Follow That!

The final countdown to the 2011 Irish Championships is on. Last weekend's JK in Northern Ireland will be a hard act to follow, but Ajax's Irish Championships this weekend will be the biggest IOC for some years, maybe the biggest ever: more than 500 competitors have entered, many of them having stayed on for the week after the JK. The entry from Ireland stands at about 275 with visitors making up the balance.
The Middle Distance and Relay events will feature the open mountain with turf cuttings terrain on the spine of the Dublin/Wicklow border between Glencullen and Glencree, similar to the area mapped by Marcus Pinker at Raven's Rock/Prince William's Seat used for a Leinster Championships some years ago. Competitors at Sunday's Classic event at Brockagh, near Laragh, will have the runnable boulder-strewn slopes of Brockagh and the marshy ground and more complex contours and crags of Mall Hill to contend with.
The visitors are particularly prevalent in the older age classes - imagine 29 M65's in an Irish Champs!. However, the entry of 46 in M21E and 20 in W21E will make sure that there is hot competition at the top end too. Will Nick Simonin retain his title, or will one of the locals like Shea O'Boyle win the men's race? Will Niamh O'Boyle, who has had some injury problems in the past year, retain her title?
In the Relays, will 3ROC take the elusive men's title after finishing top Irish team at the JK? Will CNOC retain the Women's title?
In addition to the main events, Ajax's event centre at Kippure Estate, west of the Sally Gap, will feature a Mini-O event run by Colm Hill as a fundraiser for the Junior Team on Saturday evening and will also host the IOA Annual General Meeting on Sunday evening.
Full details and startlists are here.
Remember that parking at the events is limited, so try to share transport as much as possible.

JK2011

Marcus Geoghegan said it all, in his brief note about the event in the Irish Orienteering E-Group today:
"The eGroup has been very quiet about this, but that's probably because everyone is still stunned by the amazing achievement of the Northern Irish clubs last weekend in running the JK.
The events were fantastic, challenging, orienteering. The organisation was impeccable. It was a triumph, no other way to describe it. I don't know how they managed to do it, but I for one want to publically say well done. I'm already eagerly anticipating the combined World Champs and Northern Ireland 6-day in a few years' time."
I would have to agree with Marcus's assessment of the event. To attract more than 2000 orienteers to Northern ireland was some feat, many of them never having orienteered here, or even set foot in Ireland before, but to run four such excellent events with such panache and style really was an extraordinary achievement - as if the organisers had been doing it all their lives.
In addition to the fantastic sprint race which kick-started the weekend at Stranmillis College in Belfast, the Individual events on the dunes of Tyrella and the slopes of Slieve Croob, and the relays at Tyrella, continued to impress the competitors with their courses and organisational quality. On top of that, throw in a QUBOC prologue sprint in Queen's University and Belfast's Botanic Gardens, Trail orienteering at Castlewellan and Murlough, TempO at Stranmillis, a micr-O maze and three outstanding string courses for the junior juniors, a table quiz for the Irish juniors, the BOF AGM, and a concert and social in Newcastle, and it made up quite a weekend.
As someone who was involved in a peripheral way in some of the organisation, I could see the amount of planning and thought that went in to every aspect of the event, from terrain selection through bussing competitors, to mapping, to music, to volunteers and equipment, from crisis to crisis, and the degree of cooperation between all the organising clubs (spearheaded by LVO) showed total commitment to the JK as a showcase for orienteering and for Northern Ireland.
There were very many obstacles to be overcome along that way and the organising team was very fortunate to be able to draw on the talents of organisers like Colin Henderson, planners like Bill Simpson, Igor Stefko, Wilbert Hollinger, Greg McCann and Philip Baxter, and many others, all shepherded along by the unflappable Harold White. Several retired orienteers came to see the Festival in full swing or help at the events, and it was great to see the elder statesmen of Irish orienteering like  Ernie Wilson meeting Seán Rothery and Wilbert Hollimger, or Freddie McCann back to help at the Relays.
The competitors' comments were very positive: "A great JK", "One of the best I have been to", "Fantastic orienteering", and no doubt the plaudits will continue to come in.
So: Hats off to NIOA for staging a really outstanding JK! You can read more about it, with results and reviews, on Nope Sport here, on the BOF web site here, and the full results are on the JK2011 web site here.
The JK Trophy was won by Scotland's Interlopers, with the British Army team taking the women's relay title.
Read about the Sprint here, Day 2 at Tyrella here, Day 3 at Slieve Croob here and the Relays here.
Next year's JK will be in Scotland on April 6-9 2012, largely in Perthshire.
There is no truth in the rumour that, since  Jan Kjellstrom Orienteering Festival over the Easter weekend in Belfast and Co. Down was such a success, the name of the event will be changed to the Seán McEllistrim O-festival ...

