Ajax Orienteering & Hill Running Club

The Longs and O'Cleirighs finished in the top 3 on both days.  Dara and Cathal took first place in M10 and M12 on day 1, and two third places on day 2.
Ruari and Roisin both took 2nd place on Day 2 , Ruari in M10 and Roisin in W14.
Here's Ruari and Roisin getting their prizes from the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan.

A big loss to AJAX, after many successful seasons as a junior, Niall's move to CNOC opens up a big opportunity for him as he heads for the Senior ranks.
With a big bunch of competitive runners in the same phase, the internal competition alone will test Niall and ensure he gets to make the most of his undoubted talent and personality.

It's a decision that signals he is looking to do the things it takes to move on.   The orienteering scene in Ireland is unusual in looking less than favourably on a move of this kind, but as he lines up to run with his CNOC team mates he has one advantage, he has already wielded the knife to cut ties that might hold him back.

With a  domestic season behind him that was frustrated with injury, he is playing catch up and the move to CNOC ties in well with a fresh return to the cycle of competition, training and searching for the next percentage improvement.

His old clubmates wish him well and who knows, as the wheel turns, in years to come there may be a slot in AJAX that has his name on it.
Peter Kernan

I was chatting to someone at the Irish Orienteering Championships prizegiving in Tawnawully who bemoaned the lack of medals that his club was receiving, so I simply couldn't resist putting the results into a spreadsheet to create an IOC2009 medals table.

A quick web search told me that the normal Olympic system ranks by number of golds, then silvers, then bronzes.

Using this rank-by-gold system CorkO ties with Lagan Valley, but loses out because Lagan Valley has a lot more silvers, so strength in depth won it for them. In fact in each category (gold, silver and bronze) Lagan Valley won the most medals.

Curragh-Naas are third, but if any one of Curragh-Naas's eight silvers had been a gold they would have moved up to second place overall, so a few seconds in any of several classes made all the difference. A number of competitors were entered as CNOC/DFO or DFO/CNOC; in each case I deleted the second club and assumed that the competitor represented the first - “count me twice” is definitely not allowed. I’m sure Curragh-Naas could scramble further up the table by redeploying their schizophrenic members (at the expense of the defence forces), but I’m just going by the club names in the published results.

There are two other possible systems: one ranks by total number of medals won and the other assigns points to medals. Both have problems – rank-by-medals means a gold has the same value as a bronze, and rank-by-points means N bronzes are equal to one gold, both of which go against the spirit of a championship event. You go there to win, not to nearly win, and I say that with genuine respect for all of those proud orienteering chests that are displaying an IOC2009 silver or bronze medal this week. However it has to be said that the rank-by-gold system used here does have a theoretical anomaly: what if club A wins only one gold and club B wins ten silvers but no golds; which club is better?

Whichever way you choose to look at it, Lagan Valley dominated the 2009 Irish Orienteering Championships. They took home about one of every five medals awarded, as well as one of every five golds. Only one third of their fifteen silvers was lost to clubmates, so they had great potential to win a lot more golds.

It is interesting that the top-three clubs won 55% of the golds and 45% of all medals; I think this means that big clubs win disproportionately more medals, possibly because they find it easier to fill relay teams.

Great Eastern Navigators are our best alchemists – they converted 62% of their 16 medals into gold, but Setanta seems to have lost the Midas touch with a conversion rate of only 8% from their 13 medals. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...

The press didn't pick up on it, but Leinster actually beat Munster twice last weekend, once in Rugby and again in Orienteering. The inter-provincial gold share-out is: Leinster 41; Munster: 20; Northern Ireland 17; Connaught 1. However each of the top-three clubs in the medals table is from a different province which must mean that there is great potential to revive some sort of inter-provincial or all-Island inter-club competition. In total 20 different clubs brought home some silverware.

Medals from middle distance, classic distance and relay are all included and I have counted a relay team as one medal, not three - that’s the normal Olympic way of doing it. This table is based on medals, not places, as the eligibility rules preclude some class winners from receiving IOC medals. I'm sure that my spreadsheet and analysis is full of errors and apologies in advance for that.

Maybe we should have an IOC medals table each year? I can’t recall if this has ever been done before, but I certainly haven’t seen one in recent years. In an Irish Orienteering Championships we probably give out more medals than at an average Olympic games, so we must have enough data to build year-on-year comparisons. The data is up there on the web for the last few years so if anyone wants my spreadsheet (it's a pivot table) they are welcome to try and time-line the data across a few years.

Well done Lagan Valley.

Marcus Geoghegan
Ajax

Marcus has slipped back in time  into the analog world to gather up contours in the 1980s from Cronybyrne.  When he comes back he’s going to turn them into 1’s and 0’s for us to use.  This is his report to date…..
Peter Gargan found the eight colour separations at 1:7500 that were sent to the printer in the '80s. They are Eoin Rothery masterpieces. I have talked to Pat Healy and he says that his 1993 revision just used the '80s map as a template with vegetation updates overlaid, so the brown (contour), black (road, boulder) and even most of the blue separations are still valid.

I have been experimenting with raster (bitmap) to vector-bezier (OCAD) conversion and have had great success on my trial scans with some software called wintopo. The picture shows some of Cronybyrne’s contours after conversion to OCAD vector format.

The colour separations have been professionally scanned by a friend of Brian Hollinshead who did a huge amount of large format high quality scanning for the Trinity map archive project. My next job is to convert the black, brown and blue into OCAD vector-bezier and we should have a good base to start updating green and yellow in field surveys. Of course the non-contour brown, the blue, and the black road/path network will need to be checked at the same time.

