Orienteering Training Weekend

Apologies for the late notice on this but for those of you who might be interested there will be a training weekend held this weekend (6th and 7th Feb) in Inch sanddunes for all third level students primarily. The event is not a closed event so anyone who wants to improve their navigation or get in some hours on the dunes can come along. The more the merrier. The event is being organised and run by UCCO and will incorporate the KerryO event on the Sunday.

The event is suitable for all levels of experience and fitness. On Saturday, we will be training on the sandunes at Inch Strand on the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry and on Sunday, KerryO are staging an orienteering event at Knockreer estate in Killarney National Park that we will attend. There are no set training plans but plenty of training options so it is really a chance for people to tell us what they want to work on. Sanddunes are the perfect place to learn from mistakes and to practice for the upcoming champs. Directions: From Cork follow the N22 to Killarney, then take the R561 in the direction of Dingle.

*Plan for Saturday is:*

10.30: - Meet at Inch Strand (drive down the strand a bit to start, you will see us)
11-13: - Practice map techniques
13-14: - Lunch
14-15.30: - More practice
15.30 -16.30: - A course to practice what you've learned

We will be using SI cards for the practice course so if you have one, bring it along but we will be able to provide some also. There is also the option of having an 800m or so route marked out on the dunes if some people fancy a bit of hills training, just let the organisers know beforehand.

There are some people travelling from Cork and Limerick on Saturday morning that have some free spaces so please contact either myself (Sharon) at ulo at orienteering.ie or UCCO at orienteering .ie for other details and to book a place. There are some limited places available in the hostel in Killarney. Cost for the whole weekend is €25 for students, but again please double check with UCC if that is the standard rate. If you can, please let someone know if you intend on coming.

So why not come along and make it a one- or two-day orienteering trip. I will be on-hand all weekend if people want to approach me.

For those wanting to stay closer to home the BOC event on Sunday is in Currabinny Wood as part of the Cork Winter League (Round 6). As always keep an eye out here for other orienteering events that are taking place around the county and country.

Munster League Event Sunday

Hi all

Just a reminder that the first round of the Munster League will be held on Sunday, 24th January in Blue Pool, Muckross. It was postponed last weekend due to weather conditions. The event will be signposted from the N71 Killarney/Kenmare Road, grid reference V979 867.

The other Munster League events are:
ML 2: 21st Feb Clonmore North (CorkO)
ML 3: 14th March Goirtin Wood (WatO)
ML 4: Inch Sanddunes (KerryO)

Portugal O Meeting 2010

It is that time of year again when people are beginning to plan some international trips. First up this year is the Portugal Orienteering Meeting (POM) 2010. Last year ten senior orienteers from various IOA/NIOA clubs attended the event, including 2 BOC members, Donncha Cuttriss and Sharon Lucey. This year's event takes place 12-16th Feb, approx 100km north of Lisbon. There is also the option of tying in with NAOM 2010 the following weekend.
The event is made up multiple events including:

Fri 12Feb: Model Event POM 2010
Sat 13Feb: Day1 - Long POM 2010 and Evening Night Sprint
Sun 14Feb: Day2 - Middle WRE POM 2010 + Official Dinner
Mon 15Feb: Day3 - Long POM 2010 + Orientshow
Tue 16Feb: Day4 - Middle POM 2010
Wed-Thu 17-18Feb: : Training in Figueira/Mira/Cantanhede area
Thu 18Feb: Travel to Crato (Alentejo)
Fri 19Feb: Model Event NAOM 2010
Sat 20Feb: Day1 - Long NAOM 2010 + Evening Night Sprint
Sun 21Feb: Day2 - Middle Distance NAOM 2010

Last year the group travelled with a company called SunO, who specialise in orienteering holidays in Spain and Portugal. This year we are looking at alternative options that may work out cheaper. This is dependent on numbers, travel dates etc. Most people are availing of the AerLingus option of flying Dublin-Lisbon on either Thursday 11th or Friday 12th of Feb and returning on Wednesday 17th. Two people are also staying on to participate in NAOM the following weekend. This is an excellently organised and highly competitive event that provides a category for every level of ability and age category. It is also a very good option for families, though it does not tie into mid-term breaks for most schools. At present there are 8 confirmed people travelling with a number of others still deciding. As the deadline for entries is fast approaching (6th Feb) it is recommended that people start thinking and planning. Flights are working out at around €100.