Some of the Irish highlights of the results were:

Sprint: Rúairí Long 1st M12; Bill Edwards 2nd M40; Caoimhe O'Boyle 2nd W14; Niamh Corbett 4th W16; Faye Pinker 3rd W35; 
Individual: Jonathan Quinn 4th M16A; James Logue 1st M40L, Bill Edwards 2nd M40L; Aonghus OCléirigh 5th M50L; Frank Martindale 4th M75L; Caoimhe O'Boyle 1st W14A; Ruth Lynam 2nd W55L; Clare Nuttall 2nd W70L; Faith White 3rd W75.
Relays: CorkO finished 8th in the Women's Open (Toni O'Donovan, Aislinn Austin,Faye Pinker); LVO  won the Under 40 Junior Relay (Frazer Howe, Eoghan Knight, Paul Pruzina); 3ROC finished 4th in the Mini Relay (Clodagh Moran, Cian May, Aidan McCullough) and 4th in the biggest class, the Mixed Ad Hoc (Mary O'Connell, Cliona McCullough, Eoin McCullough).

Ivan Millar reports:

Irish perform well at home JK

Irish senior orienteers performed well at the JK2011. following 3 hotly contested races 5 senior team members have been selected for WOC in France.

The sprint event on Friday saw a very tough challenge through the buildings of Queens and Stranmillis college. The top 3 Irish Men and Women were:

Mens:
Nicolas Simonin - 15.03
Seamus O'Boyle - 15.24
David Healy - 15.26

Womens:
Niamh O'Boyle - 15.09
Toni O'Donovan - 16.03
Ciara Largey - 17.02

Saturday brought the extra challenge of Sunny conditions and the intricate contour detail of Tyrella sand dunes. Top Irish were:

Mens:
David Healy - 37.36
Marcus Pinker - 40.00
Nicolas Simonin - 41.47

Womens:
Niamh O'Boyle - 42.06
Toni O'Donovan - 42.50
Ciara Largey - 43.56

Sunday saw some classic Irish mountain orienteering with the festival visiting Slieve Croob. Top 3 Irish were:

Mens:
Nicolas Simonin - 82.04
David Healy - 86.16
Marcus Pinker - 86.20

Womens:
Toni O'Donovan - 71.21
Ciara Largey - 73.45
Aislinn Austin - 87.13

There were many other solid performances by the Irish seniors. Overall results were very pleasing and provide evidence of real progress in the build up to the summers major competitions.

JK Snippets:

Did anyone hear or see the cuckoos at Tyrella at the weekend? They were in good voice at the western end of the area for the relays.
Competitors were probably unaware of some last-minute changes to courses at Slieve Croob: on the Wednesday before the event access was lost to part of the area and three courses had to be replanned, controlled, and new sites selected, maps reprinted and bagged and control descriptions prepared in time for Sunday ... this was on top of losing the only patch forest in the whole JK weekend across the road from the Slieve Croob starts because of breeding birds.

Some JK photos:

Stranmillis Sprint Arena

Seán Knight, Leslie Coughlan and Jack Millar go for the line.

The sun shines at Tyrella

Slieve Croob Finish

JK Trophy mass start at the Relays

Dara OCléirigh hands over to Róisín Long (Ajax)

Waiting for changeover

Rúairí Short hands over to Colm Hill (CNOC)

Former World Champion Jorgen Martensson, one of our distinguished visitors.

See more JK photos, taken by Simon Errington, here.

April 2011

Harold White, Olivia Baxter, Charle Reid and Stephen Gilmore are among the group to launch the JK Sprint race at Stranmillis College, Belfast.

Fermanagh event cancelled

The planned event on the Tuesday after the JK (the day after the Relays) has been cancelled because  Fermanagh Orienteers' involvement in the JK weekend would overstretch the small club too much. However, you can still run on Wednesday and Thursday in the Mournes before heading southwards to the Irish Championships.

JK entries still open

Even though the official closing date for the JK individual events has passed, limited entries are still available up to the limit of printed maps. These late entries will cost £2 per day on top of the normal entry fee - see the Sportident web site for details here.

Support the Irish Junior Squad

If you're going to the JK, there are two opportunities to support the Irish Junior Squad: through going to the Table Quiz on Saturday evening at Stranmillis in Belfast, scene of the Sprint the previous day, or by buying one of the JK hoodies and sweatshirts available on the event website via Sportident. You can sign up for the quiz at the event, but you need to order the tops in advance as they are being made to order. Details here.

The Junior Squad has runners from all parts of the country and promotes technical and fitness training for young orienteers. Squad members will travel to the European Youth O-Champs in the Czech Republic in June, to the Junior World Champs in Poland in July, to the World Championships in France in August and to the Junior Home International in faraway Fermanagh September. The kids (or parents) have to put up most of the money for these trips, so every bit of help from the O-community is really appreciated.

