Sunday 29 May 2011

Sumer is Icumen In

The Shamrock O-Ringen is just a few days away, the weekday evening events have started, the Senior Team are away in France at WOC selection events and the exams are with us ... Summer has arrived!

First Report from France
First reports from Aix-les-Bains are of a number of non-finishes from the elite teams. Ireland’s Toni O’Donovan reports:
“It’s been a pretty tough weekend with physical, technical terrain.  The race today was a bit of a monster.  Roz and Aislinn finished for the girls with only Marcus, Andrew and Nick finishing the boys race.  Toni picked up an injury yesterday so went straight from the start to finish after collecting her map, David made it to 5 before going over on his ankle and at various points throughout the course there was attrition.   Other teams faired in a similar way with, for example, the British team having even fewer finishers than the Irish team.   A few have been particularly surprised by the rough nature of the terrain with more brashings and felled areas than expected.  We’re back in Le Revard tomorrow to do some more training in the area…..” Follow the team's fortunes here.


Shamrock O-Ringen
The 17th Shamrock O-Ringen is on the June Bank Holiday weekend on the Sheep's Head Peninsula, Co. Cork. The first event is a Middle Distance race at  Gortnakilly, then Day 2 a Classic Distance at Maulnaskehy and Day 3 a Chasing Start at Rosskerrig. The open mountain terrain of West Cork, and the unique atmosphere of the Shamrock, attract many competitors from abroad again year after year. This year there are more than 260 entries from sixteen countries, from Europe, Australia, New Zealand and USA. Check the event details here.
This year Kerry Orienteers are staging a prologue Sprint event on Friday evening June 3rd at Rinn na gCros, Kenmare.

Leinster evening events
The annual CNOC series of Tuesday evening events has started and there are three to go: Hill Wood, Monasterevan, on May 31st, probably Donadea on June 14th  and Hollywood (with a barbecue) on June 21st. Start times are from 6 to 7.30 pm and there are normally three courses plus an "adventure run", a mid-length, simple course following line features (like the no-longer-used Red course in colour events).

Munster evening events
Cork Orienteering Club's evening events are on Tuesdays: details here. The series started on May 10th and runs until July 19th.

Ulster evening events
Evening events in NIOA clubs continue on Wednesdays (LVO WEE series) and Thursdays (NWOC). Details here.

IOA AGM
The IOA Annual General Meeting was held on the weekend of the Irish Championships, at Kippure Estate, Co. Wicklow. The outgoing Committee were all prepared to stand again and there were no controversial motions or exciting moments. Details of the meeting can be found here. (Well, maybe not ...!)

IOA Awards
At the IOA AGM, the following awards were announced for 2011:
Niamh Corbett (CorkO) got the Mactíre Trophy for her 4th place in W16 at last year's European Youth O-Championships in Spain;
Mike Long and Catherine King got one of the the Silva Awards, for their support for the entire Irish orienteering disapora for last year's World Championships in Trondheim, Norway;
Rory Costello (KerryO) got the Silva Trophy for his orienteering activity through the years in Kerry.

IOA at Adventure Weekend
The Irish Orienteering Association was represented at the recent Adventure Weekend at the RDS in Dublin, where outdoor centres and a variety of high-adrenaline activities were being promoted.
IOA shared a stand with the environmental group Leave No Trace and with Mountaineering Ireland.
Interest in orienteering was steady, with a number of lapsed orienteers returning to the fold, or people who had orienteered in other countries but who never tried it here.
Mainstay of the event was IOA Communications Officer Finn Van Gelderen, who took the chance to show his excellent one-minute film advertising orienteering whenever possible.
Another facet of the weekend was the Dublin urban adventure race "DARE", involving running, cycling, kayaking, assault courses and street orienteering ... with SI results processing by CNOC's Short family.

Leinster Inter-club Championships
GEN are hosting this event at Carrickgolligan, Kilternan, Co. Dublin on Sunday June 19th. All runners can count for your club, so come along and support it if you're not in Finland at Jukola. Make a weekend of it ant take in  the LVO NI Series event at Tollymore, near Newcastle, Co. Down on Saturday 18th.

British Champion
Congratulations to LVO's Alan Gartside on becoming British Trail Orienteering Champion this month. Alan has pioneered trail orienteering in Ireland almost single handed and his events in conjunction with the JK at Easter involved the usual head-scratching deviousness we have come to expect of Alan.

Up to speed
Follow the fortunes of the Irish teams at the European Youth O-Champs in the Czech Republic here, the Junior World Championships in Poland here and the World Championships in France here.
No announcements have been made about the EYOC and JWOC teams, but piecing the evidence together suggests that the EYOC team will be: W16 Niamh Corbett and Clíona McCullough, M16 Jonny Quinn and Harry Millar; M18 Laurence Quinn, Eoin McCullough and Mark Stephens.
Equally, piecing together the evidence for JWOC suggests that the team will be Colm Moran, Conor Short, Cillín Corbett, Josh O-Sullivan-Hourihan and Jack Millar. Check for corrections when the teams are announced! (I got the teams right - they were named on 30th May. Visit the Irish Junior Squad page here.)

Setanta Rogaine Reminder
The 14th Setanta Rogaine (6 hour individual, 6 hour team, 24 hour team) score event in the Wicklow mountains) is on June 25th/26th and entries close on June 17th.
A Rogaine is basically a mountain navigation race, (or long score event) where you locate as many controls in the mountains as you can, in the allocated time period (6 or 24 hours). When doing the 24 hour event you can come back to the hash house for some food and a few hours sleep in your tent. The hardier competitors will stay out all night and will bivvy for a bit under a bush although some keep going without any sleep. The 6 hour would be a good event for those of you new to Rogaines and long events who want to practice your skills! See details here.

Finally ...
Good luck to all the young orienteers doing exams in June! Getting out for a run is a good break from studying and will help keep your brain working and your fitness maintained for those summer races to come ...

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