Irish Champs 2010

This year's Irish Orienteering Championships will be held on the North Coast with LVO hosting the Sprint Championships at the Coleraine Campus of the University of Ulster on day 1 (19.00 - 20.30) and NWOC hosting the Individual and Relays in an extended Magilligan Dunes on days 2 and 3.

The fast semi-urban campus of day one followed by the intricate dunes of day two, finishing off with a new high runability dune area for day three, should provide a orienteering weekend or varied quality racing.

For the individual champs, most of the courses will be confined to the central complex dune area. Runability varies considerably with fast paths and short grass in the many flat valleys with mixed going in the more intricate dunes and depressions. There are significant areas of sea buckthorn and burnet rose which are marked by a vegetation screen where they present a significant barrier to progress.

Course Classes Approx. Lengths

1 M21E 12.9

2 M21L 10.0

3 M35L 8.8

4 M40L 8.2

5 W21E, M45L 7.4

6 W21L, M20L, M18L, M21S, M50L 6.6

7 M55L, M35S, W35L 5.8

8 M16A, M40S, W40L, M60L 5.4

9 M45S,W45L 4.8

10 W21S, W20L, M20S, M18S, W18L, M50S, W50L, M65L 4.4

11 W35S, M55S, W55L, W40S, W16A, W60L, M60S, W65L, M70 3.7

12 W20S, W18S, W45S, W50S, M65S, W70, M75, M80 3.3

13 W55S, W60S, W65S, W75, W80 2.8

14 W16B,W14A 3.0

15 M14A, M16B, Lt. Green 3.7

16 M14B, W14B, M12A, W12A, Orange 2.5

17 M12B, W12B, M10A, W10A, Yellow 2.3

18 M10B,W10B 1.8

The last date for cheaper entries is April 12th and closing date for all entries is April 19th. Now is also the time to start thinking about relay teams.

Best of luck to all heading to the JK at the weekend!

Children's Officer Workshop

For those who have completed the Code of Ethics Workshop, you may be interested in attending the Children’s Officer course. The next workshop by Cork Sports Partnership is taking place in Ballincollig on 20th – 21st April (6.30pm-9.30pm)

The Club Children's Officer Workshop is a follow on from the 4 hour Basic Awareness course and expands on the material delivered in the Code of Ethics workshop. This information will support the Children’s Officer in the implementation of best practice in the club. It is available to those individuals who have completed the Code of Ethics and Good Practice in Children’s Sport course (at least 4-6 months previously).

If you are interested in taking part in the course please complete the attached form and send it back to us together with a payment of €20 per person. You may also download registration form from our website http://www.corksports.ie/index.cfm/page/children_sofficercourse

In addition please find below list of upcoming code of ethics courses. Additional information and registration forms may be downloaded from our website: http://www.corksports.ie/index.cfm/page/codeofethics2

If you have any questions in relation to the courses please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,
Natalia

Natalia Stróżyna
Office Administrator
Cork Local Sports Partnership Ltd, Yeats House, Barrack Square, Ballincollig, Co. Cork
Tel: 021-4665081 Fax: 021-4665090 web: www.corksports.ie

Mars Refuel Fund 2010

This may be of interest to some of you:

Applications can be made online at www.marsrefuel.com offering support with anything from equipment costs, to improving training grounds and club houses. The fund is currently accepting applications.

This offer is not just available to team members. The fund will also give support to individuals raising money for charity through sporting activities. The Mars site will be updated regularly with the names of the people and clubs awarded each month. They will also be invited to post comments, pictures and videos of themselves as part of their application.
The fund is open to residents of, and clubs and organisations based in the UK and Republic of Ireland only. Applicants must be 12 years or over and only one application will be accepted per person, club or organisation.

2010 Orienteering Intervarsity

Hi All,

The 2010 Orienteering Intervarsities Championships will be held on the 28th March in Emo Court, Emo, Co. Laois in conjunction with the Leinster Spring League event. For entry forms please contact here and entries are due by Wednesday 24th March. Entries are €10 per person and payments will be collected at registration on the day.

Directions
Registration will be at the carpark of Emo Court house, see ttp://pininthemap.com/ppa0db27ed180fe00bf. Follow signs from Emo village to Emo court house. Parking will be on the grass (courtesy of the OPW) please follow stewards directions for parking. The main car park is reserved for local users. Toilets and coffee shop facilities will be available.