Countdown to IOC2011
Less than four weeks to go to the premier event in the Irish O-Calendar! With the hype surrounding the JK, it may be easy to overlook the Irish Championships a week later, but the combination of the two events has been a bonus for them both. Entries for IOC have topped 400 with two days to go before entries close, but Relay entries have still to pass the 50 mark. Relays can be great fun, so if you've never tried one, get together with your friends or clubmates and give it a lash. The number of relay classes has been reduced to seven, so it's not as complex as it once was and there fill be a good number in each category.
The Middle Distance race on Saturday 30th April at Glendoo Ridge East, on the Dublin/Wicklow border between Glencullen and Glencree, will feature open mountain with old turf cuttings, and the Relay on the Bank Holiday Monday will return to the adjacent Wicklow side of the ridge facing into Glencree. The organisers recomment bringing binoculars as much of the competition area is visible from the changeover area: every control a spectator control!
Sandwiched between the two is the Classic race at Mall Hill/Brockagh, close to Laragh and Glendalough. Previous maps of the area can be seen on Routegadget from the IOC web page here. The ground is more runnable but boulder-strewn in comparison to the other two days, and GEN have kindly provided the map and terrain since the original area was declared out of bounds due to breeding birds.
Full details of the event here.

25 Years Ago

Most of the issues of The Irish Orienteer published between 1982 and 2008 have now been scanned and should shortly be available as pdf documents on the IOA web site, thanks largely to Brian Hollinshead who undertook the scanning. As a taster, here are some snippets from 1986:

The Irish Championships at Slieve Croob on April 26/27 (see JK2011) were won by the AJAX pair of Peter Kernan and Orla Cooke. Brian Corbett was 9 seconds adrift in the men's race. A good run by Marcus Pinker saw him take the M11 title! Curragh won the Men's Relay and GEN the Women's.

The cover of the first issue of the year showed Eileen Loughman running through the bush at the 1985 World Championships in Australia. Roxanne White was the only other Irish representative.
A letter of appreciation from Gareth Murphy in Dublin praised a recent string course he had done: "Dear John I enjoyed doing the string course I liked the animals I liked the bear best". Aonghus ÓCléirigh introduced "Grandslam Orienteering" with a mass start event on a lovely little map of the sand dunes at Portmarnock, sadly now a golf course. The third "Irish Orienteer Trophy" inter-club knockout competition ran in 2006, based on the UK CompassSport Cup. UCD Orienteers (also known as Belfield Orienteers, BO) celebrated their 10th anniversary. They were UCDOC but became UCDO when people used to ask "What's UCDOC?" in their best Bugs Bunny voice.

Preparations were under way for the Continental Cup and the World Military O-Championships, both to be held in Wicklow. At the IOA AGM in Wesley College, Dublin, Connacht Chairman Frank Ryan expressed the view that the sport in the province was in the doldrums (but it still survives today). The International O-Federation was celebrating its 25th birthday. A party of Swedes, led by Peo Bengtsson, visited Ireland in the week after the JK and ran in a series of specially staged events. National Orienteering Day (with introductory events across the country) was on October 5th.

The Moving Crag controversy was revisited by Curragh Orienteers and Niall Rice who had a difference of opinion at a Grade 1 event in Stradbally in May 1983 (the first event where homogenised milk was given to finishers) when a control wasn't in the expected location. This was the cause of considerable controversy in IOA for some time.

Happy times!

Phoenix Park Time Trial is no more

For several years the Irish Junior Squad has been running time trial fitness tests in the Furry Glen in Dublin's Phoenix Park, on a route involving hills, tracks, mud, trees and streams. The Office of Public Works have called a halt, though, because of concerns about environmental damage in the area, though this was hardly caused by a group of orienteers running there a couple of times a year. The March time trials are likely to be the last, but the Park may yet provide an alternative.

You can see the results of the time trials over the years at the Junior Team web site here.

Ivan's Long-O series a success

In a return to old-style orienteering with a 21st century twist, Ivan Millar organised a series of three Long orienteering events using 1:15000 maps to give the Elites and prospective Elites a chance to run longer courses on this scale of map in preparation for races like the Workd Junior Championships and the World Championships where running times in excess of two hours are common.

The events are Gortalougheny, Co. Fermanagh, Carlingford, Co. Louth and Tollymore, Co. Down, attracted good crowds whio certainly got value for money. CNOC's Colm Hill took the top spot on the Men's long course, with Ciara Largey (FermO/QUBOC) took the ladies prize.

Full results and information here.

