April 2012/2

GEN, FIN, NWOC and LVO take Trophies at JK

Fingal's Jean O'Neill took joint first place with multiple champion Carol McNeill in the W65 Sprint race at the JK on Good Friday, while the Great Eastern Navigators team of Laurence Quinn, Jonathan Quinn and Aoife McCavana (not Eadaoin as I had said - her time will come!) snatched the prize in the Mixed Ad Hoc class, the biggest class in the Jan Kjellstrom Relay race at Newtyle Hill near Dunkeld in Scotland on Easter Monday, following in the footsteps of the Irish Junior Squad team who won in 2008. Meanwhile, in the more cerebral Trail Orienteering competition, Declan McGrellis (LVO) followed up his runs in the conventional orienteering with a clear win over the two days of the JK Trail-O event.
2400 orienteers from around the world, though mainly from Britain, came together in Scotland for four days of varied orienteering. Starting on Good Friday with an urban sprint race (winning times of sub-15 minutes) at Livingston, near Edinburgh, the competition moved to more conventional areas for Saturday (Dunalastair, near Loch Tummel), Sunday (Craig a Barns, across the road from Birnam Wood near Dunkeld) and Monday (Newtyle, also near Dunkeld).

Livingston, I presume?

Livingston was hardly, as the JK website claimed "probably the finest technical urban orienteering destination in Britain". It was a mixture of 1960's traffic-free housing estates with passageways and parkland and provided perfectly adequate urban sprint terrain, without the 3-dimensional complexity found in London's Barbican or in the NUU at Coleraine. The 1:4000 scale map meant that things came up very quickly and the high number of controls on the course meant that constant concentration was required to shave seconds off here and there. I was not alone in running under a road and crossing a river on a bridge without realising, and searching on the wrong side of the river for my control - a mistake which cost two minutes and caused me to drop 15 places!

W21E Dunalastair

Irish top-10 results were James Logue (ex NWOC) 1st M40, Jean O'Neill (FIN) 1st W65, Eoin McCullough (3ROC) 4th M18E, Frank Martindale (3ROC) 5th M75, Jonathan Quinn (GEN) 6th M16, Zoe Tyner (SET) 6th W10, Róisín Long (AJAX) 6th W16, Ciaran Kearns (FIN) 7th M12, Steven Linton (NWOC) 7th M45, Laurence Quinn 8th M18E, Declan McGrellis (LVO) 9th M40, Clodagh Moran (3ROC) 9th W12, Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC) 9th W21E, Mary O'Connell (3ROC) 9th W50, Colm Moran (3ROC) 10th M20E and Brian Corbett (CorkO) 10th M50. Read the Nopesport account here. Day 1 photos by Wendy Carlyle are here.
Dunalastair, west of Loch Tummel, is a mixture of coniferous forest, mixed semi-open birch forest, heathery bog and marsh - good quality Scottish terrain with scarcely a path to be seen, but limited a bit by fence crossings. Some dubious mapping of vegetation near the start unnerved a number of the runners and reduced their confidence in the map. Conditions were cool and breezy but the showers stayed away for most of the day. Snow on the surrounding hills, particularly Schiehallion (where Astronomer Royal Dr Nevil Maskelyne performed experiments in 1774 to establish the density of the earth and where contours were first used to show points of the same height) didn't interfere with the running. Read the Nopesport account here. See Wendy Carlyle's photos here.

M21E Craig a Barns

Craig a Barns, near Dunkeld, is famous for its orienteering challenge and huge crags. It was used for the first Scottish Championships 50 years ago. The route to the Red start, for the longer courses, involved a 1.8 km walk with 190 metres climb through the crags in the final 300 metres. Lots of contour detail, varied forest, steep hills and hundreds of fallen trees were the hallmarks of the area.
Best Irish overall performances were from James Logue, 1st M40L, Steven Linton, 3rd M45L, Aonghus O'Cléirigh, 3rd M50L, Ruth Lynam (CNOC) 4th W55L, Jean O'Neill, 4th W65L, Frank Martindale, 5th M75L, John Feehan (BVOC) 6th M40L, Conor Short (CNOC) 7th M20E, Harry Millar (LVO) 8th M18L, Áine McCann (LVO) 8th W20E,
Irish Champions Marcus Pinker (CorkO) and Ciara Largey (FermO) were our best M21E and W21E, finishing in 15th and 17th places, respectively. Wilbert Hollinger (LVO) was 1st M60S, Liam Convery (3ROC) 1st M75S, Helen Baxter (LVO) 1st W55S, 3ROC's Máire Convery and Julie Cleary finished 3rd and 4th in W45S, only 48 seconds apart over the two days, while their clubmate Nora Lee was 3rd W50S. Read Nopesport here. See Wendy's photos here.

JK Relays, Newtyle Hill

The JK Relays at Newtyle featured an assembly area on an exposed open hillside beside a small lake with good views of parts of the courses on the semi-open hillside opposite. The courses provided quite a lot of climb but the terrain was mostly runnable except for some heathery open sections with rock detail. Again, crossing points on fences split the area up into distinct parcels and the courses featured a high density of controls. GEN were clear winners in the Mixed Ad Hoc class (the only class where the runners need not be from the same club, and the biggest class in the competition with almost 80 teams. There is one long, one medium and one short leg. It's good to see that at last there are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Other than this, the best Irish performances were from CNOC, 4th in the Women's Short, LVO 7th in the Men's Short, and CNOC, 12th in the JK Trophy. Read Nopesport here. See photo's here.
How did JK 2012 compare with JK2011 in Northern Ireland?  I'm biased, of course, but - while the Scottish terrain and the event as a whole were excellent, I don't think the organisation was as polished as at JK2011: the A3 sheet serving as a programme was maybe a bit light on information, I saw no evidence of JK T-shirts or merchandise on sale, there was no Wilfs Café (imagine!) ... but these are small criticisms.

All the results and Routegadget are on the JK 2012 web site here.

The 2013 JK will be in the Chiltern Hills, west of London, from 29th March to 1st April, with a sprint (location to be confirmed), individuals at Hambleden and at Cold Ash and Relays at Hambleden.

Individual JK winners

M21E Scott Fraser (INT)
M20E Peter Bray (SN)
M18E Aidan Smith (SYO)
W21E Claire Ward (ESOC)
W20E Charlotte Watson (WCOC)
W18E Lucy Butt (SARUM)

Relay winners

JK Trophy, Interlopers Team Compasspoint 1
Murray Strain/Oleg Chepelin/Scott Fraser
Women’s Trophy, EUOC Ladies 1
Catherine Taylor/Hollie Orr/Rebecca Harding

Juniors Train in Scotland

After the JK many of the Irish Junior Squad stayed on in Scotland for a training camp over the next three days. Thanks to Ruth Lynam, Marcus Pinker, Darren Burke and Steven Linton who were the main people running the training which took in Craigvinean, Dunalastair, Drummond Hill and Faskally and exposed the squad to some top quality areas of a type we don't see in Ireland: technically demanding runnable forest. From my perspective they all learned a lot, even (or maybe, in particular) the younger ones just coming into the Squad. Thanks to all the coaches, particularly Marcus, for taking this on!

