June 2012/1

Orienteering in the Olympics?

Maybe this is as close as we will get to orienteering in the Olympics for the foreseeable future, but congratulations to Fingal's Fiach O'Rourke who was an Olympic Torch Bearer on 28th May in Wales. Fiach, a student at Bangor University, represented Ireland as a Junior at orienteering and has brought orienteering back to life in Bangor University, as well as badminton and squash. (The previous O-club, Bangor Backwoodsmen, must have folded?).
You can read Fiach's nomination here. (Thanks to Marcus Geoghegan for noticing this!).

Irish 3-Day

The June Bank Holiday weekend will see three new maps near Oughterard in Co. Galway used for the first time by Western Eagles Galway Orienteers. The word is - keep in contact with the map! Intricate open hillside on three adjacent areas, mapped by Pádraig Higgins and with courses planned by Ed Niland, Martin Flynn and Paul Dunne should set good challenges to the 160-odd orienteers entered. Unfortunately the Irish World Championships team selection races are in Scotland at the same time, so most of the Elites are missing. Lots of potential UK orienteers have also been lured away by several very promising events in Scotland over the weekend.
Saturday sees short courses with starts from 4 pm, Sunday will have classic distance courses (the M21L is  9.6 km with 300 metres climb) and Monday will have slightly shorter courses with a chasing start.
Several regular visitors will be back again, with the locals who decided to give the Irish Champs a miss. Runners from the UK, USA, Sweden, Ukraine and Switzerland will add to the local colour
Details of the event are here.
Somewhat confusingly, the pre-event information says "All rock features are not mapped". Mmm ...

New IOA Chair
Mary O'Connell, former IOA Treasurer, has been co-opted onto the Executive as the new Chairman. At the AGM in Castlegregory the call was put out looking for a replacement for Brendan O'Brien, who had served the maximum three years, and Mary responded. Having been on the Executive before is a very useful attribute for an incoming Chairman. 
Mary (3ROC) is a familiar face at events around the country and abroad. Her son, Colm Moran, is  coming towards the end of a year training in Sweden and was selected for the JWOC team for Slovakia. (Of course I have to mention that up-and-coming junior, daughter Clodagh Moran here too!) Best wishes, Mary, on your ratification!
 

Junior International Teams

Congratulations to the members of the two Irish Junior teams travelling abroad this summer: the European Youth O-Championships in Correze in France are at the end of June (see here for details) and the Junior World Championships are in Slovakia at the beginning of July (see here).

The EYOC team is: W16 Róisín Long (AJAX), Aoife McCavana (GEN); W18 Niamh Corbett (CorkO); M16 Jonathan Quinn (GEN), M18 Eoin McCullough (3ROC), Jack Millar (LVO).
Team leaders: Mike Long, Ruth Lynam.

The JWOC team is:  W20 Aine McCann (LVO), M20 Colm Moran (3ROC), Conor Short (CNOC), Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan (BOC). Team leader: Greg McCann.
Preliminary entries have been received from 38 countries so far.

Junior Tour

The Irish Junior Squad tour is travelling to the Welsh 6-Day, Croeso 2012, in Aberystwyth from July 22-28. 1700 entries have so far been reveived for the event, which will feature Welsh open hillsides, forest and urban orienteering. Entries are still open and you can get details here.

European Championships

The Irish team at the European Championships at Falun in Sweden in May got some good preparation for July's World Championships in Switzerland, running all the disciplines (Sprint, middle, classic and relay) in varied continental terrain against top class opposition. The team was Roz Hussey (DUO), Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC), Nick Simonin (BOC), Dave Healy (GEN) and Hugh Cashell (CNOC), with all except Roz now Swedish-based. Both Nick and Roz qualified for the Sprint final. You can all read all about the week here.
Gerard Butler (3ROC) had to withdraw from the team following the death of his mother. Our sympathies go to Gerard and to his father, Michael, on the death of Toni.

World Championships

Follow the Irish Team as they prepare for the World Championships in Switzerland in July here and here. The WOC web site is here. The selection races are in Scotland at the beginning of June.

The Tollymore Festival of Orienteering - June 15-17, Co. Down.

Details of this 3 day event are now available here and entries can be made at Fabian.co.uk here.
The weekend includes the Veteran Home International with camping available in Tollymore on the Friday and Saturday nights and a barbecue on the Saturday night.
Please note that this is a pre-entry event with entries and bookings closing on Sunday 10 June.
Harold White, Event Coordinator
(The Veteran Home International team selection is still to be announced).

