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Join us for some orienteering fun at Fota House and Gardens on Sunday February 23rd. We’ll have a wayfarer’s course (suitable for beginners and family groups) that you can set off on at any time 11.00-12.30. For the more competitive and/or adventurous there will be a group start ‘score’ event which will set off at 12.00pm sharp – please come early register and warm up. The ‘score’ format means that you must get as many controls as possible within the allowed time. The group start will have everyone zig-zagging in all directions across the beautiful (and, thankfully, flat) gardens at Fota. All proceeds from this fun event will be going to the Jack and Jill Foundation. Following the event the Cork Orienteering Club AGM will take place in Guilders pub, Carrigtwohill. We would encourage all members to attend. |
Spring is Sprung …
Night, Night, Night-O
The night orienteering season is over for another year. A busy schedule of “Dublin by Night” events taking in old and new areas, and easy and difficult ones, ran from early December to mid-February, providing a fuller fixtures list than the normal day-orienteering one in Leinster. A cancellation of the Kerry Orienteers event in Killarney took one night-O out of the equation. The Northern Ireland Night Championships was on last weekend and soon the clocks will go forward, depriving us of those precious hours of darkness beloved of night orienteers.
I enjoy night orienteering: keeping track of where you are is more difficult and more important than in the daytime as mistakes are easier to make and more costly to correct at night. Some other orienteers obviously agree, but not too many: the turnout for most of the DBN events was in the 40’s. Is night-O too specialised? Too challenging? Too difficult to get to? At the wrong time of year?
The numbers attending orienteering events can be very disappointing: Fingal’s Spring Cup event last Sunday at Rossmore, Co. Monaghan, attracted only 60 runners. An obvious difficulty here is that there is no nucleus of orienteers in the area to bring the numbers up, bus it must be demotivating for clubs, particularly for the mappers, planners, organisers and controllers who make the events happen, if their efforts go unrewarded.
It’s not about money (or not just about money): we all like to feel appreciated, but we’d all like the clubs and the sport to be financially viable. Bigger numbers at events mean more money for the clubs and for the sport. With that money the clubs can pay for mapping, they can subsidise juniors to go abroad to events and to training, they can invest in the sport. Without that income we are on a downslope, with falling participation, fewer people seeing the need to join clubs to ensure the future of the sport and an increasingly older age profile in the clubs.
Are there too many clubs? Do we need to bring the orienteering to the people and not the people to the orienteering? Is it time to reinvent the sport, taking it away from the woolly-hat in the forest image to make it an exciting sprint in a park?
Look at mountain running: the recent race on Three Rock attracted about 300 runners. Look at the Park Runs which regularly attract hundreds of runners. Look at the mountain-bike races on some of our orienteering areas, attracting good numbers at many times the cost of an orienteering entry.
Buy a mountain bike and the same day you’re experiencing the thrills and adrenalin of charging downhill through fantastic forests and trails in natural surroundings. Take up orienteering and experience what, exactly? The frustration of getting lost? The slow learning of map features, compass work and pacing? People nowadays want instant gratification and that’s not something which orienteering in its present form can provide. Maybe it’s not something we should aim to provide, but without capturing and retaining new people, we’re going to be in trouble.
Now, where was I? Night-O: if we are to make it attractive to the day-O people, we need to make it less intimidating: perhaps a mix of parks and urban areas, university campuses and easy forests, graduating to more difficult areas of forest of sand dunes, but a progression. We exclude under 16’s for insurance reasons; to a large extent we exclude people who don’t have a decent headlight (though the price has fallen and the quality has risen dramatically in the past few years); we exclude people who rely on public transport. We need to be inclusive instead.
Springtime
Anyway, as spring has sprung, we have the various spring series of competitions in full swing, as well as the great Campus Sprint events which raise money for the Juniors. After a confusing start this year, the sprints at Waterford IT, DCU and UCC are culminating in the TCD and NUU (Coleraine) events on March 1st and 16th.
The LegenDerry weekend of March 15-16-17 has a great range of competitions, from the walled city of Derry, to St Columb’s Park in that city, a middle distance race at Binevenagh near Limavady, a sprint at NUU Coleraine and an ultrasprint back in St Columb’s Park again. Details and entries are here.
