3ROC Orienteering News 6th February 2020

Some overlaid courses from Sunday’s Kilkenny event

More night-O The night-O season is still with us, and this Saturday’s event is on the Curragh, Co. Kildare. You’ll find details on the IOA Forum here. The courses are 2.9 km and 5.2 km on the open, short grass of the Curragh, but don’t be deceived – previous experience would suggest that controls will be tucked away under furze bushes and in old military trenches, so you have to be careful! Starts are 6.30 to 7.30 pm.

Last Saturday’s event at Crone Wood, Glencree, seems to have been a tough one, and we had a few club members running – after all, night-O isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. John McGrath finished 7th on the Long course, with Liam Burke 5th and Mary O’Connell 8th on the Short. Full results are here.

Urban orienteering Also last weekend we had the opportunity to run around the “medieval mile” in Kilkenny on Sunday, like a mini version of Edinburgh – what a great place it was for an urban race! See the full results and routes here. Aidan McCullough finished 1st and Valdas Tilunas 4th on the Long course, with John McCullough 4th on the Medium course and Nora Lee and Inga Lisauskiene 3rd and 4th on the Short. On the Medium course the first four finishers were separated by only 17 seconds! The alleyways and bridges of Kilkenny provided some great orienteering and the new map was excellent. The only unmapped obstructions were hung-over tourists checking out of their hotels and dragging suitcases after them on the narrow streets. There’s another South-East Urban League race at Callan, Co. Kilkenny, on February 16th.

In the meantime, if you’re heading north, the NI Score and Night Championships are on Saturday 8th February at Downhill Forest in Co. Derry, run by Limavady’s NWOC. See details here.

Manifest-O? The Federation of Irish Sport has produced a video which highlights some of the requirements that sports have in terms of government support, in case you’d like to question your election candidates or their parties on where they stand and what they can do to promote sport after Saturday’s general election. You can see it here.

The next 3ROC event will be a “Come and Try It” local event at Griffeen Park, Lucan, on 15th March. Can you volunteer to help on the day? Just e-mail 3rockoc@gmail.com or use the contact form on the top right of this page.

Remember to like the 3ROC Facebook page here and keep checking back for updates.

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