JK Concert
A first for this year's JK is a concert featuring the groups Bearna and Bethany in the elegant Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle on Easter Sunday evening, feet will be tapping and jivers jumpin' to Lambeg and bodhrán at the JK social.
The music will be preceded by the Routegadget sessions where winners and losers dissect their routes, and the evening will feature other music and entertainment plus the prizegiving for the Trail-O events.
The organisers would prefer people to but a ticket beforehand, though they will be on sale over the weekend too. Tickets are only £7 for adults and £3 for children. Buy tickets online at the Sportident website here. Incidentally, JK entries have reached almost 2100 with a very high percentage running the sprint race as well as the conventional terrain races.
It turns out that it's not "Different Drums" after all!

Closing date reminders

JK relays 7th April

Irish Championships 8th April

Shamrock O-Ringen 6th May

Would anyone care to do a report on the recent Leinster Championships for us?

Sudden Oak Death affects Larch

Sudden Oak Death

Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad?
Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár;
níl trácht ar Chill Chais ná ar a teaghlach
is ní bainfear a cling go bráth.

Now what will we do for timber,
With the last of the woods laid low?
There's no talk of Kilcash or its household
And its bell will be struck no more.

You may have seen where the March Mountain Bike O-event at Clonmore North, Cahir, Co. Tipperary had to be abandoned because Sudden Oak Death has been found in forests in the area. Appropriately enough, the Lament for Kilcash, on the slopes of Slievenamon, ostensibly deals with deforestation in the same area in an earlier era, though really referring to the decline of the Butlers, one of the old noble families of Munster.
Curiously, the disease in Ireland seems to affect Japanese larch, beech and Noble fir trees rather than oak, but it is caused by phytophthora ramorum, a disease related to potato blight, a fungal plant disease of which Irish people will be very aware for historical reasons.
The disease has been found in forests in Northern Ireland and has also had an impact on orienteering there. One problem with the disease is diagnosis: as it affects the larch, which loses its leaves in the winter even though it's a conifer, it is not until the spring that the disease shows up when the tree fails to grow. Signs of ooozing sap and obvious wounds on the trees are also an indication that the disease has struck.
The disease is spread by wind and rain and trees which are close to laurel thickets seem to be particularly at risk. Previously it has affected rhododendrons rather than larch.
Nobody seems to know what to do to deal with it. One drastic solution is to fell the affected forest; another is to ban public access, either all together or to restrict people to roads: either of these could have a major effect on orienteering - remember foot and mouth disease in 2001?
Read what The Irish Times had to report on the disease last August here. Visit Suddenoakdeath.org here.

On 31st March 2011 the Department of Agriculture issued this press release:

Department gives update on Phytophthora ramorum Monitoring

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is continuing to survey forests and control outbreaks of the EU regulated plant disease Phytophthora ramorum, a fungus like organism that can damage and kill infected trees and plants. Under EU requirements, annual forest surveys for Phytophthora ramorum have been ongoing since 2003. Until last year, there had been no findings on tree species and P. ramorum had only been detected in forest areas on wild invasive rhododendron shrubs.  Following the initial findings in Japanese larch in Ireland in July 2010, an extensive national aerial and ground survey was conducted.  These forest surveys have now confirmed the disease in Japanese larch at eleven forest locations in five counties.

Japanese larch appears to be particularly susceptible to the disease, affecting all age classes and locally causing significant dieback and deaths.  Noble fir, beech and Spanish chestnut growing in close proximity to the infected Japanese larch have also been found to be infected at a number of the sites and it is likely that the Japanese larch is the source of the infection. The infected trees are being removed to prevent the disease spreading.

 There has also been a recent scientifically confirmed finding of P. ramorum in a single Sitka spruce tree. The infected young tree is approximately two metres in height and significantly it was growing in close proximity and underneath the canopy of a large infected rhododendron bush. It is very likely that disease spores produced by this overhanging infected rhododendron bush were the source of infection of the tree.  This is the first field record worldwide of P. ramorum infection in Sitka spruce although the species had been found to be susceptible in international laboratory trials. Spruce in the immediate area of all the Japanese larch outbreak sites have been surveyed and no further P. ramorum infections have been found.  The area around the infected Sitka spruce has been effectively quarantined and monitoring will continue.

There has also been significant number of outbreaks of the disease particularly in Japanese larch in Northern Ireland and Great Britain and the Department is liaising closely with the relevant authorities.

The Department continues to take all necessary measures to establish the extent of the infection and to control the spread of the disease.  Forest owners are requested to be particularly vigilant and as the summer growing season commences to report any unusual symptoms of ill health in larch or other species to the Forest Service of the Department.  For further information on the disease please see www.agriculture.gov.ie/forestservice

New EastWest Map of Wicklow

Barry Dalby of EastWest Mapping in Co. Wexford, has just published the fourth map of the Dublin/Wicklow mountains, a companion for his earlier maps of West Wicklow, Dublin/Wicklow and Lugnaquilla. All the maps are on Pretex waterproof paper at 1:30 000 scale with 10 m contours and retail at €9.95. They show a lot of historical and archaeological information as well as detail of more immediate importance to the walker, runner or cyclist. There's a special offer for all four maps as a package. Details here.