Summer O-Series-es

There are several series of local events on over the summer: in Leinster the CNOC Tuesday evenings continue until June 19th in Hollywood; CorkO's summer series continue on Tuesday evenings until James's Fort on July 17th; the North Cork Orienteers events are on Wednesday evenings until 27th June at Ballyhass Lakes; LVO's WEE (Wednesday Evening Events) series run until 29th August at Stormont; NWOC's ThEE (Thursday ... you get the picture!) events run until 14th June at Downhill and Fermanagh are finishing up their TES (yes, you've guessed it!) events on Tuesday 5th June at Florencecourt.
Details of these events are in the fixtures section of the IOA and NIOA web sites.

Watch out too for a series of 3ROC events in Dublin's Phoenix Park on Tuesdays in August and Fingal's Scatter event series in North Co. Dublin in September.

And, for a family day out, there's the Athletics Ireland Family Fun Day at Farmleigh, beside the Phoenix Park on Sunday July 1st, featuring basic orienteering as well as lots of other activities. Details here.

Finally, Good Luck to all our orienteers doing school and college exams around now: they'll be over before you know it, then off to EYOC, JWOC, Wales, O-Ringen, Austria, Norway ...

May 2012/2

Irish Championships

Mt. Brandon from the Relays

Excellent areas, excellent maps, worthy Champions - these could summarise Bishopstown OC's Irish Championships last weekend in Kerry's sand dunes.
Marcus Pinker retained his Men's title in the Classic race at Inch, while late entry Maeve O'Grady's (DFO) years of training and competition paid off when she took the W21 Elite title. See the classic race results here. In the middle distance event the day before at Castlegregory, Darren Burke took the trophy (his first Senior title), relegating Marcus to second, while Ros Hussey had a comfortable win in W21E. Full results here.
In an exciting finish to the Relays, Cork O's Marcus Pinker gained minutes on third leg leader Colm Hill (CNOC) to win the Men's race while late entries CNOC comfortably took the Women's race with junior Caoimhe O'Boyle joining veterans Eileen Loughman and Ruth Lynam on the rostrum. Relay results will be here.

Terry, Darren, Marcus, Brian

It was an enjoyable weekend's orienteering, with the controls in the right place, no major complaints about the courses, and good weather for running and spectators. What a pity that the entry fees were so high, though, and that put off many would-be competitors - a pity that it may go down as the most expensive IOC yet.

Having said that, you might think that the high entry fees would guarantee a correspondingly high level of organisation, but this was not really the case. BOC, "one of the largest orienteering clubs in Cork and Munster" according to their website, seemed to be able to muster only a very small number of helpers. Despite Club Chairman Terry Ley playing a blinder and doing every available job himself at some stage, there were some serious administrative deficiencies in the event. Is it unreasonable to expect prompt results with split times, Sportident units woken up before the race, Routegadget, maybe even punches on the entry on the day controls? There was an unnecesessary neutralised section at the road crossing in the relay which made the head to head racing element a bit meaningless - the central feature of relays should be that it's the first team across the line wins. Taking on IOC is a serious undertaking, but the organisational standards which are adequate for a local park event may not be sufficient for an Irish Championships. As one comment below echoes, surely you should have an external controller, at least? BOC are obviously good at running local events (their web site lists an impressive 27 BOC events so far this year, not including IOC) but where were all the members last weekend - did the club buy into the IOC project as much as it could have?
The excuses for not having split times printed at the Relays ("we have run out of paper"; "we have no printer in the club") are not enough for competitors who supported the event at up to €80 per team.

Terry, Caoimhe, Eileen, Ruth.

Anyhow, clubs aren't queuing up to organise IOC so thanks are due to BOC for taking it on. Maybe if more club members got out more to events in other places there might be a realisation that the competitors expect and deserve better organisation and a less cynical approach.
We all appreciate that orienteering is run on a voluntary basis and without willing volunteers we would have no sport and no IOC. If there is a fault, it doesn't lie with the BOC team who were there  on the days; more perhaps with the people who weren't there, or on the failure to ask for help when it was needed: it was willingly offered in relation to the cattle access problem at Inch.
And yes: there was even a cuckoo at Inch - a sure sign of IOC!

Some other comments on IOC:

Just a few thoughts - Inch is always a great place for orienteering. We have some great sand dune areas, but I think it's still the best.  The new map was perhaps over detailed, perhaps some form lines could have been left off, or for us seniors, a 1:5000 print might have been better (but I'm probably looking for something to blame for my blunders) - but it was better than the previous maps, I didn't notice that anything was missing.

My memory is that the back area was more runnable back in the 80s, perhaps it's not grazed by sheep any more?

I enjoyed the middle distance on Saturday. I wouldn't complain that the course was too short, perhaps it could have been a bit more technical, and again, printed at a higher scale for seniors.

Generally, there was a lack of atmosphere around the event. Natterjacks, the event center, was very quiet on Saturday night, whereas 8 years ago it was buzzing.

