November 2012/1

Thierry Gueorgiou is French! But Tero in Ireland? At first I thought it was a joke, but it was anything but. The French multiple World Champion put together a carefully-crafted training weekend for the Irish Squad and others who were interested, based at Tollymore outdoor centre on the edge of the Mourne Mountains on October 20/21.
The squad trained on Meelmore, an open mountain area backing onto Tollymore, where the menu included control picking, contouring and corridor orienteering. The fittest then ran to the top of Slieve Donard, the highest point in Northern Ireland, before returning to the centre for three laps of micro-orienteering planned by Philip Baxter, followed by a run off of the top four, won – of course! – by the visitor. This was a great workout, with each lap on the 1:1000 map of about 800 metres: no control codes or descriptions but a penalty of 30 seconds for a mispunch.

The all-action day continued with a lecture by Thierry on his orienteering development from an 11-year old with his sights set on a World Championships, to his achieving an extraordinary15 World Championship medals. Far from being a remote, unapproachable elite runner, Thierry struck me as a relaxed, friendly approachable guy who was happy to pass on his experiences and answer questions. As a full time professional athlete, he obviously has opportunities that most of us lack, but he certainly impressed in terms of his dedication, his long term planning, and his vision of where he wanted to go and how to get there. Thierry has 15 World Championship medals (including 10 gold); he first ran for France at a Junior World Championships at age 15 and at the World Championships at 17.You can see his CV here.
His path to success hasn’t always been easy: he had two successive years in World Championship Relays where he was stung by a bee and had to be airlifted from the race, and when he stopped to help a badly injured competitor.

The action continued with the Leinster Autumn Series competition on Carlingford Mountain (Thierry: “Are all Irish league events this long?”) the next day to round off the weekend.
Inspiring, but showing the results of hard work and dedication. Full marks to IOA for financial support for the weekend. I have no doubt that the younger generation of orienteers, many of whom were at the training and lecture, will be inspired by him.

Some of the points from his two-hour plus lecture were:

• If you can dream it, you can do it;
• His equation P=S x M (Performance = Skills multiplied by Motivation) is due to take its place up there with E=mc2 for orienteers.
• Medals are won and lost in the final 20 minutes of a race: training before breakfast or after a 2 or 3 hour cycle will accustom your body to running when your reserves are low;
• Learn from other sportsmen: skill, concentration, dedication;
• Mental preparation is extremely important: imagine yourself running the race so that when you actually do, you will feel at home there, like running in your own garden;
• More than 40% of his training is orienteering rather than just running; this is at race pace, not just jogging.
• Orienteering training at night is good for daytime competitions;
• You will have great days, average days and bad days:  training and preparation may not increase the number of great days but it will reduce the number of bad days;
• Look for “remarkable features” on the map – you don’t need to follow that map minutely all the time;
• Different techniques will be needed for different legs on the course and for different terrains; “There is only one shot in perfect harmony with the field”;
• We in Ireland should be concentrating on the 2015 World Championships in Scotland: it’s close by, reasonably familiar terrain; no dodgy diets; accessible for training in advance.
• Orienteering is a game: enjoy it!

The highlights of his lecture, delivered to a packed house of enraptured orienteers, should be available from  IOA Communications Officer Finn van Gelderen.
Niamh O’Boyle, who was the main organiser of the weekend, was lucky enough to win a Silva headlight in a fundraising raffle for the Senior Squad on Saturday night..

