3ROC Orienteering News 24th October 2018

Post-mortem time for 3rd placed M21 Elite Colm Moran at MOC 2018

Championship Season We find ourselves in the middle of a series of Championships events this month, despite the fact that the national champs was back at the start of May. Three provincial Championships in October, so it’s a busy time for competitive orienteers even if the numbers attending the Championships are disappointing.

Autumn orienteering colours in Quebec

Well done to our class winners Eoin Riordan (M18) and Mary O’Connell (W55) at the Munster Championships in Killarney last Sunday. Unfortunately there were fewer than 100 competitors.

SFR timing unit – like SI but half the price

Meanwhile, good runs from Eoin McCullough and Nora Lee at the Ramblers OC event in Montreal in Canada saw them win their classes while John McC took second place on his course in the fantastic autumn colours of runnable maple and beech forest. The club use the Russian SFR electronic timing system rather than SportIdent but it does the same thing and it’s a lot cheaper to buy. Evidently it also works with SI cards.

This coming Sunday we have the Connacht Championships near Birr, Co. Offaly. Good luck to the 3ROC contingent choosing to run on this new map rather than in the Dublin Marathon!

Sad news: The death was announced on 24th October of GEN’s Brendan Doherty, an active orienteer and mountain runner for many years. Brendan will be well known to our older members. His last orienteering outing was as an M70 at the CNOC event at Donadea in January. Brendan was always good humoured, even after a bad run, and was a thorough gentleman. Our sympathy to his family: Gavan, Barry and Nicola and his wife Noreen.

John Riordan picks his route at the Munster Championships

Planning Ahead: Are you interested in trying course planning? Then come along to our course planning workshop in Ballinteer on November 9th. We’d like to encourage as many of you as possible to come along but we may have to limit numbers because of the size of the room. John McCullough, one of our most experienced course planners, will be taking us through the thinking behind course planning, with examples of good and bad planning and how to turn one into the other! Register at Eventbrite here. Numbers are limited to 20 people. Further workshops will cover event organisation and orienteering software. Preference will be given to 3ROC members if the events are oversubscribed.

New Members: 3ROC always welcomes new members – you can join instantly with a few mouse-clicks here. You membership will run to the end of 2019 and it only costs €15 for an adult.

See you in the forest!