EVENT REPORTS

JK99 - FEEHAN 8TH IN ELITE

Two excellent runs by John Feehan brought him 8th place in the M21 Elite class at the Jan Kjellstrom International at Easter. Jamie Stevenson and Heather Monro were the two elite class winners. Unusually, the elites had a short race on Day 1 at Leith Hill and a classic race (full length) on Day 2 at Winterforl and Pitch Hill.

The competitions were held in the south east of England on the undulating wooded slopes of the Downs - what a joy to be able to compete in runnable deciduous woodland with hardly any fight, almost no steep climbs so you can run hard and fast all the way, and lots of competition (there were almost 200 in my class alone). Leith Hill, near Dorking, is supposed to have excellent views from the top but (a) we didn't have time to look and (b) it was cloudy and misty anyway. This was the scene of my first JK, back in 1977, and I remembered it as fast but with detailed areas of old mine workings. Large re-entrants run through the area and there was a good network of paths, though because it was so runnable, the straight line route was often the one to take. By Day 2 the weather had improved and the area was similar: undulating deciduous woodland, typical of the south of England. The events were at Winterfold, Pitch Hill and Holmbury Hill, three adjoining areas of woodland near Dorking. Fast, white undulating forest with plenty of paths and some very detailed areas.

The relays, at Hawley and Hornley, near Aldershot, were fast and straightforward. There were very few Irish competitors there this year (in fact very few non-UK runners at all) so there was little interest in the relay if almost nobody had a complete team. The fact that the World Championships is in Scotland and the high cost of Sterling may have combined to keep the punters away, but they missed some really enjoyable orienteering.

Next year's event is in Scotland, at Easter, as always.

Results for Class M21E

Day 1: 5.0km, 155m; Day 2: 15.4km, 60m

1 Jamie Stevenson SYO GBR 115:49 25:48(1) 90:01(3)

8 John Feehan AJAX IRL 122:43 29:08(15) 93:35(9)

29 James Logue NWOC GBR 132:30 32:18(45) 100:12(28)

32 Bill Edwards SYO GBR 135:10 32:17(44) 102:53(32)

35 Colm Rothery AJAX IRL 136:25 33:06(48) 103:19(34)

43 Marcus Pinker CORKO IRL 142:43 31:40(36) 111:03(46)

46 Colm O'Halloran LEEO IRL 145:25 33:59(56) 111:26(47)

52 Brian Corbett CORKO IRL 151:37 35:56(63) 115:41(53)

62 Brendan O'Brien AJAX IRL 160:09 33:49(55) 126:20(63)

Results for Class W21E

Day 1: 4.2km, 135m ; Day 2: 10.1km, 370m

1 Heather Monro WAROC GBR 95:35 26:04(1) 69:31(1)

17 Una Creagh LOK GBR 124:44 32:35(17) 92:09(18)

34 Joanne Mein EUOC GBR 145:52 39:41(42) 106:11(35)

38 Jane Shultz LVO GBR 155:32 41:25(44) 114:07(37)

Nuala Higgins LOK GBR 37:54(36) dns

Toni O'Donovan LOK IRL 40:10(43) dns

Irish Two-Day, April 16/17 1999

The Irish Two-Day, once the flagship of Irish orienteering (if that's not too mixed a metaphor), has fallen on hard times in recent years: in fact, some years it hasn't happened at all. Fair play to Waterford Orienteers, then, for trying to revive the competition in April. Entries hovered just above the 100 mark with more from the local area taking part in entry on the day courses. The elites (ahem, sorry, the "High Performance Orienteers") were there in strength as the event coincided with a mental training course at nearby Kilmacthomas. On the M21L course Ajax's John Feehan finished 8 minutes clear of the field but unfortunately injured himself in the process, while CorkO's Ailbhe Creedon won the W21L.

Day 1 at Mahon Falls, reputed to be the area on which IOC 96 was to have been run, was cool and windy but showed off the spectacular setting to good effect. The area was a mixture of fast runnable open, some rougher areas and some intricately contoured moraines towards the finish, dominated by the waterfall at Mahon Falls (and a trickling stream remembered as a raging torrent by those who ran the Comeragh Mountain Marathon a few years ago). A dubious control on several courses marred the proceedings slightly, but the handful of WatO members involved kept the show on the road. As usual, the promised rain held off until the control collectors would be going out.

The event was followed by the IOA AGM (see separate report).

Day 2, on the southern extremity of Knockanaffrin (not Coumshingaun, as advertised), was almost all open ground, with a map exchange for the longest course. Recent felling near the start (in the days before the event) meant that the M21A course had to be re-planned the night before. Again, runnable open ground with plenty of features, particularly boulders.