Irish 3-Day entry reminder

Cheapest entries for the Western Eagles Irish 3-Day in Co. Galway are up until 27th April. Details are here. The event is on the June Bank Holiday weekend, based at Oughterard, with a short race starting on Saturday afternoon, a classic distance on Sunday and a chasing start on Monday. (In a chasing start the leader goes off first with others starting according to how far behind the leader they are when their first two days' times are added together, so the first across the line on Day 3 is the winner). Enter online here.

Numbers for this event should be good as I suspect that many people who opted to give the Irish Championships a miss this year will travel to Galway instead. On the other hand, there are two attractive events in the UK the same weekend, particularly nine days in Scotland for anyone bitten by the Scottish orienteering bug at the JK, including the World Trail-O Championships on the forested dunes of Tentsmuir. Details of WTOC are here. Details of the Scottish Jubilee Five weekend (11 events in 9 days) are here. These races, including the Scottish Chmpionships, will be used for Irish World Championships team selection.

If the south of England appeals to you more, the four days of the Jubilee O-Festival in Surrey and Sussex might be your thing: details here. This includes a sprint in the University of Surrey, previously used for a JK and World Cup.

European Champs Team Announced

Ivan Millar, Convener of Selectors, has just announced the team for the European Championships in Dalarna, in the middle of Sweden from May 13th to 20th:
Men: Nicolas Simonin (Bishopstown), David Healy (GEN), Hugh Cashell (CNOC), Gerard Butler (3ROC)
Women: Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC), Rosalind Hussey (FermO), Ciara Largey (FermO).
Good luck to the team!
You can follow the team on the EOC website here.

Old Systems Die Hard

Control Cards anyone? Pat Healy is planning on getting old style control cards printed on "Polyart" synthetic paper and on card, for anyone still using punches rather than electronic timing - there is still a place for olf fashioned punches, in areas prone to vandalism, or for small events or training.
If you are interested in getting some printed, contact Pat at healy.pat@gmail.com.

25 Years Ago

 WINNERS IN B CLASSES AT CHAMPIONSHIPS The IOA Executive recommend that those in the first three placings in
M21B/W21B at National and Provincial Championships be ineligible to run in that class at those events the following year. They may compete in B class at all Championships in the one year ... SENIOR HOME INTERNATIONAL 1986: A grant of £12 has been given to each team member ... SUSPENSION REDUCED The Executive consider that the Leinster Technical Officer's suspension of Eoin Rothery from Grade I controlling for two years is too long. This penalty has now been reduced to one year ... AIDS and ORIENTEERING: ARE WE AT RISK?
"There is a cloud on the horizon. It is only a small cloud at present and it is a long way off. but it will get bigger and it could come our way. It is called AIDS." Should we as orienteers be concerned about this killer disease, asks BRIAN PARKER of Devon OC? ... Swedes fail to Turn Up ... Intervarsities in atrocious weather in Galway: Mens open: UCCO 1st, DUO 2nd. UCDO 3rd; Womens open: DUO (no other teams managed to finish) ... Interprovincial results, held at Union Wood, Sligo on March 1st: Leinster 266 points, Munster 178 points, Ulster 163 points, Connacht 52 points.
(Snippets from The Irish Orienteer No. 28, March-April 1987).

April 2012

JK2012 Preview

2400 orienteers head for the 2012 Jan Kjellstrom Orienteering Festival in Scotland over Easter, including 125 from Ireland.  The four-day competition features an urban sprint race in Livingston, a "new town" near Edinburgh this year celebrating its 50th birthday, then two individual races at Dunalastair, near Pitlochry and Craig a Barns near Dunkeld, and a relay at Newtyle, also near Dunkeld. It doesn't seem like a year ago when many of us were involved in JK2011 in Northern Ireland, but it will be good to just go and run.

Jan Kjellstrom was a young Swedish orienteer who helped establish the sport in Britain, son of Alvar Kjellstrom, one of the founders of the Silva compass company. He was killed in a car accident in early 1967 and the JK was established that year in his memory.

Interest has been heightened this year since the announcement that the 2015 World Championships will be in Scotland so many orienteers from around the world are taking the opportunity to race and train in the area. Both the Irish Senior and Junior Squads are staying on after the events for some Scottish terrain training.

Craig a Barns

Craig a Barns is famous as the scene of the first Scottish Championships way back in 1962 and was the first area specially mapped for orienteering in Scotland. It offers big crags, rough runnable forest and typical Scottish terrain. It's just across the valley from Birnam Wood (remember Macbeth?).

Interest will centre on the Elites: Darren Burke, Gerard Butler, Hugh Cashell, Colm Hill, Seamus O'Boyle, Marcus Pinker and Ruairi Short in M21E and Ros Hussey, Susan Lambe, Ciara Largey and Niamh O'Boyle in W21E in the classic races, and those running for JWOC and EYOC selection are M18E's Eoin McCullough, Jack Millar and Laurence Quinn, M20E's Cillín Corbett, Colm Moran, Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan and Conor Short, W18E's Niamh Corbett and Clíona McCullough, and W20E Áine McCann.

JK2012 is one of two selection races for the Junior World Championships (JWOC) in Slovakia in July and for the European Youth O-Champs in France in June/July, so interest in the juniors' performance will be keen.

Livingston

The selection races for the Irish 2012 World Championships team will be held in Scotland at the beginning of June, so JK2012 will also be good preparation for these trials. (The World Championships are in Switzerland in July).

Also on the JK agenda is Trail-O and the LVO triumvirate of Alan Gartside, Wilbert Hollinger and Declan McGrellis will be flying the flag there. As the World Trail-O Championships are also in Scotland in June, this will be a useful outing for them. Declan was 3rd and  Alan 5th in the Open class in the British Trail-O Champs on Anglesea on St. Patrick's weekend.

The JK Trophy itself is awarded for the Relay and again, several Irish teams will be running: CNOC, LVO, Ajax, Cork and 3ROC are expected to field strong teams, though they are unlikely to dislodge the top British and international teams.

The forecast for Easter is for cold wintry conditions (10 cm of snow in parts of Scotland) and the added uncertainty of a possible fuel tanker strike should all add extra challenges.

If you like to plan ahead, JK2013 will start on 29th March in the Chiltern Hills, west of London.

Irish Championships Update

We are now into the final phase of preparation for IOC 2012 in Kerry on the first weekend in May. Bishopstown Orienteers have reduced the entry fees and the current Adult rates are €27 per day for the Middle Distance, €30 for the Classic and €80 for a relay team. Not cheap, but not as high as the initially proposed levels, and you're just still in time to enter.
The areas, sand dunes at Castlegregory, Inch and the Maharees on the Dingle Peninsula, will provide very intricate contour-orienteering in very scenic surroundings and I hope that, while the initial negative response to the event caused by the high entry fees may reduce the numbers, it won't diminish the status of the event.