IOA Event Organisation seminar
Saturday December 1st sees IOA Technical and Mapping Officers, Harold White and Brian Power, combining their efforts to stage a major event management conference at Bewleys Hotel, Newlands Cross, Dublin. Every year we run a 3-Day event, and we have had major competitions in Ireland like JKK2011, plus Irish Championships.
The seminar will cover the essential technical and administrative requirements for running a major orienteering event such as a national or regional championships, although the principles involved will apply to any orienteering event on the IOA fixtures calendar. The event will be jointly hosted by the IOA Technical and Mapping Officers. It will draw on the valuable experience gained and lessons learned from some recent major events and mapping projects. The day will take the format of a number of presentations and demonstrations, where practicable, with a high degree of participant interaction expected.
The subsidised cost of the course is €20 that includes the cost of lunch and light breakfast. It is being held at Bewleys Hotel, Newlands Cross, Dublin and will run from 9.30am to 5.00pm. To book a place you should send a cheque to Aine Joyce, Irish Orienteering Association, 2nd Floor, 13 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4, or you can e-mail her atosec@orienteering.ie.
The course is limited to 25 participants and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

O-Bits
Darren and Ruth take Munster Championship titles: Darren Burke (CorkO) and Ruth Lynam (CNOC) won the M and W21 Elite classes at the Munster Championships on Slievenamon, Co. Tipperary, on October 28th. Bishopstown’s new map played host to a disappointing 80 or so entrants, with fewer than 60 finishers. Why was the entry so small? Was the Bank Holiday weekend a bad choice? Did the event appear on the fixture list too late? Was the entry date too far in advance of the event? Was the entry fee too high? Billed in the pre-event information as BOC’s last ever major event. This would be a pity, as BOC run an extraordinary number of events, but I think that the pricing of recent major BOC events has been a disincentive to participation by other clubs. Maybe the other clubs are charging too little for orienteering and BOC are right? If BOC drop out of serious orienteering in Munster, it’s bad for the Munster Champs and the Munster region, bad for BOC and bad for orienteering as whole.
Brockagh event moves to Saturday: As mentioned in the last issue, GEN’s Leinster Autumn Series event has moved from Sunday 4th to Saturday 3rd November to accommodate a travelling party of Scandinavian orienteers.
Junior training: Mike Long, IOA Juniors Officer, is staging three days of training in the south east on 2nd, 3rd and 4th November. The sessions are on Tramore sandhills, at Woodstock, Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny and at WatO’s event at Brandon Hill (which I discovered recently is the highest point in Co. Kilkenny).
Fingal move further afield: Fingal Orienteers are running an event at Castlemorris, near Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny with WatO on 18th November. By my reckoning, Fingal now will now have maps in Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan, Longford, Monaghan, Kildare, Kilkenny and Wexford (Leinster Champs 2013). Is this a record?
Tyrella postponed: LVO’s event planned for the JK2011 sand dune area at Tyrella, Co. Down, was postponed from October 27th until the new year because of land access permission. Watch the NIOA Fixtures page here for more news.
Ciara & Marcus win at OMM: Irish orienteers Marcus Pinker and Ciara Largey won the Medium Score Class Original Mountain Marathon (formerly the Karrimor MM) on the Howgill Fells in Yorkshire on October 27/28th in a time of 10 hours 40 minutes. The Elite class was won by Bjorn Rydvall and Aaron Prince.  Read their account below …
SI and old styel control cards? Here’s an idea used by several clubs for timing: Use an SI box for the start and finish (to calculate instant results) and use a control card and punches for the controls. This system could work in areas where controls with SI boxes could be vandalised, or where instant results are required but split times are not important for the runners.
Connacht Champs entry reminder: The Connacht Championships are at Portumna, Co. Galway on Sunday November 25th. Cheapest entries close on Friday 2nd November. See here for event details.
Portumna is a fast, flat forest on the edge of Lough Derg, with marshes, a few hills, some walls and lote of unusual stone cairns. The delevopment of a golf course beside the forest some years ago has restricted the area a bit but it’s a nice area to run in.

Original Mountain Marathon Report
As you read above, Marcus Pinker and Ciara Largey won the Medium Score class at last weekend’s OMM (formerly the Karrimor Mountain Marathon) in Yorkshire. This had a 6-hour time limit each day and you carry everything you need (tent, food, etc) with you. See Marcus and Ciara’s Day 1 route here. Day 2 here. Here they tell their story …