If anyone is interested in attending please contact me (sharonlucey at gmail dot com) for details of accommodation and prices and an idea of what is happening! Full details for POM are available here and for NAOM. Price options for SunO can be found here. You can also check out last year's report in this Blog under March 2009.

The Connacht Champs in Ulster Once More

The Connacht Orienteering Championships 2009

The 2009 Connacht Championships were held on the Finner sand dunes between Ballyshannon and Bundoran in Co. Donegal on Sunday 30^th November. Seven BOC members braved the weather and the distance and travelled to the event. Despite the recent severe rain and flooding, running conditions on the day were very good, and despite the cold weather some very good time were seen. The dunes were fast, but the numerous unmarked paths throughout meant that careful running was needed. The best navigational features were tall dunes with loose sand, marked with yellow on the map. These features were highly visible and great catching features. The longer courses used the entire complex dune network with the shorter courses sticking to the main path network.

An outstanding run by CorkO's Brian Corbett saw him win the M21 Long race by 35 seconds from CNOC's Colm Hill, in the closest finish of the day, with Gerard Butler (3ROC 3^rd). In the W21 Long Maeve O'Grady (DFO) took an impressive first place ahead of Ciara Largey (FermO) and Ruth Lynam (CNOC).

Once again BOC members ran impressively with a number of solid runs and finishes. Paul O’Sullivan-Hourihan once again took third place in a major Championship in the M45 category, ahead of John O’Donovan (7^th). Sons Josh (M18) and Zac (M12) finished 4^th and 5^th respectively. Other BOC Juniors, Christine O’Donovan (W18) and Alex Simonin (M16) also finished impressively taking 2^nd and 5^th places in their respective categories. Sharon Lucey also took 5^th spot in the W21L competition.

Once again, Frank Ryan and his usual Connacht gang did an impressive job on the day and a big ‘thank you’ goes out to them for their efforts and organisation.

A full set of results can be found here

The Advent Calender of Orienteering

Here is a little something to keep the minds working on the run up to Christmas (courtesy of Rob McEvoy of CorkO who first told us about it)

Jan Kocbach at World of O (www.worldofo.com) is doing his "Route to Christmas" series again this year. It is sort of like an Advent Calendar of orienteering puzzles. Every day he uploads a snippet of a map from an Elite course from a 2009 race, and you must decide the route you would take between 2 controls. Then you can see the routes that some of the Elite runners took in that race. There is no analysis of the best route choice for each leg, but there is a comment section for people to discuss it amongst themselves. It also gives people a chance to see what sort of maps/routes are used for bigger events and for Elite courses. Hope you find it fun!

For your daily installment click here

You can also view the archived puzzles from 2007 and 2008 here:

Thank you's in Orienteering

Some thoughts by Sharon Lucey

The Irish Orienteer has been the national orienteering newsletter for Ireland since the early 1980's and is now being distributed via the Internet and is accessible on Orienteering.ie. Information can be found here on what is happening in the world of orienteering, from upcoming events to race reports to controllers reports to news about orienteers. This month's installation has now been uploaded for viewing. Of particular interest is the report on 'Thanking the Control Collectors'.

I think that this is a very important item to stress because we sometimes can forget that some people run the entire map a second time, armed with controls on their arms or in their bags. BOC results always make sure that due recognition is given to all those who assisted in the organising and running of the event.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the running of the club and orienteering in Ireland in general, from any aspect.............controls in, controls out, mapping, registration, control card sorting, results, starts, finishes, manned controls (probably one of the hardest jobs anyone can do, though SI is now eliminating the numbers involved in this), planning, organising. I hope I didn't forget any position. Finally, I would just like to thank all the members who have attended events during the year and previous years who have kept the club going since it was first established. I am one of the members who has been in the club since it started and would like to thank Sean Cotter for keeping the club going. It must not be forgotten that we are the only club in the whole country that holds an event almost every weekend.