The IOA Annual General Meeting will also be on the IOC weekend.  Details of IOC are here.

Entry reminder

Not going to IOC? Then remember the Irish 3-Day on the June Bank Holiday (2-3-4) weekend, based at Oughterard in Co. Galway: a short race with late afternoon starts on the Saturday. The word is that it's like Inishbofin (fast, open, complex, fun). Cheap entries until April 27th. Details here.

Bobby Smyth

MTBO anyone?

The Leinster Mountain Bike Orienteering series is hanging in the balance, with only Setanta's event at Djouce confirmed for May 13th. Leinster clubs have been invited to run an event to tie in with the SET outing but not much has happened as yet - another reason for re-establishing the three provincial Regional Associations?

April events

In addition to JK 2012, the last two Leinster Spring league events are in April: Three Rock on 15th and Mullaghmeen, Co. Westmeath on 29th. April also sees five different types of league events in Munster. In the North there's a sprint at Castlewellan on the 14th, and evening event at Florencecourt on the 17th, a training event at Portglenone on the 21st and a Colour Series at Slievenagiore on the 28th (pay attention, prospective VHI Team members!). The IOA list is below, but check it against the current one if you plan to travel.

6	Livingston	Perthshire	Jan Kjellström Festival of Orienteering 2012 / Sprint (Pre-entry)	SOA
7	Dunalastair	Perthshire	Jan Kjellström Festival of Orienteering 2012 / Individual Day 1 (Pre-entry)	SOA
8	Craig a Barns	Perthshire	Jan Kjellström Festival of Orienteering 2012 / Individual Day 2 (Pre-entry)	SOA
9	Newtyle	Perthshire	Jan Kjellström Festival of Orienteering 2012 / Relays (Pre-entry)	SOA
9	Barleycove Sand Hills	Cork	Cork Spring League / Family Day / No. 4	Bishopstown
15	Woodstock	Kilkenny	Southeast League / No. 10	Waterford
15	Ross Castle	Kerry	Kingdom League / No. 6	Kerry
15	Three Rock Wood	Dublin	Leinster Spring Cup / No. 6	Three Rock
15	Hazelwood	Sligo	Non-league / 'Come-and-try-it' Event /	SligO
21	Rosskerrig	Cork	'Off The Paths' Training Event / (Closed - CorkO)	Cork
22	Rosskerrig	Cork	Munster League / No. 5	Cork
26	Farran Forest Park	Cork	Cork Mid-Week League / 'Come-and-try-it' Event / No. 6	Bishopstown
26	Farran Forest Park	Cork	Business Houses League / Family Evening / No. 1	Bishopstown
29	Inchydoney Sand Hills	Cork	Cork Spring League / Family Day / No. 5	Bishopstown
29	Mullaghmeen	Westmeath	Leinster Spring Cup / No. 7	Setanta

CNOC evenings announced

Curragh-Naas OC have announced their 2012 Summer Series (do they know something about the weather that we don't?) of evening races, always popular with Leinster orienteers. The events are on Tuesday evenings starting on May 15th at  Lumville on the Curragh, then Donadea (May 22nd), Hillwood, Monasterevin (May 29th), Sunnyhill, Curragh (June 12th) and Hollywood, Co. Wicklow (June 19th).

Adventure. Sport. 

When orienteering started here back in the '60's it was closely associated with what were called "adventure sports" like rock climbing, canoeing, mountaineering, hang gliding and scuba diving.  Orienteering was one of the core sports of AFAS, the Association for Adventure Sports, and the national outdoor centre at Tiglin, Co. Wicklow (now a centre for TCI, Teen Challenge Ireland, dealing with young homeless people or ones with addiction problems). The earliest orienteers like Joss Lynam, Seán Rothery or Paddy O'Leary could be found in the forest one weekend and rock climbing in Glendalough the next: a wet weekend was a cue for the canoeists to take a day off work to shoot the rapids on the Avonmore.
With the current popularity of adventure races, there is a new generation of people out there who enjoy this kind of stuff, although maybe it has to be dressed up in flashy clothes and charge a large entry fee for an adventure race.
Navigation is a key part of these races and there's an opportunity there for orienteering to grab some of these keen people. The CNOC events with an "adventure course"; the NIOA running navigation training for adventure racers; the British Orienteering colour event specifications including things like long orange courses for those who want a run but whose navigation isn't up to a very technical course: we should cater more for these and gradually reel them in to the best sport of all!

Course Planning Course
Course planners from around the country attended the IOA Course Planning meeting in Dublin on Saturday 31st March. Graham Nilsen, controller of one of the days of the JK last year, and IOA Technical Officer Harold White gave the presentations and there was a practical session on the Ajax map of the Bull Island, used for a Leinster league event the previous Sunday.
Graham focused on the technical difficulty standards for different courses and ensuring that the participants at events got a course that was right for them: easy for beginners and progressing to more difficult. He also looked at planning for different types of courses (sprint, middle distance and long) and illustrated his talks with examples from his long career as a planner and competitor.
Harold gave a preview of what is being considered for a revision of the IOA Rules relating to Championship events - have we got the winning times in the rules right or should we change them? To what extent to planners abide by the existing guidelines anyway, and how do you cope with changes in conditions (faster or slower running underfoot) between planning the courses and running the event?
We all went away with food for thought and a greater appreciation of what course planning can achieve.
Graham, incidentally, is the author of the British course planning book (read it here) which, though the courses don't exactly coincide with ours, is very relevant and worth reading. Here is a section on planning the technically difficult courses, for example. Here is Appendix B from the British rules dealing with course planning. Graham reckoned that TD3 (technical difficulty 3) courses like Orange and TD4 (Light Green) can be the most difficult to plan, so here is the section referring to Orange and Light Green courses.
This course was due to be held in Dublin in December 2010 but was snowed off.

March 2012/1

Spring is in the air ...

The lengthening evenings, the leaves appearing on the trees, the JK on the horizon: yes, spring is here. The usual springtime events are on the way, leading to the Irish Championships in Kerry. 

Prepare for IOC by running on the dunes at Bull Island (Dublin) or Banna (Kerry) on March 25th; Don't miss Mullaghmeen, Co. Westmeath on April 29th - run in the bluebells in Ireland's largest planted beech forest. If you're at school, are you running in the Irish Schools Championships at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny on March 21st and 22nd? On 1st April, CNOC unveil a new map in Co. Laois at Carrigmeal, close to the Rock of Dunamase: how can you resist a new map? You could head for the Mournes on 14th (Tollymore) and 28th April (Slievenagore), or start the Irish Mountain Running Association's evening races with Killiney on 18th April. Let's get out there!