No Irish Sprint Champs before the Summer

On top of the twelve Days of O you've already read about, there was to be a new kid on the block: the Irish Sprint Championships at UCD, Belfield, in Dublin 4's leafy suburbs, on the eve of the Irish Championships. However, permission from the college authorities is slow to come so the event won't go ahead in April. Planner Laurence Quinn (GEN) hopes that the event will go on in the autumn, in association with a weekend of orienteering in Leinster. We've had Irish Sprint Championships before (two years ago at the Shamrock O-Ringen, the race was at Ross Island, Killarney in a small rocky complex forest with ancient copper mines; last year it was in the NUU Campus at Coleraine). This year - when it happens - will be more like the mixed urban terrain being commonly used for sprint-O. Watch this space! In the meantime, take a day's rest between the JK and the Irish Championships.

JK2000?

Will entries for the JK at Easter top 2000? Today they are at 1956 with four days to go ... Remember that the deadline for JK2011 entries is 31st March and for Relay entries is 7th April. Relay entries have to be made separately on the SportIdent website. See here for details.

Irish Championships entries close soon

Entries for the Irish Champs (both individual and relay) close on Friday 8th April: details here.

Leinster Champs return to Glencree next weekend

GEN run the Leinster Championships in Glencree next Sunday. The terrain is a mixture of steep forest, steep open craggy mountainside, and rough open not-so-steep mountain: hence the courses are rather shorter than you might expect, at least on paper. Start lists and event details are on the LOC2011 web site here.

Shamrock O-Ringen entries close May 6th

The Shamrock O-Ringen 3-Day on the wonderful Sheep's Head peninsula in West Cork is on the Bank Holiday weekend at the beginning of June and entries close on May 6th. However, because of parking and logistical issues, if the entries exceed what the organisers can deal with, entries will close before this, so enter early to be sure of a place! Details here.

March News

 
JK Deadline Approaches
Entries for the Jan Kjellstrom O-Fest in Northern Ireland at Easter have topped 1800 but IOA-based orienteers have only managed 165 entries at the last count. These entries are up on 2010 in Devon, but with such a major event just up the road, it's a shame not to take full advantage and enjoy Britain's premier O-event on your doorstep. Entries close on March 31st and Good Friday's sprint-O time slots are filling up fast, so enter now.
In addition to the main Sprint, two Individual and Relay events, there is Trail-O (fiendishly clever courses set by a certain Alan Gartside have Trail-O enthusiasts coming from all over Europe to see if they can get the better of The Man) , TempO (a bit like timed trail-O), String courses for the smallest kids, and a series of other ancillary orienteering and fell races over 12 days. Two of the JK races (Sprint and Classic at Slieve Croob) are also IOF World Ranking Events, a chance for our Elites to pick up WRE points. Incidentally, sprint entries are up a lot on last year's JK, particularly in the older age classes who are discovering the fun of sprint-O: it's mind over matter: sprint-O for the mind, not just the body!
There are large groups coming from Sweden and Norway and orienteers from another 15 countries, some staying for the Irish Champs and some even staying as long as the Shamrock O-Ringen in June! Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden are all represented, as well as the UK and Ireland.

Did you know that the Legananny Dolmen is on the slopes of Slieve Croob (JK Day 3) where the 1986 Irish Champs were run on the weekend of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion?

The Twelve Days of O
Remember that there are twelve days of orienteering associated with the JK and the Irish Championships, from QUBOC's Sprint race in the Botanic Gardens area of Belfast on Thursday 21st Aptil to the Irish Relay Champs on Monday 3nd May, so make Ireland your orienteering destination this spring. See JK details here; Irish Champs details here; Shamrock O-Ringen details here.
The omens are good for the Irish Sprint Championships in Dublin on Friday April 29th but the details have to be finalised before it's made official.

Volunteers still needed

The scale of the Jan Kjellstrom weekend is several orders of magnitude greater than anything we have seen before and the organisers need all the help they can get. The number of jobs is endless, from ones involving no knowledge of orienteering up. Please, if you can help at all, get in touch with the JK organisers and volunteer, even for a day or for a specific job, or organise a group from your club to help. If you have non-orienteering friends or family, get them involved too.
Several clubs have been designated as the start team, with a rota so they can run too; Cork O are doing the download and results; the main bulk of the work is falling on the three Northern clubs, North West OC, Fermanagh Orienteers and, of course, Lagan Valley Orienteers, who have put in months of hard work to bring the project this far.
Seriously, time is running out and volunteers are genuinely needed. You're not being asked to give blood, just sweat and tears!

