3ROC News 24th September 2020

SI 31-2

Photo courtesy of IOF/ SportIdent

Living with Uncertainty

Sadly, our League event at Carrick Mountain last Sunday was a casualty of the restrictions caused by Covid-19 as travel from County Dublin was being strongly discouraged. Plan B was to run an event in Co. Dublin instead, and the obvious choice was the local event we had ready to go for 15th March at Griffeen Park which was one of the first events impacted by the Covid restrictions. The event was mothballed, ready to run, so we were good to go with it on Sunday 20th September. However, the conditions of the permit from South Dublin County Council meant that if Dublin went from Level 2 to Level 3 then we couldn’t run the event, and this is exactly what happened on Friday evening. So – no organised orienteering in the Dublin area last weekend. However, the Carrick and Griffeen events are ready to go when the situation improves and we might even get to run in Carrick when the bracken dies back and the ticks die off.

Refunds have been made by EFT to everyone who entered Carrick and/or Griffeen.

Several other events have been hit by the Covid restrictions as well: the Leinster Championships has been moved from 27th September to 29th November, the second postponement for the event; the Ajax Leinster League event at the Featherbeds on 11th October won’t go ahead, and the Northern Ireland Championships on the Fermanagh/Cavan border on October 3rd has also been postponed. Nationally and internationally there have been many cancellations, up to and including the World Championships.

The IOA has kept the guidelines for orienteering in line with Government advice and these can be seen on the IOA website www.orienteering.ie.

The absence of organised competitions does not mean that there is no orienteering: depending on where you live you may legitimately travel to competitions anywhere and there are events going ahead in areas with fewer restrictions on travel and competition. Details of these are on the IOA website as well – this week in Leitrim and Cork.

Screen Shot 2020-09-24 at 18.48.36

“Run Your Town” – the Short course from Lusk.

Quite apart from these, there are many opportunities for do-it-yourself orienteering, and there are details of permanent courses and virtual courses under “DIY Orienteering” in the Fixtures section of www.orienteering.ie. One recent initiative from Fingal Orienteers and Fingal County Council Local Sports Partnership is the launching of the “Run your town” scheme, with urban or sprint maps of areas including Castleknock, Balbriggan, Lusk, Tyrrellstown and Portmarnock, promoted by Fingal Orienteers. These are all “MapRun” courses which you can do at any time (night-O sprints anyone?) with your map and a mobile phone. There are no physical controls but your phone will beep to confirm you’re in the right place as it uses GPS technology. This is part of the European Week of Sport but, if you have the map, there is no reason why you couldn’t do it any time. It’s initially running from September 23-30. See details here. Read more about MapRun here.

 

So, keep watching the club website www.3roc.net and the IOA website www.orienteering.ie for details of events are are on or have been postponed or cancelled, and keep on training!

Finally, congratulations to all the 3ROC members who represented Ireland in 2019: the annual support grants, which are normally presented at the club AGM, are being sent out at the moment by EFT since we had a Zoom AGM this year. Well done to Aidan McCullough (European Youth Championships, Belarus; Junior Home International, Co. Down; Senior Home International, Wales); Clodagh Moran (JWOC, Denmark; Senior Home International, Wales), Cuan Riordan (European Youth Championships, Belarus; Junior Home International, Co. Down), Karen Convery (Veteran Home International, Scotland). This year the grants amounted to €700.

Orienteering – The Socially Distanced Sport!