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| The Rock of Dunamase |
Looking further ahead, the Leinster Championships on April 6th are being staged by CNOC at Dysert, close to the Rock of Dunamase in Co. Laois (definitely worth a visit: read about it here). Just two weeks later, the Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival is in south Wales at Easter. Details of the sprint at Swansea University and the other events in the Brecon Beacons are here.
Another two weeks (May 2-5) and we’ll have the Irish Championships in Co. Wicklow, with the Sprint Championships at the university campus in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Details are here. Cheaper entry fees apply until 31st March.
Poetry warning: Stop here if you don’t want a blast of whimsical poetry which has nothing whatsoever to do with orienteering …
Orienteering for the weekend of 1/2 March
| Sat 1 Mar: | Trinity College Dublin | Dublin | Campus Sprint Series |
| Sun 2 Mar: | Deerpark Wood | Cork | Family Day |
| Sun 2 Mar: | Clarabeg | Wicklow | Leinster Spring Cup |
Trinity Sprint Event
The penultimate event in Irish Colleges Campus Sprint Series will take place next Saturday 1st March
PLEASE NOTE THAT START TIMES WILL BE 14:00-16:00, NOT 11-12
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pE7e6qyhFgmH2xoyeD-rWaPhoUIZJl0n0QiPjGGZp2w/viewform
Assembly, start, and finish are all in the same place as last year, at the The Pavilion Bar.
Google Maps here.
There is no official parking for the event. There are several multi-storey car parks in the area as well as some on-street parking. Both Luas lines bring you within walking distance, as will any bus routes which pass through the city centre.
Clarabeg, Co. Wicklow
Preliminary Course distances are as follows:
- Brown 8.5km
- Blue 6.2km
- Green 5.3km
- Light green 3.7km
- Orange 2.5km
- Yellow 2.0km
We would greatly appreciate it if everyone can pre-enter because we are currently unsure of numbers for maps, and it makes things a lot easier for us on the day. It is important that Intervarsity runners pre-enter so we can give them start times.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17gPc9YYQiMxvuw0_AFe6I76OwDe-UbdE4yvFo7kZG0A/viewform
The event will be sign posted from Laragh.
Prices are: Child €5, Adult €8, Family €20, Intervarsity runner: €10.
Courses will close at 2:30pm sharp. If you think the course will take you a while, please start early.
Deerpark Wood, Cork
College Campus Sprint Series Continues
The College Campus Sprint Series which is also a fundraiser for the Junior Squad continues this Saturday in Trinity College with revised start times of 2pm – 4pm. The other event in the series is at University of Ulsters Coleraine Campus on the 16th of March as part of the Legenderry weekend with starts from 3:30pm to 4:30pm.
World Trail Orienteering Championships 2014, Italy
Ireland has entered a team into the 2014 World Trail Orienteering Championships, being run alongside the FootO version in northern Italy in early July. Would anyone wishing to be considered for selection please send their TrailO CV to Alan Gartside (atgartside (at) yahoo.co.uk). This should cover performance in, as well as controlling and planning of, elite TrailO events (World, European, National Championships and JK). The latter are relevant because they require as much, if not more, control site analysis as is used in competition. Note that those selected are expected to find their own funding.
http://www.woc2014.info/wtoc.php
Orienteering for this Sunday, 23rd February.
Sligo, Cork and Monaghan are the venues for Orienteering this Sunday. All events have courses suitable for Beginners.
| Venue (click to get more details) |
County | Event Type | |
| Sun 23 Feb: | Fota House & Gardens | Cork | ‘Come-and-try-it’ Event |
| Sun 23 Feb: | Shippool Woods | Cork | Family Day |
| Sun 23 Feb: | Rossmore Forest Park | Monaghan | Leinster Spring Cup |
| Sun 23 Feb: | Kilronan Castle | Sligo | ‘Come-and-try-it’ Event |
Kilronan Castle, Co. Sligo
Hope to see you there! We also changed the time of the event to be Sunday at 10:30.