JK Hoodies and Sweatshirts now available

The Irish Junior Squad will be selling JK hoodies and sweatshirts to raise money for their squad training and tours. The tops are available in a range of colours (blue, red, green, grey and black) and sizes. They should be ordered in advance at the JK entries page and picked up at the event. Irish Juniors have been warned only to get the green ones! Hoodies and sweatshirts have to be ordered by 31st March. See the JK entries web site here.




 JK Entertainment too!

A 4-star hotel is the venue for a unique night's entertainment to round off the festival aspect of this year's JK. The ballroom of the sumptuous Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle (where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea) has been taken over for the Trail O prizegiving and a major concert and night's entertainment on the Sunday night, before the Relays on the final day of the festival.
Tickets for this extravaganza (including Routegadget presentations of winners' routes, inspired by the Shamrock Sessions) should be booked on the JK entries web site here. Adults £7, under-12's £3.

The Slieve Donard was opened in 1898 as a luxury hotel at the terminus of the Belfast and Co. Down Railway, attracting visitors to the spectacular scenery of Newcastle.
Please remove muddy O-shoes before entering the hotel!

Some March 2011 Dates for your diary: full details on the IOA/NIOA Fixtures Lists.

6th         2010 Munster Championships, intricate extensive sand dunes, Inch, Co. Kerry
7th         Final date for cheap Leinster Champs entries. See here.
12-13th  Junior Squad training weekend, Dublin
13th        Bull Island, Dublin. Leinster League event on fast sand dunes.
14th        Leinster Champs entries close.
19th        Mountain Bike O, Clonmore North, Cahir, Co. Tipperary: CANCELLED. See note below.
20th        Final Long-O event for experienced orienteers, Tollymore, Co. Down
26th        Northern Ireland Score Championships, Belvoir Park, Belfast
31st        JK 2011 entries close
April 3   Leinster Championships, Glencree, Co. Wicklow

Spring News

The birds have started to sing, which is a sign of spring, but they also bring bad news for orienteers. Breeding birds of prey in the only forest section to be used on Slieve Croob at JK2011 and on the area for the Classic race at the Irish Championships have caused access problems. However, all is not lost: some judicious replanning of courses will be necessary for the Elites at the JK but the effects on Ajax's IOC are more serious so the competition has been moved to Brockagh Mountain/Mall Hill , near Laragh in Co. Wicklow, courtesy of GEN.
It's  easy to be wise after the event, but perhaps the name of the IOC area, Carraig Na Seabhac ('Rock of the Hawks') might have given a clue ...
Full details of these changes can be read at the IOC web site here. For details of JK2011, see here. JK entry fees increase on Sunday 27th February.

The Twelve Days of O 

There's a great opportunity for orienteering between Easter and the May Bank Holiday weekend, with  twelve events in twelve days, or even more if you take in the String course and o-maze at three days of the JK!

Thu Apr 21st, Belfast Queen's Sprint
Fri Apr 22nd, Belfast JK Sprint
Sat Apr 23rd, Co. Down JK Middle/Long
Sun Apr 24th, Co. Down JK Long
Mon Apr 25th, Co. Down JK Relay
Tue Apr 26th, Co. Fermanagh Gortalughany Colour
Wed Apr 27th, Co. Down Mournes Colour
Thu Apr 28th, Co. Down Mournes Colour
Sat Apr 30th – IOC Middle, Co. Wicklow
Sat Apr 30th – Mini-O
Sun May 1st – IOC Classic
Mon May 2nd – IOC Relay

There are also two fell races in the Mournes on the two Thursday evenings and a pre-IOC training event is planned at Scarr, near Laragh: more details later!

Have you entered the JK and IOC yet? There are almost 200 runners entered for IOC and more than 1700 for the JK. With all the on-line entries, it's easy to overlook one (like the Munster Championships, now on the magnificent sand dunes of  Inch, Co. Kerry (see photo) on March 6th, and the Leinster Championships in Glencree, Co. Wicklow, on April 3rd. - cheapest entries to March 7th.)

Other interesting events coming up include some mountain-bike orienteering in Munster organised by CorkO on 26th February in the Nagles Mountains, near Fermoy, and on 19th March (at Clonmore North, Cahir).

Meanwhile, Setanta's Seán Hassett is trying to coordinate Leinster fixtures for the rest of the year. He hopes that there will be some MTB-O events in Leinster too.

The Northern Ireland Night Championships will be in the University of Ulster, Coleraine on February 19th - remember the IOC Sprint race last year?

In Leinster, Fingal again push the envelope northwards with an event on February 20th at Derrycassin, Co. Longford, a companion for their maps in Meath, Cavan and Monaghan.