One point which I think is a valid criticism is for an Irish Championship they should have had an independent controller from another club. In the results there isn't even a controller listed for the relays - Val Jones.

Despite the apprehension surrounding the weekend it turned out to be very enjoyable, the weather was excellent, the courses fair and the controls in the right place. It's just a shame that the exorbitant entry fees (80 Euro for the three races) - understandably - put so many off attending - Marcus Pinker (you can read Marcus's story of the relays here).

...  A relay should be about head to head racing with pretty equal "gaffles" so that competitors and spectators have an idea who is ahead of who. What is the point of a mass start and a first-across-the-line finish if, during the comp itself everything is so complex no-one knows what's going on? Particularly the last leg and particularly the last few controls on the last leg.
Having said that - great race Marcus; exactly how to approach Relay running. (former Irish Champion Eoin Rothery, now living in Australia)

Two things that I think are worth mentioning:

1/ the high quality of the courses on the Sunday. I didn’t get to see anything other than course four, but that course was excellent - a real championship course with route choices that tested the competitors both physically and technically.

2/ the willingness of many orienteers at short notice to do a cattle-watch shift. BOC encountered a land access problem on Saturday afternoon, asked for help on Saturday evening and by Sunday morning there were lots of orienteers available to do a shift. Note that the objective was not to protect the people from the cattle, or the cattle from the people; it was more about reassuring the landowner that we were listening to his concerns and taking action to prevent any safety incidents - Marcus Geoghegan.

I have never commented on an O event before now. If the Irish Orienteering Championships are supposed to be the "defining" event of the year in terms of competition and organisation, then this one fell well below the standard. It is Wed night and the results are still not published. Lets go back to the result string if needed!!!
It is no wonder that the number of competitors are decreasing.
If a club needs help to run IOC then get that help, not muddle through  - Denis Reidy

Gaffled Relays!!!! Finally! Relay was great (we'll ignore timed out controls/computer crashes). But everything else was great. Gaffled courses, great spectator area. Technical courses. 

Fun - Colm Hill

Night Navigation Competition

The Belfast mountain rescue team are running a night navigation competition starting at 9 pm on Saturday 19th May. This is a team event for teams of 4-6 people to raise funds for the team. Details here.

VHI/Tollymore weekend

The midsummer weekend has become something of an O-festival in Northern Ireland. This year is no exception, with LVO hosting the Veteran Home International and two open events for all comers at Meelmore (Saturday 16th June) and Tollymore (Middle distance, Sunday 17th). Added to the mix this year is an urban O-race in the centre of Newcastle on Friday 15th. Details from LVO here.

JWOC Team Selected

The team to represent Ireland at the Junior World Championships (6th-14th July) in Slovakia will be:

W20 Áine McCann (LVO)

M20 Colm Moran (3ROC), Conor Short (CNOC), Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan (BOC).

Read about JWOC 2012 here. 

IOA AGM

In the middle of IOC 2012 the IOA managed to slip in a quite well attended Annual General Meeting in Castlegregory.  The Officers' Reports are on the IOA web site here.
Outgoing Chairman Brendan O'Brien made the very valid point that the people on IOA only have a limited time to devote to orienteering and specifically to IOA activities and that it is much better and more productive if they spend this time on positive things rather than on negatives like disputes between clubs. Brendan has to step down as he has been Chairman for three years. The post remains to be filled and IOA hopes that a suitable person will be found and co-opted. Ivan Millar (Director of High Performance) has gone abroad for a year and so Darren Burke has taken up many of his functions leading up to the 2012 World Championships in Switzerland. Another change was Ruth Lynam (Juniors) stepping down (after seven years?) and Mike Long taking over. Ruth received tributes from seniors, parents and juniors alike : she was and is universally respected by the juniors she dealt with.
The rest of the Executive stays as it was: Treasurer Sarah Ní Ruairc; Mapping Brian Power; Education Ed Niland; Development Andrew Cox; Communications Finn Van Gelderen, Fixtures Fergal Buckley; Technical Harold White.
Thanks to them all for their work on our behalf.

Liam O'Brien (R) receives the Spirit of Orienteering Award

There were some awards announced at the AGM: The new "Spirit of Orienteering Award" went to CorkO's Liam O'Brien; the Mactíre Trophy went to Marcus Pinker (CorkO); the Silva Trophy went to Greg McCann (LVO) and the Silva Award went to Tommy Burke (Fingal). The nominations will be on the IOA web site.
The IOA has also instituted a series of retrospective awards recording significant performances over the years and you can see more details of these in a while. The only ones I remember were Aonghus OCléirigh, Aislinn Austin, Marcus Pinker, Alex Simonin and Andrew Quin ...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

While we were running in the dunes at IOC, Irish orienteers were distinguishing themselves in other areas. At the huge overnight relay in Sweden, Tio Mila,  BOC's Nick Simonin finished 16th for his Swedish club IFK Lidingo in the 14 km+ first leg (only 32 seconds down on Swedish team member Martin Johansson), the team finishing 6th overall; former Irish Champion Andrew Quin (3ROC) was also running in Tio Mila, as was former Champion Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC). Read about Tio Mila here.
At the British Championships, James Logue was 9 minutes clear to win M40L, Toni O'Donovan was 13th W21E, Faye Pinker 7th W35L.

