classes but he is  unaware of any Irish qualifiers).  The web sites for both competitions can be reached via the IOF web site here.

Alan would be grateful for early responses as the first entry date for the European Champs is fast approaching.

Trail Orienteering, in case you haven't tried it, is a very demanding navigation exercise, requiring you to choose which of several controls in the circle is the correct one. It doesn't require fitness, but good eyesight, excellent map-reading skills and a devious mind are all useful.

Alan can be contacted at atgartside@yahoo.co.uk

To sharpen yoour Trail-O skills, you can try  the Irish Trail-O Championships at Castleward, Co. Down on 17th April and the Northern Ireland Trail-O Championships at nearby Delamont Country Park on April 18th. Details from Alan or from the organisers, Lagan Valley Orienteers.

JK Entries Closing

Individual entries for the Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival in Devon at Easter close on March 12th and Relay entries on March 19th. Details here.

World Masters Entry Limit

Anyone thinking of going to the World Masters O-Championships in Switzerland in early August needs to watch the entry numbers: the event is to be capped at 4500 runners and there were 3300 registered last November. The latest date for registration is 15th May and for payment, 19th June. Details here.

Trooperstown Downhill

GEN ran their second downhill competition at Trooperstown, Co. Wicklow, on 21st February. After a mass-start at the summit of Trooperstown Hill, Andrew Butterfield's course brought the runners south east towards Clarabeg before doubling back with a long leg to control 4, a small snow-covered boulder which caught out the unwary, then continued down into Trooperstown Wood to the finish. While each control was actually at a lower level than the one before, the optimum route involved some climb, and the sub-optimal routes taken by many of the runners involved considerable climb! The course was gaffled (i.e. forked) to prevent following. GEN's Paul Nolan was the fastest on the day, (30.59 for the 4.7 km course) with 3ROC's Ger Butler second and CNOC's Conor Short third. Full results are here.

Junior Training Weekend

The Spring training weekend for the Junior Squad will be on 20/21 March. The usual format will apply - time trials in the Furry Glen at the Phoenix Park in Dublin on Saturday morning, followed by technical training in the afternoon; overnight at Knockree Hostel in Glencree and taking in a race on Sunday. The Sunday competition will be at Trooperstown, Laragh. Details on the Irish Junior O-Squad website here.

Senior squad weekend

A squad weekend is being organised for the weekend of May 8/9 to include the Leinster Champs on the Sunday and an LVO event at Slieve Gullion on the Saturday plus a micro event on Saturday evening.
The weekend will be based around Carlingford and is open to all squad members. IOA are extending the invitation to all older juniors who want to get a feel for the senior squad. More details to follow.
Also, something to think about is organising a squad get-together at this years Irish champs to catch up on all the squad business.

IOA Elite Funding
Good news on the money front - Despite all the recent gloomy economic news the Elite funding grant from the IOA has remained the same as previous years at €15k.
Although it may sound like a lot, it has to go a long way. New O-kit, major competitions and training account for most.
The IOA are investing a lot in the Elite squad and we should provide as much of a return as possible by striving for that wee bit extra - training hard, orienteering hard! and then writing about it afterwards.
All team members should be writing up event reports so that the IOA and Irish orienteers in general get to know what they are getting from us for their money - Ivan Millar.

Dublin Treasure Hunt

Orienteers in Dublin might like to try a kind of street-O on Saturday March 13th. The St Patrick's Day Festival treasure hunt starts at City Hall between 10 and 1.00. It involves visiting a number of locations and getting a card stamped at each. Take your time or run it, but you must take at least 2 hours. Time yourself accurately and cross the line at 2.00.01 to be in with a chance of winning! Details here.

[The map at the top of the page is an O-map of the Victoria Crater on Mars - from World of O].