So thanks to everyone involved and happy orienteering!

Venice Street Orienteering 2009

Report by Sharon Lucey

This year’s Venice Street-O event was held on the 14^th and 15^th of November and saw a group of five senior orienteers from all over Ireland make the journey, including one BOC member. The team was comprised of Sharon Lucey BOC, Sarah Ni Ruairc FIN, Brian Flannelly CorkO, Kieran Rocks LVO and Stuart Scott UCDUO. With over 3,600 entrants and 398 teams from 31 nations, the 30th meeting of the Venice Street-O is the largest street race in the orienteering calendar.

Street orienteering has become one of the up-and-coming disciplines in the orienteering world with more and more races being held at this level. This Venice Street Race is different to usual urban races as the courses are much longer in length meaning that concentration and speed are of the essence. The normal winning times on urban races are under 20 minutes (usually sprint races) but for Venice, the winning times are typically around the hour mark for the Elite classes. There is no other orienteering event in the world that can be compared to Venice.

As the main event is on the Sunday, direct flights from Ireland to Venice were not an option since the change in AerLingus’s flight schedule. This meant an early departure on Friday morning from Dublin airport to Bologna for some of the group, while others opted for a transfer in Heathrow to Venice. After spending a few hours sampling the local culture and food in Bologna, we took the express train to Venice and all rendezvoused on the top of the Rialto Bridge.

As part of our accommodation, a free trip to Murano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon, was provided where we got to witness some glass makers in action. After a leisurely stroll around the island of Murano, it was time to head to the Event Centre, in the Sport Arsenale, for the start of the weekend’s orienteering.

As a taster for the main competition, a Park-O/Sprint-O was held on a 1:7,500 map, near the Event Centre. Though it was officially labelled a Park-O event, there were only 2-3 controls from the majority courses actually in the park. The rest of the course was on the streets of Venice itself to get competitors used to the map and the streets. This event proved to be a great taster for the main event, with everyone being able to get a feel for the map and an idea of what to expect for the next day. The level of entries was much lower for this event, with some competitors opting to just run the main event. We had nice steady runs on Saturday as the courses were pretty straightforward. The results from the day showed just how fast the map was and how costly a small mistake could be. Excitement was beginning to bubble over in anticipation of the great orienteering to come.

MM1

1. Graham Gristwood GBR 19.33

2. Lucas Basset FRA 20.11

3. Théo Fleurent FRA 20.17

49. Brian Flannelly IRL 27.01

70. Stuart Scott IRL 31.44

WM

1. Marine Leloup FRA 24.26

2. Severine Vandermeulen BEL 25.11

3. Galyna Petrenko ESP 25.17

37. Sharon Lucey IRL 32.17

45. Sarah Ni Ruairc IRL 35.18

Sunday’s event was when the real competition started. After having a taster for what it was like from the day before, we were ready to tackle the streets once more. This year the courses were planned by a previous winner and the challenging legs promised were delivered. To get to the starting area, we had to get a boat across the Grand Canal to Rio Tera die Catecumeni all Salute. The boats held around 160-170 people and ran frequently and runners were given ferry times depending on their allotted start times. Once on the other side the call up was 4 minutes. At two minutes you ran over a bridge and out of sight of waiting runners and picked up your control descriptions. If you didn’t have a safety pin or holder they were speedily taped to your arm by an official. The organisation at the event was a credit to all those involved.

Venice is renowned for its intricate network of streets, dead-end lanes, canals and bridges. This made for the ideal street race venue, especially given the fact that there would be no traffic problems to contend with. As the area itself is unusual, so was the map and the control points. The map was printed on blue paper with white representing streets and lanes. The narrower the white, the narrower the laneway. Particularly busy streets were marked with a different shade (brown) on the map so that these areas could be avoided with some careful planning. All buildings were shaded in grey and a lighter grey was used to show covered laneways.

