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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

CNOC Summer Series; Curragh!

Conor Short reports on our event on the Curragh.

The second event of the 2011 CNOC Summer Series took place last Tuesday evening, starting in the Sunny Hill area of the Curragh. Despite high winds early on in the day, as the first starters began their runs the sun was shining and a light breeze was blowing, making for perfect running conditions. Ollie and Orla planned and organised the event with the usual efficiency of the army and a total of 96 people turned up to enjoy the May evening.

The Long course was the most hotly contested with barley over a minute separating the first four places. In the end Donal Burke of DFO took first place, 45 seconds ahead of Conor Short of CNOC. GEN’s Laurence Quinn was a further 11 seconds behind to take third place. Ken Barry was clear winner of the Medium course, and Cian May stormed the Short course to beat Eadaoin McCavana by over two minutes. CNOC’s own Sean Ryan had an excellent win on the Adventure Run, with close to 5 minutes separating him from second place.

Full results are here

Thanks to all who came out for a run, and we hope to see you in Hillwood next Tuesday.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Donadea

Report from our event courtesy of Regina.

Last Tuesday was a lovely May evening- perfect for the first instalment of the CNOC summer evening
series at Donadea. There were four courses- Long, Medium, Short and an adventure course. Eileen
Loughman was the course planner/Controller. The courses were planned to avoid the rougher terrain
so race pace was high.

The results were quite close in the adventure courses where David Collins beat the team of Fogarty
and Noonan for first place. A similarly close result in the long course saw a minute between first and
third place. Laurence Quinn beat his fellow competitors even while sustaining a crippling foot injury
towards the very end of the course.

Ruairi Long was a clear winner in the short course four minutes. Similarly Don O’Hanlon from BOC
won in a time of 50:40 nearly 5 minutes ahead of Roisín Long (AJAX).
Results are available here

.....

Our next race is on Curragh East on Tuesday 24th.

Friday, May 13, 2011

CNOC Summer Series kicks off

A shameless copy and paste.

Rumor has it that this years Summer Series will have a bit of spice added to it.

Did someone say vicious gaffling....

..............................................................

The CNOC Summer Evening Orienteering Series is back for 2011. Let’s hope the summer also returns.

The first event will be in Donadea Forest Park on the evening of Tue 17th May.
Start times 18:00 to 19:30. Courses close at 21:00 promptly.
Please let us know in advance if you are bringing a group.

As last year there will be 4 courses:
Long approx 7 km, technically and physically difficult, full leg cover definitely needed.
Medium approx 5 km, technically difficult, full leg cover needed.
Short approx 2 km, straightforward navigation, mostly on tracks
Adventure Run approx 5 km, straightforward navigation, mostly on tracks

SI electronic timing will be used, SI cards will be available to rent if don’t own one.

The other events in the Series are:
Tue 24 May Curragh, Sunnyhill area
Tue 31 June Hillwood, just outside Monasterevin on the Athy road
Tue 14 June Donadea
Tue 22 June Hollywood, West Wicklow, including end-of-season barbecue

Friday, May 6, 2011

IOC Relays

Relays. In house, Inter Club or Inter anything. It doesn't matter. The Irish Relay Championships are usually the only relays run on the Ireland. Once a year, one chance to get it right.

Most clubs look to field a couple of teams, Chairman Don, however, wants to fit every CNOC member he can find onto a relay team.

Monday morning, after a punishing Long Distance, CNOC had 8 teams across the 7 classes. And in standard style, the objective was to win the lot of them. However, that is easier said than done as it is usually the plan of the other 75 teams to win is well!

Starting with the CNOC Baryons in H12, Senan O'Boyle set out on first leg, he was completely beasting it along (according to winsplits) until a slip at the 13th saw him lose some time, he handed over to Don Short in 7th position. Don was running well until he managed to double miss punch (I'm sure he'll gladly explain his battle woes over a pint, I have yet to hear the full story)[edit: Don states he needs more therapy before he shall discuss his run, a good cry over a pint may be a more suitable at this moment in time], unknown of his miss punch, he let Tom Ryan off on the last leg. Tom ran well in the peat hags, but by then the result was MP. Fail in relay 1.

The second CNOC team, CNOC Sleptons in H18 had a much better showing. The steady hand of Bill O'Neill lead the team out on first leg. He had a pretty awesome run, coming in 6mins down on a UK team, DVO. Bernie O'Boyle was on second leg and ran around with the fastest female time for the leg, again, 6mins down on the quickest DVO runner. Eileen Hill ran last leg, she didn't have the cleanest of runs, but did have the fastest run in for her course to secure CNOC Sleptons 4th place. Getting better!

CNOC Mesons in H6, lead out on first leg by Regina Kelly, she ran a good race for her first time running in the panicked mayhem that is a mass start. Carol Ross, of JK first leg fame, took the second leg and ran a pretty clean race (map) to let Brian Hill out on last leg. Brian followed the traditional approach of mistake, spike, mistake, spike for the first 7 controls before he got into his flow and began to orienteer better. He brought the team home in 6th (4th irish team).

In Junior 38's, Joseph Delaney ran a good race, Laoise Ryan went off on a bit of an adventure and Sean ran just as clean a race as Joseph. Solid running by the junior juniors brought them home in 6th. Looking at the other teams, there are different club members running for different teams! The mini relay really provided some excitment, but for the sake of this post making CNOC look awesome, 3 teams had multi clubs, which makes the CNOC Tachyons 3rd!