Source: Laois County Council

Terrain

The coillte forest is 3sq km and the OPW park is 1sq km with the remainder being farmland and is out of bounds. The area is a mixed deciduous/coniferous forest with a good network of roads and tracks. The forest varies from fast run to walk and fight. Forest with bramble is shown solid green on the map. Forest runnable in one direction is shown green with white stripes showing the direction of run. The overall elevation for Emo demesne is 100m. It is generally flat with some gentle inclines. The terrain has several man made depressions and disused quarries. These used for the supply of stone for famine relief schemes. Old oak tree stumps still remain and are marked with a brown X on the map. Large distinctive trees are marked with the green circle on the map. The forest offers good route choice, decision making problems and challenging courses.

Course lengths
Men's A (Brown) 9 km 100m climb, map scale 1:10000 A4

Women's A (Blue) 8.5 km 90m climb, map scale 1:10000 A4

Men's B (Green) 6km 80m climb, map scale 1:10000 A4

Women's B (Light Green) 4.5 50 m climb, map scale 1:10000 A4

Men's/Women's C (Orange) 2.6 km 30m climb, map scale 1:7500 and text control descriptions

Please indicate your course on the entry form.

Start Times
Start times will be available from 11:00 -13:00, please give an indication of your desired start time on the entry form.

Prizes
There will be individual prizes for each of the six categories and a team prize for the winning Men's and Women's team. The Men's and Women's winning team will be taken as the team with the fastest combined time of three runners on the Men's A and Women's A courses.

Other Information
SportIdent Timing will be used, so bring your SI card if you own one and provide the SI number with your entry. SI cards will also be available to rent on the day.
Control Descriptions will be on the map and available at the start.Please show courtesy for other recreational users. Take care when crossing public tarmac roads and watch out for traffic.

The Irish Orienteering Students Association would like to acknowledge Curragh-Naas Orienteering Club for facilitating this event.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact. Please forward this email to any interested clubs/persons.

Kind Regards,
Kieran Beausang
IOSA

Achill Mountain Marathon

2010 will see the staging if the inaugural Achill Mountain Marathon. This mountain marathon will provide competitors with unforgettable memories of this fantastic island off the west coast of Ireland.

Achill Island is home to Five Blue Flag beaches, the highest sea cliffs in Europe, the lowest corrie lake in Ireland and some of the most rugged scenery anywhere in Europe. Participants can expect to encounter all this and more when you take part in this prestigious event.

Taking place over the weekend of 1st / 2nd of May 2010 this event will follow a traditional mountain marathon format in which participants (solo or teams of two) navigate their way around a two-day course on Achill Island, albeit with a few twists. The midway camp will be in the same location as the start location therefore removing the need to carry your tent, sleeping bag and food each day. Participants will however be required to carry mandatory kit each day and will be disqualified for failing to do so. At the overnight camp on the Saturday night there will be a marquee with hot food and traditional music.

Although the start location of the event is on Achill Island, the exact location of will be kept secret until a few days before the event date.

A range of courses are available across the weekend. For further details on the event and information on how to enter this event please log onto http://www.26extreme.com/ and click the link for the Achill Mountain Marathon or go to http://www.achillmountainmarathon.com/.

(Please be advised that the entry rate has been reduced to £50 for all entrants or £100 per team, though I am not sure if this is advertised on the website just yet. This was secured through enquiries by the Irish Orienteering Students Association on student entry rates. 26 extreme are the same group that runs the Mourne Marathon. Perhaps people who are interested and are looking to run in the 'Pairs' category could use the BOC email system to shout out for a suitable partner - Ed)

Munster League 3: WATO

Below is the message posted to the Irish orienteering e-groups by Andrew:

Waterford Orienteers will host the next round of the Munster League on Sunday14th March.The venue is Goirtin wood, Kilsheelan. This area was last mapped/surveyed in 1991 so major changes have occured since then. Club members have spent a lot of time since Christmas drawing on to OCAD and updating this map. The wood is the usual mix of runnable and not so runnable coniferous forest with the addition of some excellent swathes of deciduous trees on the northern side. These are marked with orange and white for Open with scattered trees. There areplenty of forestry roads which have been cut up a little by last weekends rally. There are many new extraction rides which may not be marked on the map.

Course lengths and climb will be posted tomorrow. I was ready to have maps printed when I took a final visit to the area yesterday. Coillte are currently felling on the southern edge which affected the Brown course. I am changing the courses to avoid this area.

Full Sport Ident will of course be used.

Start times between 10.30 and 1.

The event will be signposted from Kilsheelan bridge from the main Carrick to Clonmel road. Please notify me in advance if you are planning to bring a group.