Two good areas, but both would benefit from a new survey with decent photogrammetry. The organisers' decision to go with the IOA standard entry form rather than with a specific form would have been a good idea if any of the forms had been in circulation. As it was, the IOA forms haven't been circulated for some years so it may have been an impediment to entering the event.

It is good to see the Irish Two-Day back on the calendar, but the numbers, low key organisation and general air of the competition have changed a lot from the days before the Shamrock O-Ringen when the Irish Two-Day was the event of the year. It needs an injection of prestige and it needs to find a place on the fixture list again as part of the National League or a series of Championship standard events.

What differentiated this event from the Connacht Championships? There was a better balance of physical and mental challenge on the courses, due largely to the choice of area. The organisers owned up to having a misplaced control (OK, two would have been better). The weather was kinder and there were no technological pretensions. OK, there were no drinks for later starters, the signposting in the Day 2 forest was disastrous, the late entry fees were exorbitant (entry on the day at about £2.50 got you the same courses as a £9 pre-entry) and the felled area map corrections were sketchy on Day 2. But the organisers were honest about the problems of the event. The results were available on the WatO web site soon afterwards. What were the results? Well, ...

M21A: John Feehan (129.59), Colm Rothery (138.10), Marcus Pinker (139.57), Brian Corbett (144.29), Aonghus OCléirigh (146.02);

W21A Ailbhe Creedon (149.09), Maria Sibeleva (152.08), Una Creagh (154.40), Aislinn Austin (168.59).

LEINSTER CHAMPIONSHIPS

Marcus Pinker ran clear of the field but Colm Rothery was awarded the Leinster Championship title on May 1st at Raven's Rock, or was it at Knocknagun? Anyway, the grid reference put it somewhere near Johnny Fox's pub and that was all that mattered.

The decision to use the SportIdent electronic punching system gave planner Marcus Geoghegan the opportunity to run the courses over a smaller area than might otherwise have been the case and the rapidly produced split times at the finish were a real talking point. ("Fascinating reading", as one competitor put it a few days later, when analysing where he gained - and especially lost - time). The high-tech stuff didn't end there: the courses were plotted onto the maps by computer and the control descriptions printed on the back using the German OL-einzel program. What a pity, then, that the same care and attention to detail didn't extend to the prizes, when the prizewinners were presented with a delightful selection of children's size T-shirts!

The longer courses plumbed the depths of Curtlestown Wood (notorious some years ago for a fatal shooting where a deer hunter dispatched an innocent walker) before emerging onto the open mountain around Prince William's Seat and criss-crossing the Dublin/Wicklow border along the ridge towards Glendoo. The many peat hags were most people's undoing and there was no escape in the glare of the SportIdent split times. Long legs from fairly featureless terrain into the turf cuttings rewarded the careful and punished the careless who lost time peering around the many similar turf banks before finding their controls.

Luckily for the organisers (and competitors) the weather was perfect: had conditions been like Glendalough the week before it would have been a different story (and a very interesting one, at that, as Damon Runyon would have said. Well done to AJAX on staging an excellent event, but wouldn't it be nice to run a Leinster Championships on a new area once in a while?

Setanta's event at Ballinascorney the next day was a return to late '70's orienteering: a tough, physical course without too much technical challenge, but adequate for the purpose. One thing, though: the forest has changed a lot but it hasn't improved any since it was first mapped twenty years ago!

JMcC.

Raven's Rock Dublin/Wicklow May 1st 1999

Ajax Orienteering and Hill Running Club

Full results & split times at www.ajax-oc.ie

M21L2Colm RotheryAJAX68:14:00

M21S1Alan AylingDUO48:16:00

M201Lorcan O hAlmainUCDO69:07:00

M351Liam QuinnSetanta73:55:00

M401Damien CashinAJAX64:54:00

M451Brian BellGEN58:21:00

M501Brendan McGrath3ROC50:28:00

M551Nigel Campbell Crawford3ROC51:34:00

M601Frank Martindale3ROC51:37:00

W21L1Una May3ROC54:26:00

W21S1Catherine ButlerDUO49:05:00

W201Liz ButlerUCDO71:48:00

W351Mary O'Connell3ROC54:51:00

W40no Leinster competitor finished

W453Wyn McCormackGEN63:58:00

W501Monica Nowlan3ROC55:41:00

W552Trina Cleary3ROC74:28:00

W601Diana LargeGEN58:11:00

M101Ruairi ShortCNOC14:17:00

W101Caoimhe CashinAJAX23:46:00

M12no Leinster competitor finished

W121Jenny CorrieFIN44:27:00

M141Christian Foley-FisherMNAV29:27:00

W144Deirde BellGEN89:16:00

M161David HealyGEN52:30:00

W161Niamh O'BoyleCNOC39:44:00

M189Nathan Foley-FisherMNAV70:52:00

W182Denise HealyCNOC62:41:00