In Junior 48, CNOC Hadrons, was an all female team. It was rumor'd that star CNOC athlete, Caoimhe had an argument with management, Caoimhe won and it setted up a kick ass CNOC team. Siobhan Delaney (sporting a new shinny CNOC top) was on first leg, she had an extremely tricky course, but made it around safely to unleash Irish Champions Caoimhe O'Boyle on leg 2 and Deirdre Ryan on the final leg. They tanked it around to be first all female team across the line and 3rd over all. The LVO Millar Lights, better watch out!

In the Womens Premier, CNOC once again had selection headaches. Eventually, the CNOC Bosons, Niamh O'Boyle, Bridget Lawlor and Ruth Lynam, set out to defend the IOC title of last year. Toni O'Donovan (CorkO) beasted the field by over 3mins, luckly for CNOC, she missed a control. Niamh was 3rd back, behind Sundays Long Distance Champ, Ciara Largey. Bridget Lawlor went out against Irish Squad member Rosiland Hussey (FermO), Bridget held her nerve and began the fight back as she closed the gap by 1:30min. Ruth Lynam, took the lead by the first control due to a mistake by the FermO last leg runner. Ruth then beasted the first 8 controls, dropping 15seconds total from all fastest splits at the 8th control! Once the gap was established, the title could only go one way as Ruth kept it clean for the rest of the course to bring them in for a 25min win. That makes it 3 on the trot. Ruth involved in all 3 skirmishes with Niamh and Bridget involved in 2. Irish title number 2 to CNOC.

The last race was the Mens Premier. CNOC had two teams involved, CNOC Quarks (Shea O'Boyle, Roar Short and Colm Hill) and CNOC Leptons (Conor Short, Hugh Cashel and Kev O'Boyle). The relay selections were made late on Thursday night, a move by the Chairman to make sure the so called "elites" didn't stuff up in the Middle distance and ruin his great plan.
The relay set off with Shea and Conor running well in the pack. The pack jumps right, Shea contuines on straight... A mistake... a route choice... He dives into the heather and vanishes. Bog hole! Pat Heally was giving it socks on the PA system as the teams vanish over the hill side. Johnny Kendal is announced as first through the radio control (Ajax had radio controls!), no sound from Seamus. Things don't look good. 5mins later, CorkO 1 sound through... 20mins later, Conor Short sounds through! This did not look good. Ruairi had faith in Shea and went into the box. Kendal hits the last radio, no one else around.... Suddenly Shea is seen tanking it in the run in in front for the fastest time on leg 1! Turns out, Kendal got a tow from Seamus being on the same course to finish 18sec down as Shea increased the gas over the last loop!

Roar was unleashed for leg 2, he ran a clean hard race. Saltumis (corko 2) was running faster than Roar, but got the advantage of been lead into controls to let Colm Hill out, 22sec down on CorkO's Shane Lynch. Bill Edwards gained a little time on Ruairi to let out Irish Champion Marcus Pinker. It was game on for the Irish title.

CorkO V CNOC V CorkO... again. A head to head battle ensued between Shane and Colm who were both running on the same course. Shane had a big miss on the second and recovered quick by jumping onto Colm's tail. After a veir from Colm, Shane had increased the lead to 42sec at the radio control. Over the last section, both made a race defining mistake, Shane, having the lead recovered quicker, and although slower on the last loop was first to cross the line. Colm crossed the line 28sec later and 1:35min in front of Marcus Pinker. The first CorkO team were deem Non Competitive due to IOC rules. CorkO got the win on the day, but CNOC bring the title home for a second year running.

CNOC's second team didn't have such a good day. Conor had a disaster on leg 1, dropping a lot of time on the first control. He was 10th at control 9 but fought back to gain lost time. Hugh Cashel ran a clean second leg to let Kevin O'Boyle out. As a traditional first leg runner, Kev swapped position to give anchor leg a run. He ran a good race, finishing with a Leg time just behind Irish Champ runner up Ger Butler. Over all CNOC Leptons finished 8th.

It surely sets IOC Relays up for 2012 to be electric! With 2 CNOC mens team, a CNOC womens team going for 4 in a row and a CNOC female Junior team that could potentially beat the senior team.

Bonus question: What was Don thinking of when he named the CNOC relay teams?

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Irish Orienteering Championships 2011

This year Ajax hosted the Irish Orienteering Championships in Wicklow. This was the largest (open to correction) Irish Championships ever due to the extra numbers that stayed on after the JK last weekend.

The weekend opened with a Middle Distance race on Glendoo Ridge. The ridge line is covered in peat hags that formed the basis for the navigating. Kevin O'Boyle (M20), Caoimhe O'Boyle (W14) were our too most successful runners on the day, both claiming Irish titles. There were a number of close misses with Conor Short (M20), Deirdre Ryan (W18) and Billy O'Neil (M65) all coming in in second position. Regina Kelly (W21) came home in third. Full results from CNOC's 26 runners is here.

Day 2 of the championships brought CNOC to the well known slopes of Brockagh mountain. The slopes provided faster running than the previous day but runners had to be wary of the contour and rock detail. Many a runner was caught astray. CNOC came home with 3 Irish titles. Senan O'Boyle (M55L), daughter Caoimhe O'Boyle (W14) (again!) and Deirdre Ryan set the record straight by claiming her first national title in W18. The rest of CNOC's podium toppers were Conor Short (2nd M20), Eileen Loughman (3rd W21S), Billy O'Neil (3rd M60), Bridget Lawlor (W40). Laoise Ryan (W10) and Siobhan Delaney (W14) just missed out on the podium in 4th place. Full results can be found here.

There is loads of information about the event, with photos, routegadgets and results all on the IOC website.

Tony's photo's from the event can be found here
To keep ye amused, here is a link to my QuickRoute from the Long Distance on Sunday.

If people have photos or race reports send them on.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Photos from IOC Champ relays





I have lots more photos when I talk to the real PRO I will put them up.