Springtime

Leinster Championships entries open

The 2010 Leinster Championships at Carlingford, Co. Louth, on Sunday May 9th, promise some outstanding orienteering. Carlingford Mountain, one of the best orienteering areas in Leinster, has been used for Irish and Leinster Championships before and its challange is undiminished.
Cheap entries are available until April 18th with entries closing on April 26th.
Entries and details via www.3ROC.org or here.Online entries are via the SportIdent entries site and SportIdent electronic timing will be used. The competieion centre will be the Slieve Foy Centre in Carlingford village, with parking, showers, cafe etc.
Have a look at the original Carlingford map above. (If you remember the Irish Champs in May 1993, there was thigh-deep snow on the top of the mountain for the event!)

Irish Senior Team Manager Ivan Millar is running a senior squad training weekend around Carlinford Lough on the weekend of the Leinster Champs, taking in the LVO NI Series race at Slievenagore and a Micro-O event at Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, on Saturday 8th May. Details here.

Jan Kjellstrom Trophy Update

A large contingent of Irish orienteers are travelling to the JK at Easter in Devon. The format of the event is a sprint event at Bicton Agricultural College, Exeter, on Good Friday, an Individual race at Cookworthy Forest on Saturday, and Individual and Relays at Braunton Burrows sand dunes near Barnstaple on Sunday and Monday.
For those staying the week, there are two inteersting races after the JK: one on Wednesday at Wheal Floenece, and old tin mining area near Plymouth, and one at the Eden Project on Thursday. (The latest news is that the Eden Project race has reached its entry limit).
The Wheal Florence area is at 1:2500 scale with 1.25 m contours and looks unbelieveably detailed. A previous event there was won in 12.5 minute kilometers! Details of these are on ther JK web site here.

Meanwhile, things are moving on quickly for JK2011 in Northern Ireland. The organising committee has been meeting regularly over the past months and have done a lot of the groundwork on mapping, promotion and planning: it looks good, with terrain ranging from university campus sprint to complex open sand dunes via fast open mountainside. Keep Easter 2010 (last weekend of April 2011) free for a trip North to do the JK without the hassle and expense of ferries and flights. If you've always promised yourself a trip to a major event, this will be your chance! More details later. The Irish Championships will be the following weekend in the Dublin/Wicklow area, with some events in between, so you could make a week of it - the Irish 10-Day?

Irish Championships

Remember that the Irish Championships in Co. Derry are open for entries. The events are on April 23-24-25, with a sprint at NUU Coleraine (run by LVO) and individual and relays at Magilligan sand dunes (run by NWOC). Details here.
Alan Gartside adds: 

TempO is to the TrailO discipline what Sprint racing is to FootO and, appropriately enough, there is to be a TempO competition alongside the IOC Sprint race at the University campus, Coleraine on Friday 23rd April.  The area to be used has been reviewed by the Sprint organising team and is deemed to provide neither similarity with or views into the Sprint terrain.  Registration will be open between 17:00 and 18:30.  There will be a model station and instruction in the format of TempO so why not come along and sample this version of TrailO, adopted by IOF only last year? A complication for the Sprint event is the plans to run a mountain bike event there the week before has led to the following warning for any Squad member considering going for selection for the World Champs sprint event: Following recent discussion regarding the staging of a Mountainbike orienteering event at the University of Ulster campus at Coleraine (venue for the upcoming Irish sprint champs and WOC selection race) – I would like to advise all Irish senior squad members wishing to be considered for WOC selection not to compete at this event as the WOC selectors would consider involvement to be a breach of embargo conditions. In the interest of fairness all seniors who intend to compete at the Irish champs sprint are advised to consider their involvement in this MTBO event. However, It must be stated that the organisers of this MTBO event have taken all steps possible to avoid the sprint area in planning their course.(Ivan Millar).

Schools Championships time

The Munster and Leinster Schools' Championships were on the 24th and 25th March at Carrigolligan, Co. Dublin and Colligan, Co. Waterford. See results here.
The Irish Schools Championships, run by Cork O under the auspices of IOA, are at Glengarra, Co. Tipperary on 15th April (not to be confused with the All Ireland Schools Orienteering Championships run by the Irish Schools Orienteering Association on 24th and 28th March at Gúgán Barra ...)

Intervarsity Orienteering

The Intervarsity Orienteering Championships were incorporated into the CNOC Spring Cup event on a new map of Emo Court, Co. Laois on March 28th. Bright sunshine and fast, flat forest with elegant grounds in front of the imposing Emo Court house provided the  setting. Christian Foley-Fisher (UCD) took the Men's A title (full results not to hand).
An unfortunate clash of dates saw some of the intending competitors at the World Ranking Event in the Trossachs in Scotland the same weekend.
The World Student Championships are in Sweden in July.
Orienteers featured prominently in the Colleges' Mountain Running Championships on March 20th too: the race, at Camaderry in Co. Wicklow, was won by Ger Butler, with Diarmaid Collins 2nd and Colm Hill 3rd; the women's race was won by Niamh O'Boyle with Ciara Largey 2nd and Roz Hussey 3rd. Well done! See results and race reports here.

Look out for ...

Springtime in Westmeath: Mullaghmeen, a wonderful deciduous forest between Oldcastle and Castlepollard, is the venue for the next Leinster Spring Cup event, two weeks after Easter, on April 18th, run by Setanta Orienteers. At this time of year the beech trees are just coming into leaf, the bluebells are pushing up, and it's a rare chance to run in a real live forest. Definitely worth the trip. Details here closer to the event.
The Northern Ireland Championships moves from its traditional September slot to Saturday 19th Juine at Tollymore, near Newcastle, Co. Down, with a night event to follow and more orienteering the next day. More details later.
The Irish and Northern Ireland Trail Orienteering Championships at Castleward and Delamont, Co. Down on 17th/18th April. Details here.

How the Best Train

Finally have a look at this - details of the Swedish World Championships team's training camp in France last week ... here.

Write On: If you have been to any interesting events or have any suggestions or points to raise, why not write about it for The Irish Orienteer?