The control points were located at specific locations; for example, building inside corner or bridge western side, which meant that you had to look carefully at your control descriptions to see whether or not you were in the correct place and to see which street was best to attack the control from. Choosing the wrong lane could prove incredibly costly. The navigation was challenging as you tried to run at full speed down the twisting alleyways and across the steep bridges whilst trying to dodge the oncoming photographers and window shoppers. Needless to say, there were numerous crashes between orienteers and tourists and orienteers and other orienteers. The fast pace of the courses meant that no-one was willing to find an alternative route to avoid the busy streets.

Most of the long courses crossed the Rialto Bridge twice, that combined with the distance and ridiculous number of bridges, all competitors felt every second of the race in their legs! The highlight of the day was the comparison of GPS distances to see how long the courses really were. Most people were quickly learning that the easiest and safest route choices were those that involved T-junctions and routes through squares or lanes with distinctive features, such as water fonts or pillars. Though finding these ‘safe’ routes at speed proved to be the greatest challenge of all. A number of courses had an extremely long route that covered the length of the map meaning the route had to be planned in stages and lots of folding and re-folding had to be done. As this leg was towards the end of the course it tested everyone’s concentration levels as well as fitness. For me this leg took 21 minutes, with others bounding across it in a cool 13 minutes.

Luckily, I had a great run (by my standards) finishing just a few minutes off the pace of some very experienced and fit elites. As this was my first time running elite at an international competition I was impressed with my ability to stay focused and I kept a consistent pace throughout. I was hitting controls nicely and kept concentration for the majority of the course. My one slip in concentration was on that long leg. I took my thumb off the map and ended up running down a lane and came face-to-face with a bemused gondolier. A quick look out into the canal and I confirmed my location and was on my way once more. As I wasn’t wearing a GPS I’m not entirely sure of the exact distance of the Women’s Elite course. However, based on the length of the WA (11km) and the Men’s Elite (15/16km), I expect it was around 13km.

The fast pace of the streets meant that some incredible times were seen. The best results from the day from our group were from Brian and Kieran, who both finished a mere 11 minutes behind their respective course winners.

Women’s A: 7.8km

1. Zsebeházy Eszter HUN 59:11

2. Rysava Vendula CZE 61.31

3. Sabine Mumprecht SUI 63.16

55. Sarah NiRuairc IRL 94.42

Women’s Elite: 8.5km

1. Karin Schmalfeld SWE 58.26

2. Svobodna Sarka CZE 59.00

3. Sabine Hauswirth SUI 61.03

37. Sharon Lucey IRL 84.53

Men’s Elite: 10.64km

1. Mamleev Mikhai ITA 64.02

2. Øystein Kvaal Østerbø NOR 64.20

3. Jan Troeng SWE 64.45

64. Kieran Rocks IRL 85.10

Men’s B: 6.3km

1. Szajkó Csaba HUN 40.22

2. Batticci Stefano ITA 46.07

3. Eugenio Pedrazzini SUI 46.12

20. Brian Flannelly IRL 51.43

126. Stuart Scott IRL 74.38

Overall the weekend’s orienteering proved a great experience for all the group. The event was highly organised, with good quality maps and some excellent planning on all the courses. Having never experienced the street event before, I for one was bitten by the Venice bug (quite literally with the unwelcomed visit of a mosquito) and fully intend to hit the streets again in the near future. I would highly recommend the event to everyone; it genuinely shows that ‘orienteering is a sport for all’, with plenty of families and walkers being spotted amidst the faster paced runners. However, buggies are not recommended. Though Venice is trying to be more accessible, the vast majority of courses only crossed bridges with ramps on the final leg of the course.

A big ‘well done’ to all those involved in the organisation and planning of the event and a ‘thank you’ to the rest of the group for making the weekend so enjoyable.

A full set of Results can be found at www.orivenezia.it and keep an eye out for details on MOV 2010 in September. Apologies for the lack of photos from this event, but as we entered as a group we were given similar start times and so the photo moments were slim!

