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

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.