3ROC Orienteering News 13th March 2019
Weekend report Yet another great run around the Bull Island last Sunday: the Ajax weather gods smiled on most of the competitors but, unfortunately, not on the organisers and control-collectors, as is so often the case. Colm Moran was a clear winner on the Brown course, with John McGrath fourth. Aidan McCullough was second on the Blue, Mary O’Connell and Rachel Staunton 6th and 7th on Green with Brendan McGrath 9th. Karen Convery was 5th on Light Green and Pat Flanagan 10th, and Odhran Counihan 5th on Orange. The Brown course had only contours and water features (no vegetation, tracks or buildings) which added to the challenge. The cold, windy and (largely) sunny conditions meant that for half of the courses we were running into the wind and for the other half we had the wind at our backs. Thanks to Ajax for another great event on a super area. In 2018 Ajax ran the Leinster Champs at Cronybyrne at this time of year so it’s two years since we had the chance to run on the Bull Island. See the full results and routes here.
The previous day GEN had an urban/park event at Kilbogget Park near Shankill. Well done to Valdas Tilunas, fastest on the Long course. See the results here. Meanwhile in Cork, the Irish Student Championships were being run by Bishopstown. UCD won the Ladies race, with Clodagh Moran on the team, and UCD and Cork IT shared the spoils in the Men’s race.
This weekend, Ajax are running a come-and-try-it event in BushyPark, Terenure on Monday 18th. Start times 11 to 1 with two courses using the same controls: one is a score format (get as many controls as you can in a set time – 25 mins for Elites, 40 mins for everyone else) and the second is a scatter event (get a certain number of controls in however long it takes: 10, 14 or 18 controls). See full details here. Have a look at the map and courses from last year’s Dublin by Night event here.
AGM Reminder: The 3ROC AGM will be Friday 5th April at the Dropping Well, Milltown. The orienteering support grants for our international team members will be presented, so make sure to be there!
Calling all Juniors: If you’d like to join the ranks of juniors on the Irish squad, come along to the Phoenix Park on 23rd March for the annual time trial/fitness test and technical training afterwards. Once you’re in an O-club, no further invitation is needed! Good luck to any of our Juniors running in the Irish Schools’ O-Championships at Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick on Friday!
More for Juniors from the IOA:
The IOA executive has asked the existing group of selectors (Ruth Lynam, Stephanie Pruzina, Darren Burke and Mike Long) to act as the selection panel for JHI, EYOC and JWOC this year. The selection criteria will follow closely those of previous years. We are just finalising the details, but the selection races will be as follows:
Leinster Champs – 7 April, JK (Sprint, Middle and Long) – 19-21 April, Irish Champs (Sprint, Middle and Long) – 3-5 May
In addition, the Phoenix Park time trial (March 23rd) will be considered. As there is no sprint at JHI, the sprints will not count for JHI selection but hopefully at least one more race, ideally in Northern Ireland, will be added later.
EYOC is in Belarus between 27th and 30 June, JWOC is in Denmark between 7th and 12th July, JHI is in Northern Ireland on Oct 12 and 13.
We require team leaders for all please. Have a think and let us know if you are interested.
Mike Long
Leinster Champs entries are open: the event is in the Glen of Imaal in west Wicklow on 7th April, run by CNOC. Entries close on 24th March. Enter online at Fabian4 here. Event details are here. The area has not been used for many years and has recently been remapped for this event.
The Irish Championships are in Fermanagh and Tyrone on May 3-4-5-6. If you’d like to run on a 3ROC relay team on the Monday (6th) you should contact us. The club pays the relay entry fees (for IOC and also for the JK at Easter). For details of IOC see here.
Next 3ROC events: Leinster League at the Pine Forest on 14th April – a middle distance event planned by Irish International Colm Moran, and a World Orienteering Day event on Sunday 19th May at St Catherine’s Park, Lucan. Both of these events will have a special free instruction session for newcomers/beginners -more details later.
O-training: David Healy (GEN) is running an O-training session on 30th March at Massy’s Wood (beside Hellfire Woods) from 11 to 1 pm. The session will cover compass work and distance judgement. David asks that participants practice compass bearings (short, medium, long) and come to the training with questions. All welcome.
See you in the forest!