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!