                                             CHRISTMAS 2011 

ORIENTEERING IN BELGIUM

Jean O’Neill,  Fingal Orienteers

I decided to go to the Sylvester 5-day in December - the only other Christmas multi-day event was in Australia—too far away!  It was a great choice.  The competition was over five days, with the best four to count (scores were on a points system).  It started on 26^th December so I travelled on 26^th and entered for the remaining four days.  All the events were in the East of Belgium, Flanders.  Four Belgian clubs and one from the Netherlands (who have joined the Flanders Association) organised one day each.  Total number of competitors was around 300.  There were 50 non Belgians, including me and the GEN  MacCavana family.  I paid my entry fee when I arrived, €5 per day plus €2 per day for hire of an EMIT card.

The assembly area each day (EC) was in a sports or community hall:  all administration, registration, download etc was inside.  Tables and chairs were laid out throughout the hall and the orienteers sat themselves down with their family and friends.  You arrived and parked your car outside and went inside and stayed there except for your run. It was nice and WARM and sociable.   Everyone changed their clothes at the tables.  Drinks and food were for sale and toilet facilities were off the entrance hallways.  The distance to the start varied from 80 metres to 2km, distance from finish to the EC varied from 50m to 1km. The weather was dry through the week but it was overcast and chilly. It was a pleasure to come back to a warm hall each day, I was wondering before I went would I be wet and miserable after my runs!   

The forests for the most part were very runnable  and flattish.  Day 2 had steep areas and some sandy contour detail, 1 to 10,000.  Day 3’s map was at 1 to 7,500 as there was so much small contour detail-this was the most technical map of the week.  I unfortunately couldn’t find the first control as it was described as a re-entrant, whereas it was actually on a spur-I saw it but told myself it couldn’t be mine.  I went on to have an excellent run the next day, and won my class easily - most of the others in my class discarded their results this day.  This event was over the border in the Netherlands and was very flat. We started in a forested area,  1.5km from the EC which was a pub/restaurant, very crowded,  bodies and bags everywhere! Courses then crossed large open areas—a mixture of sandy areas and short and long grassy areas-- to scattered patches of forest with contour detail and lots of black X’s-tiny root stocks.  On the final day there was a large area with a grid-type track network, unfortunately not N/S or E/W and lots of drains/ditches. The forest was a mixture of white and various shades of green,  with indistinct vegetation changes (which caused me a big problem on one of my last controls).  Most of the controls were on small root stocks or drains-not visible until right on them.

There was a prizegiving for the first three in each class, and I and  Aoife MacCavana took 3^rd prizes.

This was a great event, very well organised, and to be recommended.  I have previously been to Belgium for summer 3 day events,  they were always very enjoyable.  My driver to the events each day (Luc Cloostermans) is organising and planning a 3 competition event in Bruges (the Venice of the North) in northern Belgium at the beginning of June, it will be a mixture of forest and sprint and city events.  Details on http://bruges.hamok.be/.

"Get involved in Orienteering"

Sky Sports recently had a feature on orienteering:  based on some BOF events, it shows what an exciting sport it is. See the clip here. British Orienteering also have some neat videos on their web site here. Of course, don't forget Finn van Gelderen's short O-film on the IOA web site just over to your right ... or how about this superb one from Poland which Finn has just highlighted: see here. The title, Wyzwanie, means "Challenge".

Representative Events

These are some dates you should know if you're planning your year and are in line for international selection:
June 8-14 CISM World Military Championships, Denmark
June 16-17 Veteran Home International, Northern Ireland
June 28-July 1 European Youth Champs (EYOC), Correze, France
June 30 - July 7 World University Champs, Alicante, Spain
July 6-14 Junior World Champs (JWOC), Slovakia
July 14-21 World Championships (WOC), Lausanne, Switzerland
Sept 22-23 Senior Home International, Scotland
Oct 13-14 Junior Home International, South of England

St Patrick's Street-O?

If you're looking for something different on St Patrick's Weekend and you're not going to the British Trail-O Championships at Newborough on Anglesea, why not enter a team in the City of Science Treasure Hunt in Dublin?
It's for teams of four and starts at City Hall between 10 and 1 on Monday 19th March. See details here.

February 2012/1

 IOC 2012

The annual Irish Orienteering Championships is the flagship event of the orienteering year. It should provide the best competition, the best courses and the best maps and be supported by all the orienteers in the country. How many sports are there where you can just send in your money and enter the National Championships? There isn't even a stipulation that you have to be in an orienteering club to take part, only to win a title.
In reality, the numbers at an Irish Championships don't always include all the orienteers in the country, any more than the numbers running in today's National Cross Country Club Championships add up to the number of cross country runners in the country. What is it about Championship competitions that seems to put people off?
This year's Irish Championships, due to be staged at on the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry on the May Bank Holiday weekend, has thrown another factor into the mix: the cost of entry fees.
Orienteering is generally a cheap sport to take part in: your average Sunday competition will cost about €8 for an adult club member. Compare this with upwards of €20 or €25 for a road race, and maybe €75 or more for a marathon and you'll see what value we provide. Usually there is a substantial reduction for juniors, students and families, so that in general your family's day's outing should cost no more than about €20 in entry fees for a local event. Obviously Championships cost more because of the cost of prizes and other overheads. The cost of map production is spread over the lifetime of the map and events in remote locations which may attract small numbers are subsidised by events in local forests or parks which can generate a large surplus.
The announcment of the entry fees for IOA 2012 was greeted with surprise on the Yahoo O-groups forum, generating some correspondence and negative reaction. The initial high fees (€29 for adults for the middle distance, €39 for the long distance and €78 for a relay team at the cheapest rate) have since been reduced and the entry dates modified, but little has been done to address the cost of junior and family rates. This is a huge jump from any entry fees we have ever paid. Look at some other events: British Champs STG£19 for an adult, including £4 for parking and bussing; JK2012 from £16 per day for an adult, less than half that for juniors; Swedish O-Ringen from €112 for five days for an adult) ...
The initial negative reaction may prove hard to overcome and the IOC will suffer as a result. The real winners may be the 3-Day in Galway at the beginning of June where three days of orienteering are promised on new maps of complex areas at less than half the price. Competitors from Northern Ireland will have the option of going to the British Championships in the Lake District the same weekend as the Irish Championships.
A further area of concern was the legibility and detail of the maps. Three open sand dune areas will be used and the organisers were advising competitors to bring a magnifying glass to read the detail. We saw this approach at last year's World Championships in France and I must say it did not add to the enjoyment of the competition. The skill in using the new LIDAR base maps, it seems to me, is in knowing what to take off the map rather than in what to put on. It brings to mind the paradoxical Borges short story "On exactitude in science" about a map of the world at 1:1 scale - see here.
I doubt if anything I say here will persuade people to go if they have already made up their minds one way or the other, but I think that having an affordable entry fee would encourage participation, increase numbers, bring better competition and make the event into a true Irish Championships: the Ryanair approach rather than the high-cost airline approach. I wish Bishopstown every success with IOC 2012, but orienteers will vote with their feet and it will take a considerable charm offensive to counteract the rather negative feeling the event has already generated. At the end of the day, the Irish Championships is the Irish Championships.
The question does arise, however, as to what IOA's responsibility is regarding the Irish Championships. Recent IOA Executive Meeting minutes clearly convey the concern of the national governing body for the success of IOC and they have offered advice as to how the event could be made more affordable. The IOA concern includes the technical aspect (that the areas, maps and courses will be of the required standard) but should their involvement not also include some financial oversight and broad approval of budgets? This is to maintain the status of the event and also to protect the organising club.
Details of IOC are on the Bishopstown IOC website here. The least expensive entry fees apply until February 29th.
*Since posting this, BOC have been in touch to point out that the entry fees have fallen further and the cheapest entry date has been put back to March 7th. Check the IOC web site for details*

