TIO 2010 Orienteering Planner

This is the time to plan your orienteering for 2010 - whether it's for a holiday, competition or training. Unfortunately, with the current economic downturn, travel for orienteering may be further down your list of priorities than in previous years, but there should still be something out there for you. Twenty or thirty years ago we would travel to the UK by ferry and train for competitions, before the cheap flights era - nobody could afford tthe hundreds of pounds it cost to fly - and sleeping on the train and the deck of the ferry certainly cut down on accommodation costs! It's still possible to orienteer cheaply: entry fees are very low - compare this with €20 for the (cancelled) New Year's Day 5 k race in Dublin's Phoenix Park, for example. Travel and accommodation can be very reasonable if you shop around and book ahead (the Portugese international in February offers free floor-space). Entry fees often get more expensive the closer you are to the date of the event, so entering early can save you money.

With orienteering claiming tio be an environmentally friendly sport (though I was never convinced by this - look at the fuel costs of running an event or travelling to remote areas not served by public transport) we could look again at car sharing, running buses to events and making more use of local maps and permanent courses.

In Ireland in 2010 we can look forward to the continuation of the Dublin by Night series (next event at Massey's Estate on Saturday16th January, weather permitting), and to some major events but all on existing or updated maps: the Leinster Championships in Carlingford on May 9th, the Irish Championships at Magilligan, Co. Derry on April 24-25 (with a sprint race at the University of Ulster in Coleraine on the 23rd), the Irish 3-Day at Lough Eske near Donegal on June 5-6-7, the Munster Championships at Rossbeigh sand dunes, Co. Kerry on October 31st. Schools orienteering is growing, with regional events and Championships at both primary and secondary level (details on the IOA fixtures list here).

In Britain we have two major attractions in 2010: the Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival in Devon at Easter and the Lake District 5-Day at the end of August. On top of this, the Junior Home International at Perth in Scotland in September will coincide with a Park World Tour urban sprint race. If night relays are your thing - and you can't manage a trip to the Jukola in Finland - the 7-person Harvester Trophy (8-9 May) might fit the bill.

Internationally, the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Switzerland, the Junior World Championships in Denmark and the World Championships in Norway all have open events associated with them, while there are more than twenty races in the North American O-Festival in June and July.

Sand dunes feature quite a lot in 2010: the Junior World Championships in Denmark are on dunes, as are the Irish Champs, the Munster Champs and some league events (Bull Island, for example), so if you're not comfortable with contours, now is your chance to work on your technique.

Lots of fixtures information is at the World of O here.To read the CompassSport list, subscribe at www.CompassSport.co.uk. The list below is not comprehansive: it ignores Australia and New Zealand, for example. To find out about events in a particular country, go to their national federation's web site: you can usually find these via the International O-Federation's web site www.orienteering.org.

Britain

April 2-5 Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival, Devon. This event attracts a couple of thousand competitors and is run in a different region each year. This year sees a sprint race near Exeter, individual events at  Cookworthy and on the dunes of Braunton Burrows and a relay again at Braunton. Last entries 12th March. www.jk2010.co.uk

May 8-9 Harvester Trophy overnight relay at Eridge Park, scene of the blizzard-struck JK relays of 2008. Saxons OC - see here. Clashes with the Leinster Championships, though. The weekend also includes a sprint on Saturday and an open event on Sunday. Close to Gatwick airport.

August 22-27 Lakes 5-Day: five days in the English Lake District, based at Coniston. Great terrain but very popular with tourists so book early. www.lakes5.org.uk
September 10-12 Park World Tour, Perth, & JHI. The Junior Home International teams will be taking time out to watch the PWT Sprint at Scone Palace. There's an open event on the Sunday at Devilla in Fife. Details here.

The major British events are also listed here.