OCAD Computer Training Course

This Saturday (14th) there will be an OCAD training course (for drawing O-maps by computer) in Dunboyne.The course was originally to be run on September 26th but was postponed. There are a few places available so get in quick if you would like to attend. The venue is Dunboyne Castle, Co. Meath. It is an all day course on Saturday, Nov 14th for all levels of OCAD skills. The course is given by Pat Healy of CNOC.

To secure your place please send a cheque for €25 to the Irish Orienteering Association, Second Floor, 13 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4 to Aine Joyce IOA Admin Assistant

To enquire about the course and availability contact Aine at osec@orienteering.ie

One place still available (10/11/09)

Munster Orienteering Championships

CorkO held this year's Munster Orienteering Championships on Sunday, 1 November in Toureen Wood, around 3 km outside of Cahir.

The terrain commanded high levels of fitness as the wood proved more of a physical challenge at times, more so than a technical challenge. The would itself had a great network of paths, tracks and roads allowing for some exceptionally fast times to be produced on the day. The mature coniferous forest provided good visibility and very few brambles. The poor weather over the last number of days and weeks meant that small drains became last streams and any marsh area was highly visible. There were a number of parts of the forest that hindered speed, where long grass, stones and hidden dips meant that caution was required. The rain held off for most competitors runs making the courses very enjoyable.

Some excellent times were produced in the M21L and the W21L where Darren Burke of CorkO stormed around the 10.9km course in a mere 94.27 minutes, a full 9 minutes ahead of CNOC's Seamus O'Boyle. Daivd Healy of GEN also fought hard on the day, finishing just 2 seconds behind Seamus.

CNOC's Niamh O'Boyle took the lead in the Women's 21, 7.2km course in a time of 71.24, holding off stiff competition from FermO's Rosalind Hussey and Ciara Largey, who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

BOC club members also were out in force and some fantastic results were seen at the end of the day, with two of our juniors claiming gold. Tim O'Sullivan was top of the results in the M12's, while Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan took first in the M18. Younger brother Zac, finished 5th in the M12. Keeping it in the family, Paul took third spot in the M45L course, fighting off some tough competition. Other club members on the course were:

6th Pat O'Donovan

7th Dermot O'Sullivan

12th Steve Young

15th Jim Lawton

Another medal winner was Dorothy Grimes who claimed third prize in the W21S course.

Other notable results from the day were:

W21L 7th Sharon Lucey

M50L 9th Pat Murphy

M21L 15th Donal Murphy

A full set of results and split times can be found on Orienteering.ie

A selection of Finn van Gelderen's photos from the day can be found at http://www.finnvangelderen.com/moc2009preselects/and John Shiels photos are found http://www.actionphotography.ie/galleries/2009-11-01-MOC/

Well done to all competitors!

Upcoming Championships and Events of Interest

October:

The Fourth Annual Cliona Callanan Memorial Orienteering Event to be held in Doneraile Forest Park on Oct 25th.

November:

Cork-O are staging the 2009 Munster Championships on Sunday 1st November at Toureen Wood, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, on one of the last remaining mature forests on the Northern slopes of the Galtees. The area selected has mature coniferous forest with good visibility and is free of brambles except for parts where long grass and stones will impede running. The forest has a good road track network with steep sided ravines and dry gulleys which run down the slopes which are characteristic of Galtee maps.

The Connacht Championships are also due to be held on the 29th November by Western Eagles Galway Orienteers. Location and further details yet to be confirmed. Keep on eye on Orienteering.ie for more info.

The Northern Ireland MTBO Championships are due to be held at Castlewellan, Co. Down at some stage towards the end of the month. It is being run by LVO so keep an eye out for more details.

For those interested in travelling further afield, a group of 7 senior orienteers from a variety of clubs, including BOC's Sharon Lucey are heading to the Venice Street Orienteering event on the 13-15th November. Check out www.orivenezia.it. The event also incorporates a Park-O event on the Saturday. The event caters for all age groups and abilities.