IOA news: Course planning

There are still some places available for the IOA one-day Planning Workshop on Saturday 31 March at the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel, Northern Cross, Malahide Road, Dublin 17. It is being led by Graham Nilsen of MEROC who is a very experienced planner and controller.
Graham was the author of the British Orienteering Course Planning book that was first published in 1995 and updated in 2006. He controlled Day 3 of JK 2011. The Workshop will include sessions on planning for different types of competitions, and for the different classes of competitor. A session will discuss the standards for the Irish and regional Championships. A practical planning exercise will take place in a neighbouring complex area.
The subsidised cost of the Workshop is €25 that includes the cost of lunch. To book a place you should send a cheque for €25 to Aine Joyce, Irish Orienteering Association, 13, Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4.
The Workshop is limited to 20 participants and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. The course will run from 9.30am to 6.00 pm. It may be possible to reserve a place by e-mailing Áine at osec@orienteering.ie.
A further Planning Workshop will be held later in the year at a location convenient to orienteers based in the south and west.
Harold White, Controller of Technical Standards

Marathon Madness

Time was when orienteers embraced the marathon enthusiastically. It was something you just had to do. Rooting through some old stuff recently I came across the results of the 1983 Dublin Marathon and saw a number of familiar names. In the 8688 finishers, the fastest orienteer I noticed was Donal Burke, then of LeeO, at 2.38.52 in 101st place. Donal has had knee refurbishment work recently and is back running again. His son, Darren, is on the Irish WOC Squad. Other sub-three-hour names which you might recognise were Pat Healy (2.51.19), the late Eddie Gaffney (2.51.20), Justin May (2.51.27), Seán Cotter (2.51.47), Deirdre Nagle (7th lady in 2.55.01) and John McCullough (2.55.43).
Are any orienteers running marathons nowadays? Did Eoin Rothery (winner of the Trinity Marathon back in the '70's), Carey May (Winning lady in the first Dublin Marathon) and Jean Folan (first woman to run a marathon on Irish soil in 1979) start a trend which fizzled out? Have adventure races and other extreme sports taken over? If so, can we attract these people into orienteering?

Saturday Night Fever

The Dublin by Night series of six night events on Saturday nights has finished with Ruairi Short a clear winner on the Long course competition with Gerard Butler second and Aonghus O'Cléirigh third. Ruth Lynam was best women on the Long course in 9th. Roxanne White won the Short course series followed by Eileen Walsh and Colin Walsh.
Numbers at the races were fairly steady and all the events set different challenges. From Howth (golf courses and rhododendrons with fantastic views over the city) to Phoenix Park (longest courses), Ballinascorney (very dark, very muddy tracks), Barnaslingan (huge crags over the Scalp), Slade Valley (mist and probably the last time the area can be used before felling ...and, by the way, what was the map scale again?), and the final on the Curragh (controls below ground level).
Thanks to everyone involved - it was a great series and anyone with a torch and a reasonable command of orienteering would enjoy these events. Watch out for next year's series. Perhaps the organisers would consider awarding points for controllers, planners and organisers to compensate for missing the event they ran for the others?
If you can't wait, you could run one of the big Scandinavian overnight relays (Jukola or Tio Mila) or the Harvester Trophy in the UK. (The 2012 Harvester is on July 1st at Bordon Heaths in Surrey, run by BAOC). For night owls who want to run in the dark without a map, try the Dublin night 10K on April 29th (see here), or look out for the series of night time trail runs on Thursday nights in Northern Ireland (see here). The final race is in Barnetts Park, Belfast, on February 28th.
Incidentally, if you're running the Dublin race, bring your sunglasses: the race seems to start at 8.30 pm but sunset, according to my calendar, isn't until 8.52 pm ...

Shamrock AR

We've had the Shamrock O-Ringen three day orienteering competition, now we have the 24-hour Shamrock Adventure Race, sponsored by Basecamp. It's being run largely by a group of orienteers, including Eoin Keith, Sarah Ni Ruairc, Kevin O'Riordan and Diarmuid OColmáin, and will be based in the highest village in Ireland, Roundwood, Co. Wicklow on March 31st-April 1st.
The race starts at 1 pm on Saturday and involves teams of four (with at least one female) navigating, running, mountain-biking, kyaking and otherwise making their way around the course, with additional challenges. The race is limited to 16 teams. Entry fee is €500 per team (that works out at about €5 per person per hour). There is a talk on adventure racing at the Basecamp shop in Abbey Street, Dublin 1 on Thursday 1st March at 7 pm. More details here.

O-Bits

Both the Senior and Junior Squads will have a training weekend on 10th/11th March: the Seniors, led by Darren Burke, at Crohane, near Loo Bridge in Co. Kerry, used for the 1998 World Cup races, and with a night-O in Killarney, followed by a Munster League event in the Nagles Mountains on the Sunday; the Juniors, meanwhile, will be based in Leinster. Their activities will kick off on Saturday with the time-honoured time trial circuit in the Furry Glen in Dublin's Phoenix Park, followed by O-training on Saturday and more on Sunday at Stradbally, Co. Laois.

SligO: Gerry Foley of Sligo has sent in some old O-maps of Union Wood and other woods around Sligo from the early days of orienteering in the area. The maps were black and white photocopies with few if any contours and look more like the "Here be monsters" maps of the olden days than they do orienteering maps. Gerry writes of the map above "Away back in the early 1970's a small group from Sligo Mountaineering Club used to run orienteering courses in Union Wood, Co. Sligo. Attached is a copy of the map we used. I surveyed and drew the map which was based on the O.S. map of the area. We occasionally ran events for local scout and school groups."
Those were the days when the control description "The boulder" meant it was on the map and "A boulder" meant that it wasn't. Now that was an adventure sport! (Click on the map to enlarge it).