February O-Bits

After the midwinter layoff and the snows, it's good to get back to some orienteering. The spring league events are starting up and in Leinster, the Dublin By Night league is coming to an end.
Looking at the messages in the Irish orienteering e-group and elsewhere on the IOA web site, there are some interesting plans and ideas out there. David Healy is trying to put together a team for the 100 km overnight relay, the Tio Mila, in Sweden at the beginning of May; the Irish Juniors are on tour next week to the Portugal O-Meet; Marcus Geoghegan has scored people running in the Saturday night/Sunday morning races in Dublin; the JK closing date is approaching; the Leinster Championships date has been confirmed for 9th May at Carlingford (online entries opening soon); there's a downhill race at Trooperstown, Co. Wicklow on 21st February; the Irish and Northern Irish Trail Orienteering Championships have been announced for the 17th/18th April, the week before the Irish Championships; the Northern Ireland Championships departs from its usual September slot and will be on Saturday 19th June. There is also a range of both Primary and Secondary schools events and Championships in the spring - details on the IOA web site.
Elsewhere, the Welsh Championships will be on over two days on 6th/7th March near Aberystwyth, closing date 20th February: reasonably accessible from Holyhead or Pembroke. Details here.

Browsing idly around the internet, I came up with a couple of things which might amuse you: one was a description of the prizes at the 2009 Polish Orienteering Championships - you won't believe it! read about them here; another was the Ultimate String Course in the USA where World Champion Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) took on all comers in this gruelling discipline and came in to win in a time of 49 seconds at his 5th attempt! Read about it here.

While looking for something else, I also came up with this article from a few years ago from Finland, about Irish ski-orienteer Rory Morrish. Rory comes from a well known O-family in Cork and has been living in Scandinavia for some years. Apparently he missed the start for a couple of ski-O races and this is what the paper had to say ... 


To prove that TIO has a wide focus and to broaden your cultural horizons, here's an orienteering Limerick in Norwegian - don't ask what it means, but it's about ski-O:

Ei snuppe som oftes er blid,
Fikk orientering og ski til å gli,
Fem sekunder totalt,
Det er slett ikke galt,
Hun kan si "det driter jeg i".

One interesting armchair project is "101 orienteering maps you should run on before you die". Jan Kocbach of "World of O" web site is encouraging people to vote on the best areas aropund the world. Will any Irish maps feature? Read about it here.  Not unlike this is the CompassSport 99, a list of the best orienteering areas in every county in the UK, though some like the Shetlands have none as yet. Several areas in Northern Ireland feature. Which areas would you list as the best from the island of Ireland? Inch, Curracloe, Mullaghmeen, Knockbarron, Glendalough, Killary, Inishbofin, most of West Cork ... In fact, one thing we have plenty of maps of is sand dune areas: Bull Island, Curracloe, Kilmore Quay, Tramore, Roscarbery, Rossbeigh, Inch, Castlegregory, Banna, Fanore, Mullaghmore, Finner, Portstewart, Magilligan, Tyrella, Portmarnock (until it became a golf course) ... there musrt be more, but I'd need to look at a map to remember them. We do have a great variety of terrain here, and there are even a few forested areas left!

Gueorgiou, Nordberg and Smola awarded International Fair Play Diploma of Honour  

The athletes Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), Anders Nordberg (NOR) and Michal Smola (CZE) will be recognised by the International Committee for Fair Play for their sportsmanship during the World Orienteering Championships relay in Hungary in 2009. The three athletes were fighting for the gold medal on the last leg in the World Championships relay, but sacrificed their own and their nation's medal possibilities when stopping to assist an injured fellow competitor. The Award Ceremony, where the prize-winners receive their trophies and diplomas, will be held under the auspices of the City of Pécs, European Capital of Culture in 2010 and the International Committee for Fair Play, in the course of a gala dinner in Pécs, Hungary Saturday 27 March 2010. Gueorgiou, Nordberg and Smola will receive the Fair Play Diploma in the category Act of Fair Play.

The International Committee for Fair Play is an international non-governmental organisation recognised by the International Olympic Committee. The goal of the International Committee for Fair Play (CIFP) is the world-wide defence and promotion of fair play. 

Note: The award is for Thierry Gueorgiou, not his countryman Thierry Henry!

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