For Elites and aspiring Elites, Ivan Millar's Long-O series continues at Carlingford on February 27th and Tollymore/Meelmore on March 20th. These races are only for experienced and fit orienteers who need to get practice running on 1:15000 scale maps, although a shorter-but-still-difficult course will also be available.

On the subject of aspiring elites, IOA are running a Junior Squad Training Weekend  in Leinster on March 12/13, with the uausl gut-busting time trials in the Furry Glen in Dublin's Phoenix Park on the Saturday and Ajax's Bull Island event in the subtle sand dunes on Sunday. Unfortunately the Saturday clashes with the All Ireland Schools and Colleges Cross Country Championships, also in Dublin.

On March 26th the NI Score Championships will be run in the Lagan Valley Regional Park in Belfast.

More to follow ... Incidentally, the movie theme (The Birds; Ryan's Daughter - filmed at Inch) in this edition is coincidental, but can anyone think of some more movie references relevant to orienteering? Lost? A Walk in the Sun? Maybe "Gone with the Wind" when all your controls blow away? Dumb-O? Into the West? Send them in!

New Year 2011

2011 Events Preview
Here we are at the start of possibly the biggest year ever in Irish Orienteering: as well as all the usual highlights, we have a week full of outstanding competitions in April and May with the Jan Kjellstrom and the Irish Championships back to back. Online entries are open for both competitions and cheap entries are still available - don't forget to enter!
As well as some great competitions at home (regional championships, Junior Home International, Shamrock O-Ringen), there's the World Championships in France, the Scottish 6-Day and many other big competitions. Here we preview some of the year's activities.
This feature is being added to day by day, so do drop in from time to time to see what else has been added!

Ireland

The 2010 Munster Championships are at Rossbeigh, Co. Kerry on 6th March (postponed from last Autumn), doubtless running the 2010 age classes. The Leinster Championships in April return to the Glencree area of Wicklow where GEN are hosting the event on the 3rd. Hot on the heels of the Leinsters we have the Jan Kellstrom O-Festival 2011 in Belfast and Co. Down. If you've never been to the JK, British Orienteering's premier event, now is your chance. Details here. No planes, no ferries, no hassle: the organisers are even laying on buses to the events for anyone who isn't travelling by car. Training, Sprint-O at Stranmillis in Belfast, classic distance races on the dunes of Tyrella and the slopes of Slieve Croob (scene of IOC'86), followed by relays again at Tyrella, plus Trail-O, then colour events during the week and training at Carlingford and Scarr on the way to Ajax's Irish Championships on the Dublin/Wicklow border. See here. What a week!
Then, on June 4-5-6 we have Cork Orienteers running another Shamrock O-Ringen on the wonderful Sheep's Head peninsula of West Cork, with Setanta's 24-hour Rogaine in Wicklow on June  25th. Shamrock entries close on May 6th but may be closed earlier if parking etc becomes a problem, so enter early!
After the summer, the Junior Home International is in Fermanagh in September, then the 2011 Munster Championships on October 30th and the Connacht Championships on November 27th - more details of these closer to the time. Two Munster Champs in one year - is this a record?

A great place to start your search is at the World of Orienteering website here. If you prefer things on the printed page, you need to subscvribe to the excellent CompassSport magazine (see here), which publishes event information and an annual review of major events.

Britain

Orienteering travellers will be interested in the Scottish 6-Day at Oban on July 31 - August 6th. Details here. This is one of the more popular holiday events with runners from all over Europe, and is pretty accessible by plane or ferry. Scottish terrain is challenging and varied, with open mountainside, natural forest and plantation, with great competition in every class and plenty to do when not orienteering.
Apart from this, there are major events around the country and details are all on the British Orienteering web site here. They include National Events in Norfolk on 19/20 February (incorporating the Midland Championships), the Southern Championships near Henley on March 13th, the Northern Championships near Newcastle on March 27th, British Championships at Sheffield on May 14th/15th, and the Scottish Championships near Comrie on 27th May.
The City of London race (run in streets and parks but longer than a sprint) is on 10th September and is acquiring a reputation as a "must-do" event, rather like the Venice street-O. Details here.

Europe

At the top of the orienteering tree is the World Championships, this year in France in August. WOC2011 10-20 August, Savoie Grand Revard, near Chambery in SE France. Details here. There's a series of open events on during the WOC from August 14-20th - details here. Cheaper entries are available before May 1st but beware - the rules in France state that you have to have a recent medical certificate in order to compete there.
Earlier, we have the Portugese O-Meeting on 3-8 March, this year inland (last year's was close to the coast). Details here. It's around Portalegre on the east side of Portugal but unfortunately it doesn't coincide with the schools mid-term as it's tied to the start of Lent. It's followed by a World Ranking event at Evora, near Lisbon, on March 11-13. Details here. Curiously, there's another WRE in Spain on the same days, near Valencia. See here. Allan Bogle's "Active Canaria" are running training on Grand Canaria  there's a 3-Dayon February  11-13: details here.
Further north, the Spring Cup in Denmark marks the end of hibernation for the Scandinavians and is popular with Irish and British runners. The three day competition at Roskilde features a night relay, night sprint, individual and relay races on March 21-23. Details here.
If you'd prefer something a bit warmer, the Mediterranean O-Champs is on at the same time in Sicily with all the events close together. Details here.