Rossmore Forest Park, Co. Monaghan
Fingal Orienteers host the second event of the Leinster Spring Series in Rossmore Forest Park, Monaghan, Co. Monaghan on Sunday 23rd of February 2014. Pre-entry available on our club website @ http://fingal.orienteering.ie/
For the social media heads you can check in to the event on BookFace here or Google+ here
On the day of the event please give your name to the volunteers manning the registration tent, pay your fee and enjoy your run!!!!!
Starts from 11.00 until 13.00, registration in the forest car park.
Course lengths are as follows;
Brown 9 K 180 M Climb
Blue 7.3 K 170 M Climb
Green 5.2 K 150 M Climb
Light Green 3.5 K 90 M Climb
Orange 2.4 K 40 M Climb
Yellow 1.4 K 20 M Climb
SHIPPOOL WOOD, near Innishannon House Hotel
National Grid Reference W 568 542
Electronic punching for Red to Brown courses (hire of SI card eur 1)
Controls out from 8.30 am to 10.30 am
Start Times from 10.30 am to 1 pm.
Courses Close at 2 pm
BLUE COURSE 5.0 km, 275 m, 29 c
GREEN COURSE 4.2 km, 225 m, 25 c
RED COURSE 3.4 km, 175 m, 26 c
ORANGE COURSE 2.7 km, 130 m, 21 c
YELLOW COURSE (easiest) 2.0 km, 070 m, 15
Fota House and Gardens Sunday February 23rd
Events this Weekend 15/16 Feb
Night O event in Knockreer Estate, Kerry is cancelled.
| Location (click on the link below for a map to the event) |
County | Organising Club | ||
| Saturday15 Feb | University College Cork | Cork | Irish Colleges Campus Sprint Series | UCC Orienteers |
| Saturday15 Feb | Three Rock Wood | Dublin | Night Orienteering | Three Rock |
| Sunday16 Feb | Upper Torc – Muckross | Kerry | Munster League | KerryO |
| Sunday16 Feb | Myross Wood House Retreat Centre & Grounds | Cork | Family Day | Bishopstown |
| Sunday16 Feb | Djouce Woods | Wicklow | ‘Come-and-try-it’ Event | Setanta |
Cork and Kerry Orienteering
This Saturday there will be orienteering on the University College Cork main campus in Cork city. If you haven’t done urban orienteering before, why not come along and try it out? There will be two courses, a Short course (~1.5km) for beginners and a longer course (~3.2km) for the more experienced. Registration and parking will be from 12.00pm-2.00pm from the Western Gateway Building on Western Road (that’s the old dog track for the Corkonians reading this). This event is a fundraiser for the Irish Junior Squad so come along and support some of our up and coming athletes. Check out the event Facebook page for directions and more details:https://www.facebook.com/UCC.Orienteering?ref=hl#!/events/601665193245708/
On Sunday morning there will be a Munster League event at Upper Torc, also organised by Kerry-O (https://www.orienteering.ie/fixture/full?id=764). The Munster League events have six courses on offer to suit all levels of ability, all in the beautiful surroundings of Muckross Forest.
Muckross forest, Killarney courses are as follows:
Yellow 2.5km 8c
Orange 3.0km 14c
Light Green 4.1km 200m 19c
Green 4.9km 225m 20c
Blue 7.2km 250m 21c
Brown 8.3km 300m 27c
Due to storm damage and trees blocking roads, car park and registration area may have to be changed. More updates tomorrow
Controls out from 8.30 am to 10.30 am
Djouce Woods, Co. Wicklow
Organiser: Fergus Byrne
Planner: Eileen Walsh
Courses-
Long – 5.0km 190m Climb
Medium – 4.2km 145m Climb
Short – 2.3km 65m Climb
For details of the area and directions please see the following link http://www.setantaorienteers.org/map/djouce-woods
Start times are between 11am-1pm and courses close at 3pm.
Prices are as follows
Adults – €7 IOA Members €8 non-IOA members
Students/ OAP’S – €5 IOA members €6 non- members
Family – €20 IOA members €22 non-IOA members
SI hire €2
Senior Squad Training, February 8 & 9th – Report
The weekend started with training on Scarr/Kanturk. Map was 1:15000 but ended up being a bit different. So meant a bit of extra distance and an extra challenge in reading the map. The course was well planned and it allowed an opportunity to practice a number of techniques. The weather started out dry and windy, but turned a bit during the session with rain and hail arriving!