January 2012/1

Happy New Year
Rather belatedly, Happy New Year everyone. After the Christmas excesses (the Goal Mile, maybe followed by a run up the mountains on Christmas day, then orienteering on St Stephen's Day, followed maybe by the Djouce trail race, the Setanta hike and a race on New Year's day), it's good to be back to normal!
Why not make a new year promise to yourself to try some new orienteering experience this year, whether it's night-O, Trail orienteering, sprint-O, mountain bike orienteering, running in a new county, a new province or a new country? The world is your oyster ...

Accessible orienteering

In the current economic climate, orienteering can represent great value for money: where else would you find a fun day out for a family for an entry fee of €20 or less? One of the major costs of orienteering is transport, however. This could be tackled in several ways: bring to people to the orienteering by public transpiort, by special O-buses (there used to be buses organised to events so that non car-owners could still travel) or by car-pooling as the IMRA have been forced to do to reduce parking difficulties. Another way is to bring the orienteering to the people: the growth of urban orienteering, in the UK and across the world, has opened up the sport to runners and others who might not have tried it before; you can run events on people's doorsteps and still provide an orienteerting challenge.
With sprint and urban races taking place in competitions with the profile of the World Championships, we can no longer say that we don't have suitable terrain in Ireland. We may not have the complex forests of Scandinavia, but we have the towns and cities to make challenging city races and maybe draw in a whole new generation of orienteer who will then move on to the classic sport.
Anywhere with a higgeldy-piggeldy core should provide a good challenge; throw in a few parks, a few hills and some buildings like a university campus and you're almost there. Look at any map of an old Irish town and see the potential: Cork, Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Newry, Galway, Howth, Sligo, Dublin, Balfast, Derry ...  Of course we need the orienteers there to first produce the maps and then to capitalise on the event and grow the sport, and we need the existing orienteers to support the events, but even might oak trees grow from little acorns ...

New Squad Blogs
Ivan Millar has launched two new blogs for 2012: one follows the Senior Squad's preparation for the World Championships in Switzerland in July (see it here) and the other follows the elites generally - see here. World Championships selection will take place at the Jubilee 5-Days orienteering in Scotland at the beginning of June, unfortunately clashing with the Irish 3-Day in Galway.

Try Night-O
It's one of orienteering's better-kept secrets. Night orienteering adds new challenges - it makes even the most innocuous areas interesting, and makes interesting areas much more so. There are three events left in the Dublin by Night series (Barnaslingan (behind The Scalp near Kilternan) on Jan 28th; Slade Valley, Saggart on 4th February and The Curragh on February 11th). The Northern Ireland Night Championships are also on February 11th at Parkanaur, near Dungannon, Co. Tyrone. Details from LVO here. Note: For insurance reasons, night orienteering is restricted to M/W 16 and above.

2012 O-Planner
It's that time again - armchair planning for the events you'd like to take in in 2012. There are competitions at home and abroad, one-day to multi-day, suitable for all ages and abilities, some family-friendly, some less so, some big, some small. If you can recommend any events that you think others might enjoy, send the details to TIO and I'll include them. Have a browse here and see what appeals to you....

January

Do some night orienteering! See the IOA fixtures list for details.

February

18-21 Portugal O-Meet, see here. This is tied in with the date of Easter but this year it coincides a bit with schools' mid-term: good for kids, bad for air fares. Inland, not too far from Porto.
18-20 Morocco 3-Days including sprint and supersprints. See here.
24-25 Israel Championships near Jerusalem. See here.
25-26 Marina Grande, Portugal. World Ranking event. See here.

March

2-4 Murcia, Spain. Details here. At this time of year the south of Spain can be lovely to run in: oranges and lemons fresh from the trees at the finish ...
10-11 Slovenia. Karst limestone terrain near Trieste. See here.
23-25 Mediterranean Championships, Rome. 2 middle distance, 1 sprint. Park World Tour. See here.
24-25 Danish Spring: a new format and a new name for the Spring Cup. May be a bit early for some - there can be snow on the ground still, but this is when the Scandinavians come out of hibernation. See here.
 24-25 British Sprint and Middle Distance Championships, York. Details here.

April

6-9 JK2010 at Easter in Scotland. Challenging terrain (the 2015 World Championships will be in Scotland) and the awesome Craig'a'Barns near Dunkeld. Don't miss it! See here.
6-9 Sardinia 4-Days. See here.
6-8 Prague Easter. Sandstone forests in the Czech Republic. See here.
13-15 US Championships, Georgia. Sprint, Middle, Long, Trail-O. See here.

May

5-7 Irish Championships in Kerry. Sand dunes at Castlegregory, Inch and the Maherees. Bishopstown OC.
5-7 British Championships, Cumbria. A pity they clash with the Irish Champs. A new BOF rule means that non British Citizens can't be British Champions, though, so we may see a few more of our UK-based orienteers running at IOC instead of BOC. Details here.
5-6 Tio Mila overnight relay for teams of ten runners; legs from 7 to 18 km, near Linkoping, Sweden (served by Ryanair). Details here.
5-6 European Rogaine Champs, Kaunas, Lithuania. See here. Good preparation for the annual Setanta Rogaine! (A rogaine is a long distance score event, typically 12 or 24 hours).
14-20 European Championships, Dalarna, Sweden. Public races from 17th to 20th. Entry cap at 5000. Details here.
17-20 Holland-OL. 5 events in 4 days at Breda in Holland. Details here.

June

2-3 Bruges O-weekend Belgium. Details later here.
2-4 Irish 3-Day, Oughterard, Co. Galway. WEGO three-day. Can Oughterard match Inishbofin for differentness and good orienteering? We'll have to wait and see ... Details here.
2-5 Scottish Championships and Jubilee-5 weekend: details here. Sounds like a fantastic few days orienteering; includes the Irish Team selection races for the World Championships.
2-5 Jubilee O-Festival, south east England. Details here.
16-17 Jukola and Venla Relays, near Helsinki, Finland. A must-do-in-your-lifetime event. Overnight 7-person relay for anyone, Venla 4-person relay for ladies in the afternoon. Details here.
16-17 Veteran Home Internationals, Northern Ireland. A pity it clashes with the Jukola, but it's great to have the event in June and not October or November when the weather can be against us.
18-23 Tallinn O-Week, Estonia. Includes two World Ranking events on sand dune forests. See here.
20-24 Greenland "Nuuk O-Festival". See here. Maybe only for the really committed!
23 Setanta Orienteers' Wicklow Rogaine.
29-July 1 European Youth O-Champs, Bugeat, Correze, France. Runners in M/W 14/16/18. There should be open events for the rest of us too. See here.
29-July 2 Belgian 3-Day near Liege. Long WRE (World Ranking Event), Middle and Long, plus training. See here.