Until the next message,

Andrew Cox

Watowaterfordorienteers.blogspot.com

World MTBO Championships

This years world MTBO champs are being held in Montalegre, Portugal from the 9th-18th of July. There are four disciplines decided at the World champs - sprint, middle, long and relay. More information about the event can be found here:http://mtbwoc2010.fpo.pt/

If there are any MTBO competitors out there who would like to be considered for selection to represent Ireland at the World champs in Portugal please get in touch with Ivan Millar: ivanmandymillar at aol.com before the 31st of March.

Intervarsity Training Weekend 2010

The 2010 intervarsity training weekend took place in Inch/Killarney on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of February. The training weekend was attended by students of UCC, GMIT, UL, UCD, DIT and IT Tallaght.

The weekend started with a training session in Inch sanddunes on Saturday morning. The first exercise was basically an introduction to orienteering: what is involved in the sport, what a map looks like, features on the map and descriptions. Once the basics had been explained, the large group was divided and each group went off into the dunes to get a feel for the map and to practice recognising the different brown features. Compass bearings were then practiced and once this exercise was over, everyone was given an opportunity to take part in a relay and run a short course in the area that they had been practicing in. After lunch some of the group took to the dunes again and did a slightly longer course, which everyone completed individually. The rest of the group attempted to break into a locked car parked on the strand, while the owner of the car sent a small search party into the dunes to look for the missing keys! A tough exercise given the length of dunes covered by the individual that day, but success was had when the keys were found, but only after the window was broken.

Saturday night was spent in the Knockreer House Hostel in Killarney National Park, a wonderful location to relax in after a day in the dunes. Sunday, the group headed to the KerryO event in Knockreer Estate where the skills from the day before were put to the test. A quick briefing session took place first to help familiarise people with the map, which was in stark contrast to the previous days orienteering.

This event was organised by UCC and thanks and congratulations go out to Gearoid and Kieran in particular for putting on another successful weekend. Thanks also go to Darren, Brian and Sean for putting out controls, control collection and starts and finishes. Also thanks to KerryO for accommodating extra numbers at their event.

Kopaonik Open 2010

I recently received the following invitation. Note there will be a Long Distance WRE and all events are within easy access of the event centre:

Dear Orienteers,
In Serbia, Kopaonik there will be a big international orienteering race, Kopaonik Open2010, which has been traditionally held.
In 5 days there will be 6 orienteering races, on this beautiful touristic centre on 1700m from 21st to 25th July 2010.

PROGRAME Kopaonik Open 2010

Tuesday, 20th July
08.00 – 23.00 Kopaonik - Event Centre and information desk is open
12.00 – 20.00 Training
17.00 – 19.00 Model Event
20.00 – 21.00 Team leaders Meeting,– Event centre

Wednesday, 21st July
08.00 – 13.00 Kopaonik - Event Centre and information desk is open
14.00 First start long distance event, Kadijevac, 6km for the Events centre

Thursday, 22nd July
08.00 – 10.00 Kopaonik - Event Centre and information desk is open
11.00 First start middle distance event, Kadijevac, 6km for the Events centre

Friday, 23rd July
08.00 – 10.00 Kopaonik - Event Centre and information desk is open
09.00 First start sprint distance event, 300m for the Events centre
21.00 First start night short distance event, 300m for the Events centre

Saturday, 24th July
08.00 – 10.00 Kopaonik - Event Centre and information desk is open
11.00 First start long distance event (WRE), Lisicje stene,1,5km for the Events centre
20.00 – 21.00 Prize-giving ceremony (WRE)
21.00 Banquet.

Sunday, 05th July
09.00 First start middle distance event,Markov kamen, 500m for the Events centre
14.30 Prize-giving ceremony Kopaonik open &, South-east Europe Masters Orienteering
Championship, official closure of the event.

Conditions for competition and accommodation are very beneficial. More informations http://www.kopaonikopen2010.org/.
Welcome to Serbia
SD JASENICA

Irish Champs Training in Wexford

Irish Champs Training this weekend, 6th March, Kilmore Quay Co. Wexford. Don't have to be a Cork-O member to attend. E-mail dannyohare at googlemail.com if you're interested in attending........

"CorkO's sand dune training will be on Saturday 6th March in the Sunny SouthEast. The Plan is to meet at 11am in Kilmore Quay (Kilmore Quay is near Rosslare in Wexford). We'll have technical training in the morning and then break for lunch before more practice in the afternoon. We'll finish up at 4.30pm. You'll need to bring your lunch with you. Accommodation will be organised if you want to stay over. So if you'd like attend the training please email me by tuesday so i have enough maps. Also let me know if you want accommodation.

Danny

CorkO Club Coach"