Europe
February

You can start the season with training and comperition in Portugal on February 13-16 at Figueira da Foz, 100 km north of Lisbon. Details here. Includes a night sprint and races of different lengths. The Irish Junior Squad have a tour to this event.
March
26-28 Spring Cup, Denmark - the start of the Scandinavian season after the winter Details here.
April
3-4 France. 3 Jours du Sud Ouest at Easter. Details here. Three races plus a sprint in Agen, but no sand dunes this year!

3-5 Prague. Another alternative to the JK: Jicin has fantastical limestone pillars in the forests. See here.
May
1-2 Tio Mila, a 100 km overnight relay for teams of 10 in Sweden on the May Bank Holiday weekend. Near Skavsta airport (Ryanair). Leg length from 6 to 17 km - not for the faint-hearted! Details here.
22-24 Belgian 3-Day - see here.St Vith is the event centre; uses EMIT electronic punching.

27 - 6 June European O-Champs, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, with associated open events. Details here.

June

19-20 Jukola relay. Amazing overnight relay for teams of 7 in Finland, with the Venla (womens' 4-person relay) in the afternoon. Only 60 km from Helsinki and reasonably close to Tampere (Ryanair). Details here.

26- July 4 Tyrol. 6 days in the Dolomites, shared between Austria and Italy - see here.
30 - 4 July Greenland. Midnight orienteering in Greenland, anyone? Typically courses from 5 to 20 km, plus two other events Details here.
July
1-4 EYOC, Soria, Spain. European Youth O-Champs for M/W 16 and 18 classes. Details here. There is no mention on the event web site of open events for spectators.

4-10 JWOC, Aalborg, Denmark.Junior World Champs for classes M/W 20. Details here. There are five open events in association with JWOC: details here.
5-10 Kainuu orienteering week, Suomussalmi, Finland. Four races over a week. Details here.
9-19 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs and Junior MTB WOC, Montalegre, Portugal. Details here.
12-17 FIN5, 5 days competition in SE Finland. Details here.
14-18 Nordvestgaloppen, NW Norway. See here.
13-19 Croatia Open, Delnice. Details here.
19-23 World University O-Champs, Borlange, Sweden. Details here.
23-25 3 Jours de Franche-Compté, Besancon, France, close to WMOC in Switzerland and the weekend before.Details here.
24-30 O-Ringen, Orebro, southern Sweden. The biggest of them all: more than 20,000 runners over 5 days. Close to Vasteras airport (Ryanair).  www.oringen.se
24-31 3rd Swiss O-tour. Four contrasting events with a cheese-flavour, leading up to the World Masters. Details here.
31-7 Aug World Masters O-Championships (WMOC), La Chaux-de-Fonds, western Switzerland. Age classes 35 and up - individual entry, you don't have to be selected. Open events associated with WMOC too. Details here.
August
4-8 Czech 5-Days. Details here.
8-15 World Championships, Trondheim, Norway. Go and support the Irish team and take part in the open events. Open event (WOC O-tour) and WOC details here.

22-29 Highlands Open, Asiago, northern Italy: high level plateau with Alpine terrain, cuckoos and wild flowers.Details here.
26-29 Transylvanian Open, Romania. 4 days orienteering in beech forests around Cluj. Sprint, Long, Middle and Relay. Details here.
October 4-8 Puglia, southern Italy. A combination of forest and city races.Details here.
November
13 Venice street-O, Italy. read Sarah Ni Ruairc's account of the 2009 event on 23rd November TIO Blog. Event details here. (Check the date).

Elsewhere

The North American O-Festival provides a huge opportunity to run in the US and Canada, with over 20 events between June 26 and July 21.  It includes the US Champs in Washington state, the North American Champs in British Columbia, the Barebones 2010 near Vancouver, the Rocky Mountain O-Fest in Colorado. See North American O-Festival www.NAOC2010.com. If you can stick around you could take in the Canadian Championships at Ottawa from August 15-22nd on the way home.

... and finally, something to look forward to in 2011: the JK comes to Northern Ireland at Easter and the Irish Championships are in Leinster a week later. There will be events spanning the days in between to make it an Irish 10-day.