One superb orienteering area is around Asiago in Trentino, northern Italy, where the Highlands Open and Italian Middle Distance Championships are on 14/15 May, with a training camp during the week before it. See where John Feehan runs! Details here.
Moving towards the summer,and just after our own Shamrock O-|Ringen, you might be tempted by the Belgian 3-Day on June 11-13 near Charleroi (Ryanair). A week later, the Jukola 7-person overnight relay in Finland, is at Salpa, 15 km from the Russian border and only 2 hours from St Petersburg. They expect 16000 runners and 40000 visitors: a fantastic weekend.
July is peak season for multi-day holiday events, and Kainuu Week in Finland may be worth a look. Its on July 3-8 at Kuhmo, but it's 600 km from Helsinki. More realistic is the Finnish 5-Day Fin-5 from July 11-16, only 50 km west of Helsinki. The O-Ringen (Swedish 5-Day) is at Mohed in Halsingland (250 km north of Stockholm) from July 24-29: is it the biggest sporting event in the world? There is a large choice of classes and competition types: teams, kids, beginners etc, so there's something for everyone, not just the elites. Details here.

Elsewhere

For those of you in the Defence Forces, the CISM World Military O-Championships are in Brazil in July, as part of the World Military Games. Details here.

Mapping Meeting

Club Mapping Officers were invited to a LIDAR/GPS workshop on Saturday 15th January 2011 at Lumville House, The Curragh, Co. Kildare. The workshop covered the use of LIDAR and GPS in the production of orienteering maps. The IOA LIDAR project, which involves the procurement of LIDAR data, was explained, with a practical demonstration of its application along with the use of GPS devices, plus a discussion on the map registration process and a proposal on how the current system can be improved. I hope we'll get a report on the meeting for you to read.

IOC Sprint Race - A Missed Opportunity?

With a fantastic week's orienteering in store at the end of April, starting with the JK and ending with the Irish Championships, what a pity that nobody has undertaken to run an Irish Sprint-O Championships. The JK Sprint race at Stranmillis in Belfast will kick off the JK Festival, but  wouldn't it be great to have an Irish Sprint Championships the following Friday to launch IOC2011?
Belfield campus in Dublin would be a great location, as there's an existing map and a good range of terrains from buildings to open land and forest. Would it need an ISSOM map or would the existing map be enough?
Sprint-O races are great spectator events and give an intense mental and physical workout where tenths of seconds can make all the difference between podium and odium.
Any takers? There's still three months to go ...

New International Rules Published by IOF

From January 1st 2011 there are new rules for international orienteering events. You can read them on the International Orienteering Federation web site here. These rules will also form the basis for national rules in member countries.

Joss Lynam 1924-2011

Joss Lynam was one of the founders of Irish orienteering back in the 1960's. Before that he had been a founding member of the Irish Mountaineering Club and the Association for Adventure Sports (AFAS). He spent a lifetime working for outdoor activities and adventure sports, taking up kyaking in his '40's, climbing in the Alps and the Himalaya, writing multiple guidebooks to mountaineering and hillwalking in Ireland, editing the IMC journal "Mountain Log" for many years.
No doubt there will be many eloquent and glowing tributes to Joss, but for my part I came to know him first through AFAS and our respective editorships of the mountaineering and orienteering newsletters. Joss was ahead of his time in buying an early Macintosh computer back in the early '80's and I followed suit after seeing his.
He had a comprehensive collection of books and maps and was always happy to share his knowledge. I had enormous respect for him: the effort he put in to keeping Tiglin Adventure Centre running on a shoestring, the enthusiasm he showed for projects like the long distance walks and other Sports Council projects was remarkable.
In orienteering terms Joss was a well known face at events in Leinster and further afield; as an engineer he had an interest in surveying and put his skills to good use to produce some of our earliest orienteering maps and the first colour O-maps in Ireland.
Joss was a founder member of Irish Orienteers, the original Irish O-club, and later of Three Rock OC whose AGM he, and his wife Nora, rarely missed. He was recently in touch about the annual Christmas Score event run by 3ROC to apologise for not being able to help.
Joss's orienteering legacy lives on through his daughter, Ruth, the IOA Junior Affairs Officer, and her sons Ruairí and Conor Short.
Our sympathy goes to his wife, Nora, daughters Ruth and Clodagh and their families.
Joss died on 9th January 2011. May he rest in peace.