July

1-6 Kainuu O-Week, Finland. Details here.
1-8 World Masters O-Champs, Harz Mountains, Germany, on the border of the old East/West Germany. Age classes M/W 35+, no selection required - just pay and play! See here.
2-8 Sorlandsgaloppen, southern Norway. Details here.
7-13 Junior World Championships, Kosice, Slovakia. Age classes M/W 20 only. Details here. 4-day public event also running with JWOC - details here.
15-20 Swiss 5-Day and World Champs, Lausanne, Switzerland. Support the Irish team at WOC! Details here.
22-27 Swedish O-Ringen 5-Day near Malmo, southern Sweden (easily accessible). The biggest multi-day event of all. See here. "Sand, sea and beech forest". In recent years the O-Ringen has really opened up, with team events, a 2-day race, mountain bike and trail orienteering included.
22-28 Croeso Welsh 6-Day, Aberystwyth. The Irish Juniors are going here for their 2012 tour. Details here. Cheapest entry closes on January 31st.
24-29 Croatia Open, Delnice, northern Croatia. Negative Karst terrain, lots of huge depressions in the forest for 5 days. See here.

August

1-5 OO Cup, Slovenia. Includes "Ultimate" classes where the maps have no paths! See here. More karst forests, with the famous Postonja caves nearby.
9-12 Tyr-OL 3-Days, Austrian alps, including a World Ranking event. Sprint, Middle, Long. See here.
31-Sept 1 World Rogaining Championships, Prague. See here.

September

1 Copeland Islands, Co. Down. LVO event. Check your tidal tables before you travel ...
5-9 SE Europe O-Champs, Bursa, Turkey. Details here.
22 City of London race. If you can't make it to Venice in November, try this, the 5th staging of the event. See here. Followed next day by the Southern Championships at Epping Forest in Essex- see here.
28 Leinster Championships, Carraig na Seabhac, Co. Wicklow. Ajax.

October

2-6 and 7-10 Sicily. Two events back to back. Details here later in the year.
6 Northern Ireland Championships, Binevenegh, Co. Derry
13-14 Junior Home Internationals, south of London.
18-21 North American Championships, Delaware. Details here.
30 Munster Championships, Dromana, Villierstown, Co. Waterford. WatO.
30-Nov 4 Istanbul 5-Days, Turkey. Details here.

November

9-11 Adriatic O-Meeting, Italy, just defore the Venice street event. Details here later in the year.
12 Venice street O. A great event, by all accounts. Details here.
25 Connacht Championships.

December

26-30 Sylvester 5-Days. Annual Christmas time event in Belgium. See here as a starting point.
27-31 Australian Christmas 5-Day,  Victoria. Details later in the year from the Australian O-Federation here. Our own Eoin Rothery, former multiple Irish champion, won the Men's C-class in the 2011 event.

... which brings us back to where we came in!

A really good place to look for events abroad is in the calendar section of the "World of O" web site here. More information and reports on these events will be found in CompassSport magazine (http://www.compasssport.co.uk/). Some of the information in this list came from CompassSport.

Changing age classes?

Are you due to change your orienteering age class in 2012? Your orienteering age is determined by your age on 31st December of the year. Junior age classes go in 2-year increments from M10 or W10 to M/W20; veteran age classes go in 5 year increments from M/W 35 upwards; Open classes (M/W 21) are for ages 21 to 34. Relatively few competitions with the exception of Championships require specific age classes to run on specific courses.

Age classes 2012

Year of birth	Age class
After 2001	M/W10
2000-2001	M/W12
1998-99	M/W14
1996-97	M/W16
1994-95	M/W18
1992-93	M/W20
1978-91	M/W21
1973-77	M/W35
1968-72	M/W40
1963-67	M/W45
1958-62	M/W50
1953-57	M/W55
1948-52	M/W60
1943-47	M/W65
1938-42	M/W70
1933-37	M/W75
1928-32	M/W80
1923-27	M/W85
Before 1923	M/W90

  Harold White receives Torch Trophy

As reported here before Christmas, Harold White has received a Torch Trophy for his voluntary work for orienteering over the years, culminating in his work as coordinator of the successful JK 2011 in Northern Ireland. The photo shows Harold with the award and Princess Alexandra at a ceremony in London. Harold is IOA Technical Officer.




International Trail-O 2012
There are two international Trail-O Championships in 2012. The European Champs will be run alongside the Foot-O in Falun, Sweden from 17th until 20th May; the team can be up to a maximum of 6 in each of the Open and Paralympic classes. The World Championships will be run as a standalone event in Scotland from 6th until 9th June; the team can be up to 3 in each of the Open and Paralympic classes. Preliminary entries have to be in by 15th and 31st of January respectively so this message is seeking expressions of interest from those wishing to be considered for selection in order to gauge the potential size of team. Please respond urgently to atgartside (at) yahoo.co.uk.
It should be noted that those selected will be required to bear the full costs of participation; at the moment it looks as if these will be for ETOC €225 plus accommodation and meals plus return travel from home and for WTOC GB£455 plus return travel from home.

TIO Archive

Delve into the past in the Irish Orienteer Archive from 1982 here.

December 2011/1

Connacht Championships Report

Yet another loaves and fishes event where a small number manage to feed a multitude. The Ryan family and Padraig Higgins staged another Connacht Championships on November 27th, on a new map of open firing-ranges and military land at Oranmore, Co. Galway.
The terrain was fast but provided few technical challenges for the experienced competitors. The map was good (1:10000 scale with 2.5 m contours) and had a much more professional look than the Portumna map used for the 2010 event. Some winning margins were pretty tight (2 seconds in W16) so small errors or route-choice variations could be the difference between winning and losing. Climb was negligible so running the whole course at speed was the only way. The final loop (shared by a large number of courses) traversed an area of long tussocky grass which contrasted with the faster running of most of the map. Old walls and lots of small stony areas shown as cairns, with shell-crater depressions, provided many of the features.
Darren Burke (CorkO) added to his Munster Champs title and won the M21L course, and Ros Hussey (DUO) did the same in W21L. Organisationally, the event was good, with SportIdent timing, results and Routegadget available at teatime (others please copy!) and the opportunity - as with other WEGO events - to enter and pay electronically.
Looking at the courses on Routegadget, there did seem to be a lot of shared legs and some more variation in direction would have provided more interest, and maybe more use could be made of the large depressions rather than just siting a control on the edge at ground level, but I have learned over the years that you criticise a Connacht Championships at your peril!
The area is a bit reminiscent of a nearby one at Kilcolgan used for an IOC Relay (in 1991?) with lots of walls and cairns, but that area was forested which reduced the visibility of the controls and increased the navigational challenge. On this occasion, for me, the controls were too visible and the navigation too easy. It would be a good area for a night event, though.
Results, Routegadget etc here.