After refuelling most of the Squad attended the Night-O in Hollywood.
Then today we attended the DUO event on the Vale of Clara map.
I must express my thanks to all who helped organise this weekend. In particular to Niamh, Hugh and Ruairi for planning the training and putting out controls for Saturday morning. I’d also like to thank CNOC for the use of their maps and for donating the proceeds of the Night event in Hollywood to the Senior Squad. Also i’d like to mention Ruth Lynham and Don Short for providing accommodation for the weekend plus a lot more. Thanks to the control collectors on Saturday too who had to brave very challenging conditions.
Darren Burke
Director of High Performance Orienteering
Irish Orienteering Association
Sligo, Wicklow and Cork for Orienteering this Weekend
| Date | Location (click on name below for map to locations) |
County | Event Type | Organising Club |
| 9th February, Saturday | Leamlara Castle Woods | Cork | Family Day | Bishopstown |
| 9th February, Saturday | Vale of Clara Nature Reserve | Wicklow | Leinster Spring Cup | Dublin University |
| 9th February, Saturday | Lough Key Forest Park | Roscommon | ‘Come-and-try-it’ | SligO |
Vale of Clara Nature Reserve
The event will be sign posted from Laragh. Please follow these signs as the other possible route from Laragh crosses a very narrow bridge.
All the usual courses will be offered.
Course Lengths:
Brown 8.0km
Blue 5.7km
Green 4.6km
Light Green 3.4km
Orange 2.9km
Yellow 2.4km
The Brown course will be available at 1:10000 and 1:15000.
1:15000 only available if you pre-enter.
There is a possibilty a Black course being added (1:15000 only), but pre-enter the Brown 1:15000 anyway and ask on the day.
There is significant climb on most courses; this will be updated soon.
The start and finish will both be 300-400m from the entrance to the car park in opposite directions, they will not be adjacent to each other.
Please use pre-entry as it makes the organisers’ job much easier on the day.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LtdEver3MYlTH1YcWfnGgmr3rXEAVIRAuLQb1iDM2SY/viewform17th person to pre-enter will get a free biscuit.
The form will be taken down on Saturday evening.
The area is mostly runnable forest with a reasonable track network. Most of the forest is sloping, either gently or steeply.
Previous map here:
https://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=182&kieli=
The Vale of Clara is a nature reserve, so we request that you leave no rubbish in the forest. This includes organic waste such as apple cores, orange/banana peels, tea bags etc.
Please respect this so that we can maintain a good relationship with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Parking will be on a forest road to the north of the forest.
Google Maps: http://goo.gl/maps/jmc1A
The event will be sign posted from Laragh. Please follow these signs as the other possible route from Laragh crosses a very narrow bridge.
All the usual courses will be offered.
Course Lengths:
Brown 8.0km
Blue 5.7km
Green 4.6km
Light Green 3.4km
Orange 2.9km
Yellow 2.4km
The Brown course will be available at 1:10000 and 1:15000.
1:15000 only available if you pre-enter.
There is a possibilty a Black course being added (1:15000 only), but pre-enter the Brown 1:15000 anyway and ask on the day.
There is significant climb on most courses; this will be updated soon.
The start and finish will both be 300-400m from the entrance to the car park in opposite directions, they will not be adjacent to each other.
Controller: Ruth LynamWe have made a request to the rain gods to calm down a bit for Sunday, but they can be somewhat temperamental. The area is quite sheltered, so even if the weather is bad it should ok in the forest.Thanks to Coillte and NPWS for permission for use of the forest, and to AJAX for the use of their map and SI equipment.
LEAMLARA CASTLE WOODS, Leamlara, Carrigtwohill
EYOC and JWOC 2014 Selection Policy
The selection policies for JWOC and EYOC 2014 have been released.
Thank you to Ruth Lynam for putting this together, with help from Mike Long.
If you have any queries or questions, please e-mail mike.long@ucd.ie or rlynam@outlook.com
JWOC 2014 IOA Junior Selection Policy