IOC 2009
The Irish Orienteering Championships took place over the weekend (2-4 May 09) East of Lough Eske in Co. Donegal. The Irish Orienteering Championships is the blue ribbon event of the year for Irish Orienteering and the one that decides the National Champions. The event was run over three days with a Classic Distance Event on Saturday evening, a Long Distance Event on the Sunday and a Relay Competition on the Monday.
The terrain would be well known to members of the Defence Forces as it is situated just East of the Barnesmore Gap which is represented on the 28th Battalion Unit Flash. The terrain itself was open mountain with a significant number of crags, rocks and marshes made all the more interesting by intricate contour detail. The tough physical terrain was made even more difficult by large amounts of rain, which fell over the course of the event and in the preceding week, making the ground very wet and the going difficult and slippery under foot. The Relay event, which was filmed by RTE took place in near white out conditions.
The Defence Force was very well represented at the event. It must be remembered that those taking part funded their own entries and gave of their own time over a Bank Holiday weekend to represent the Defence Forces in the National Championships and are to be congratulated for doing so.
The following personnel took part: - Lt Col Denis Reidy – DFTC, Comdt Brendan Delaney – Cadet School, Comdt Tom O’Keeffe – DFTC HQ, Capt Ollie Clear – DFHQ, Capt Orla Jennings, Capt Donal Burke, Capt Daneille Buckley – 1 LSB, Lt Kevin O’Reilly – 2 LSB, Lt Maeve O’Grady – Cadet School, Lt Dan Morrogh – Ord School, Lt Sarah O’Regan – 2 Inf Bn, Lt Ray Houlihan – NCO TW, BSM Podge O’Driscoll - 1 FAR, Sgt Uel Fisher – 28 Inf Bn, Sgt Joe Doherty – 28 Inf Bn, Pte Gretta O’ Connor – 2 E Bde HQ, Capt Paul O’Sulivan Hourihan 34 Inf Bn, Pte Colm Hill – 33 Inf Bn.
There were a number of very good performances throughout the weekend with members of the Defence Forces Orienteering club taking the following prizes, which were presented by the Tánaiste Ms Mary Coughlan T.D.
Capt Danielle Buckley – 1st Long Distance W21L (National Champion)
Pte Colm Hill- 2nd Long Distance Men’s Elite
Pte Gretta O’Connor – 2nd Classic Distance W21L
Lt Maeve O’Grady – 3rd Women’s Elite Classic and Long Distances
In the Relay Event – Lt Maeve O’ Grady was on the winning Women’s Team and Pte Colm Hill was on the second placed men’s team.
This year’s Irish Championships were definitely one of the most successful in the recent history of Defence Forces Orienteering.
A sample of the map.
Captain Oliver Clear - Chairman Defence Forces Orienteering