Irish Trail-O Championships
LVO staged the Irish Trail-O Championships at Castlewellan on November 26th. Alan Gartside, Stephen Gilmore and Wilbert Hollinger, who would normally be among the top finishers, were involved in the organisation, so it opened the competition up a bit.
There were two classes: one for Irish Champion and one for visitors. John Kewley won the visitors' class with a score of 19 points out of a possible 22, and a decision time of 56 seconds. Interestingly, John was the only one of the 22 competitors to get the first timed control right. Second was GB team-mate Ian Ditchfield also with 19 points but with a decision time of 105 seconds. Christine Roberts was 3rd with 16 points.
In the Irish Championships section, Declan McGrellis again proved his expertise, winning with 18 points and 86.5 seconds from Helen Baxter (18 points, 116 seconds) and Lyle Fleming (16 points, 222 seconds). Details of the event and results (also of previous ITOC's) are here. Planners analysis etc to follow.
It is hoped to run the British Trail-O Championships at Newborough Forest in Anglesey in March, only a stone's throw from Holyhead.
Virtually all the Irish Champs competitors were from LVO so they obviously know about the event. Try finding details of it via the LVO or NIOA websites, though ...

Junior Squad Training for JWOC

Junior World Championships hopefuls had a training weekend at Newcastle, Co. Down on December 3-4 under the watchful eye of coach Greg McCann. The weekend coincided with an LVO competition in Donard Forest on the slopes of the highest mountain in Ulster. Donard, incidemtally, was the location of possibly the first Irish Junior Championships, at a time when the Junior and Senior Champs were separate. That was, I think, in 1977. The map was printed on Tyvek, which was a revolutionary step: it stained easily with mud and blood, but you could read it in the bath (nobody had showers then!).
JWOC 2012 is in Slovakia next summer and age alasses M and W 20 are mainly involved.
There will be further training sessions for the Juniors at the end of January, with the possibility of a spring tour during February mid-term. They will also have a week's training in Scotland after the JK at Easter, and a tour to the Welsh 6-Day in July. Oh to be young again!

Design an O-Top

The Irish Juniors are working on a design of an O-top for international competition. Production of the tops will be subsidised by income earned at JK2011 in Northern Ireland.

Harold awarded Torch Trophy

LVO's Harold White received a Torch Trophy at the end of November to mark his many years of service to orienteering, culminating in his coordinating the very successful JK2011 last Easter. Harold, wearing his 3ROC hat, is also the IOA Technical Officer.

The Torch Trophy Trust has its origins in the 1948 Olympics held in London. Before every Olympic Games a torch relay is organised from Athens to the host city. Following the 1948 Games, the Torch designed for the last leg of the Relay into Wembley Stadium was presented to the Trust.
The Trust provides small bursaries to assist volunteers in sport and presents Awards to individuals who have been identified as making an outstanding contribution as a volunteer in their chosen sport.

For the Torch Trophy Trust, the flaming torch symbolises its dedication to helping and recognising the efforts of volunteers in sport. Click on the flames on this page to find out more, and apply for one of the limited number of Torch Trophy Trust Bursaries.

The Trust is entirely run by volunteers, and its Trustees are some of the best known names in British sport. Those involved include Mary Peters, Jimmy Hill and Bobby Charlton. See more details here.

Congratulations, Harold!

Night-O Starts in Howth

The first night event of the winter is at Howth, Co. Dublin, on Saturday 10th December. Subsequent events in the "Dublin by Night" series are on Saturday January 14th (Phoenix Park), 21st (Ballinascorney), 28th (Carrickgollogan), February 4th (Slade Valley) and 11th (Curragh East). Generally two courses are offered but for insurance reasons they are only open to M/W16 and above. The Howth event will start at the GAA club on Dungriffin Road and there will be two courses, about 3.0 km and 4.5 km. Start times 6 to 7.30 pm. The club bar will be open afterwards for orienteers! Details from Fingal Orienteers here.

O in Venice

Dave Richardson reports from the urban O-event in Venice ...

M50 Venice 2011

Saturday's Park-O

The 2nd weekend in November brought our 2nd visit to the Venice street orienteering event. As last year the Venice event was preceded by two world Park tour sprints, unfortunately the details of the sprint events were only published a month before so we had already made our travel plans.
This year's trip started with a "Park O" event in Venice S.Elena on Saturday afternoon, this was actually a sprint type event on a 1:5000 map. The weather was great for running, 14 deg C, sunny and no wind.
My men's open course was 4.2K and 18 controls around the streets and alleys of an area at the Eastern end of Venice, it was a nice easy introduction to orienteering in Venice for those new to it. I had been in bed with the 'flu most of the week so was reasonably happy with a time of 30:55, I made one small error missing the alley I was looking for on the first control that cost around 30 seconds but other than that no mistakes.
The main Venice street O was Sunday morning, again aroound 14C and sunny. The first start times were at 0900 so by the time we travelled up the Grand Canal on the water boat we could already see orienteers appearing and disappearing up lanes and passages, maps in hand, dodging tourists.
The organisation of the event is good: a large sports centre acts as event centre and has a large basketball arena where everyone changes. The buzz around the place is fantastic, 4000+ orienteers from all over the world all there for the unique experience of the strret O.
A short walk to the Square used for the start, into the -4 box, clear. -3 Check, -2 control descriptions (Wait a minute -  they are all "end of building"!). -1 box ready to go, beep beep beep and off just like every event except this time it's fast and furious. Which alley way to take? The left hand one, across the bridge, second turn on the right and then next right, just down here - yes got it! Good - now I can settle down. The course was 7k but by the time I had navigated the narrow streets I actually ran 11k. There were some really good legs including my 8-9 that was 1.6k including the problem of which Grand Canal bridge to use.
Quick route choices, fine navigation at speed (not so much of the speed for me!) and keeping map contact are the challenges on this 1:7500 map. Small errors losing 30 secs or a minute can lose you 5 -10 places the times are that tight. I finished in 72:13 in 78th place, without the 5 minutes of errors I made I would have been 55th, but that's orienteering.
Personally I can't wait to go back next year and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Hopefully next year we won't be the only two entries from Irish O-clubs. Visit the Venice orienteering web site here. See the Men's Elite course here.
[Dave found the Venice experience useful a few days later, running in the Ajax Glendoo Ridge event - remember the area of the IOC Relays in May? "First turf bank on the left, second right, third left ...- Ed]
(Editor's note: travel may be simpler next year with the possibility of specially arranged direct flights from Ireland going out on Saturday morning and back on Sunday evening. Interested? Watch this space!)

Plans for WOC

How will the recently-announced IOF plans for future World Orienteering Championships (WOC) affect Ireland? The WOC has evolved over the years since Ireland first took part in 1976: initially it was just an Individual and Relay with all the team running and the event on every second year; in 1979 it changed to odd years so as not to clash with the Olympics; then the World Cup started on the years between WOCs; then qualification races started so that not everyone got a run in the final; then other disciplines were introduced (sprint and middle-distance) and the WOC was run every year.
What's next?
Read aall about the IOF proposals here. Let us know what you think!

Senior Selectors Wanted
Ivan Millar, Director of High Performance Orienteering with IOA, is appealing for people with an interest in international elite competition to come forward to act as selectors for international teams. Contact Ivan at elites@orienteering.ie

That's all for now!