May 2012/1

Irish Champs Preview

This weekend's Irish Championships in Kerry will bring togather some of the best orienteers and the best terrain in Ireland, with a feast of sand dune orienteering on three contrasting areas on the Dingle Peninsula. Castlegregory and Inch have been used for orienteering before, but the Maharees is a new map. Castlegregory and Inch have been resurveyed for IOC, a move necessitated by the natural movement of the dunes and aided by the arrival of LIDAR technology for Inch (read more about LIDAR here).
Saturday's middle distance race at Castlegregory will have courses from 1.2 to 6.4 km before moving to the classic distance at Inch with an M21 Elite course of 10.6 km with 500 m climb (reduced from 13.1 km with an incredible 750 m). The Women's Elite course is almost as long, at 9.3 km with 450 m.

Numbers are down on recent IOC's, probably due to the high entry fees, and this is likely to have a negative effect on the perceived level of competition: there are only two classes with more than 10 competitors. Nevertheless, there will be stiff competition out there: will defending Men's Champion Marcus Pinker (who has won on these dunes before) manage to hold off Darren Burke and Gerard Butler? Will Áine McCann's youth and fitness be enough to overcome the skill and stamina of Ruth Lynam and the experience of Ros Hussey? As Danish physicist Niels Bohr is supposed to have said, prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. We'll know the answers in a few days.
Monday's Relays return to the north side of the peninsula, with a mass start at 10.30 for all teams. Teams in a relay run broadly similar legs, but in a different order or with cross-overs in mid course ("gaffles") to prevent following. Munster teams dominate the start list, with the organisers. Bishopstown, fielding ten of the twenty five teams, followed by CorkO with four teams. At this stage it seems safe to say that Bishopstown will take the Women's Premier class (both teams entered are BOC) and Cork O are likely to be uncatchable in the Men's Open (Darren Burke, Brian Corbett and Marcus Pinker) though a wild card in the form of a Ukranian team is something of an unknown quantity.
Finally, we'll be running through marram grass so don't forget to pack your gaiters!
For more information on IOC, visit the competition web site here.
Maybe some of you will write about your IOC for The Irish Orienteer, rather than leaving it all to me!!!

 IOA AGM
One of the features of the Irish Champs weekend is the Annual General Meeting of the Irish Orienteering Association. This takes place on Sunday evening and is an opportunity to voice your opinion on the activities of IOA and to lend them your support. Orienteers all prefer to be out there doing it rather than sitting at meetings talking about it, but without IOA, there would be no structured orienteering, no government grants, no international representation.
If you're around Kerry this weekend, do go along to the meeting.
 

IOF at 50

The prizegiving at the first World Championships, Finland 1966

The International Orienteering Federation celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2011 and has just released an on line video to mark the event: you can see it on the IOF web site here. It follows the sport from the early days and focuses on elite competition. Can you spot Eileen Loughman at the start of the 1979 World Championships Relays in Finland?
When the Federation started at a meeting in Denmark there were just 10 members: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The IOF now has 73 member countries and at last year's World Championships in France there were more than 50 countries represented.

"Inside Orienteering"

You can catch up with the latest news from IOF with the on-line "Inside Orienteering" magazine here.

• “It’s fun and rewarding to be an organiser”
• Behind the Scenes: David Rosen
• North South East West: Spain
• Orienteering and the Environment survey
• Paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events
• Tove Alexandersson – Just an occasional day off!
• News in brief

May MTBO Off

The planned Mountain Bike orienteering event at Djouce Woods, Co. Wicklow, on May 13th has been postponed.  The organisers, Setanta, failed to get any other clubs on board to run a series of events in May. There were some offers from clubs and it is hoped that a series of MTBO races will be held in September, possibly on Saturdays. Watch the IOA fixtures list for details.

Odds & Ends & Odds

They sound like lines from Brian Friel's play, "Translations" but what do these placenames have in common?
Croaghakeadew, Croaghloughslug, Meenabrock, Clogher Hill, Croaghmeen, Barnesyneilly, Croaghnakern, Croaghnameal and Meenadreen.
Full marks if you identified tham as the areas which are out of bounds in advance of the 2013 Irish Championships near Lough Eske in Donegal!

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).