I hope to be able to report some progress in the next couple of weeks, although I would beg some patience from Ajax as May is the busiest time for me with my *two* IOA hats on.

Last weekend Ajax members Andrew McCarthy and Cian O’Reilly attended the two day TrailO Challenge at the National Trust property of Castleward Estate, Co. Down. The Irish TrailO Championships were held on the Saturday where two Classes were available: ITOC (for Irish Nationals and Residents) and the Visitor Class. The Defending Champion Cian narrowly missed out on the title again coming second to Stephen Gilmore (LVO). Winner of the Visitor Class on Day 1 was last years Bronze Medalist in the World TrailO Championship Jari Turto of Finland.
 
The Northern Ireland Championships were held on the Sunday and Andrew and Cian competed in the Visitor Class, while those from Northern Ireland competed in the NITOC Class. Today was Andrew’s day to excel and by making only 2 mistakes he won the Visitor Class while Wilbert Hollinger took the NITOC Title. Andrews impressive second day also moved him to the Top of the Two Day TrailO Challenge with a combined score of 33 points, pushing the aforementioned Jari Turto into second place. This result was impressive due to the high calibre of orienteers attending with the British Squad using the competition for the World Championships selection.   ....Cian O'Reilly 

ITOC Champion: Steven Gilmore (LVO)
NITOC Champion: Wilbert Hollinger (LVO)
2 Day TrailO Challenge Winner: Andrew McCarthy (Ajax)
 
Full Details : http://www.niorienteering.org.uk/lvo/trailo-2009/default....

Photo: National Trust, collection can be seen at .........

Castle Ward National Trust site: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-castleward

Sunday March 15th, 2009
Start times from 11AM until 1PM

The competition area is an intricate sand dune system surveyed and mapped by Aonghus O'Cleirigh. Aonghus has recently extended the map northwards and so this year's event includes some areas that are new to orienteering. Aonghus is also planning the courses.

This event promises to be exciting, fast, complex and spectator friendly - don't miss it. Longer courses will have a map exchange.

Directions: Turn off the Clontarf road onto the causeway road -the assembly area is near the roundabout at O233370. There will be a signpost at the causeway road/clontarf road junction. Note: there is no access to the event via the wooden bridge at the south end of the island.

Dart, Cycle & Dublin Bus: The nearest Dart station is Raheny (2.75km). There is a cycle track along the Coast Road which is an ideal way to reach the event. Dublin Bus 130 runs every 15 minutes (Sunday Schedule) from Lower Abbey Street to the wooden bridge to the Island.

Here is an aerial view of the island and the surrounding area.

Parking: please do not park on the access road to the beach – use the tarmac road before the roundabout or the parking area on the beach itself.

SportIdent: All courses use SportIdent. There are no pin-punches on the controls. Rental SportIdent cards can be hired from registration and these must be handed back at the download station. You must download after finishing.

Course Planner’s Notes: The competition area consists of coastal sand-dune terrain without tree cover, mapped at a scale of 1:5,000 with a 2.5m contour interval. The north lines on the map are aligned at 45° to the edge of the paper. The dune features are relatively small with the highest point on the map being about eight meters above sea-level. Navigation is aided by man-made features – paths, buildings and other constructed objects. The area is used extensively by the public for recreational purposes. Only relatively distinct paths are mapped. The terrain is very runnable with a covering of various types of grasses. All courses cross freshwater marshes which are firm underfoot and easily passable. The map deviates from IOF mapping specification in that open sand is represented by 100% yellow. A line of telegraph poles running the length of the competition area has been omitted from the map in order not to over-simplify navigation.

Planner:  Aonghus O'Cleirigh, Ajax

Mapper: Aonghus O'Cleirigh, Ajax

Controller: Mike Long, Ajax

Organiser: Denis Reidy, Ajax

Map:

Maps are pre-marked and printed at a scale of 1:5,000 on water resistant material.  Contour interval is 2.5 meters.

Course Lengths:

Brown 9.6k, 50m climb, 28 controls, Map Exchange

Blue 7.2k, 35m climb, 27 controls, Map Exchange

Green 4.6k, 25m climb, 23 controls

Light Green 2.9k, 15m climb, 17 controls

Orange 2.0k, 15m climb, 5 controls

Yellow 1.5k, 10m climb, 12 controls

Condition of entry:

· Please use crossing points marked on map.

· For safety reasons do not cross public roads or race on them.

· Down load your SI card, whether you complete the course or not.

· Bull Island is a EU designated Special Area of Conservation. Do not cause damage or litter.

· Orienteering is an adventure sport. You compete at your own risk.

Entry Fees:

For members of an orienteering club:

Adult: 8 Euro.

Junior/Full time student 5 Euro

Family 20 Euro

For non-members of an orienteering club

Adult: 10 Euro.

Junior/Full time student 6 Euro

Family 25 Euro

Ajax Orienteering and Hill Running Club wishes you a great run and an enjoyable day!

A History of Bull Island

Bull Island, which was first mapped for orienteering for the 2006 Leinster Championships, came into existence quite by accident less than 200 years ago. Here is how it all happened. By late 18th century Dublin was a thriving port, but a sandbar at the mouth of the River Liffey constituted a major hazard. Only 6 feet of water cleared the obstacle at low tide and many lives, ships and cargoes were lost. To improve access to the Port a 3.5-mile stone breakwater (the Great South Wall) extending to a point now marked by the Poolbeg Lighthouse was built in 1795 to prevent silting of the shipping lane. Unfortunately the structure did not achieve its intended purpose.

In 1801 Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame/notoriety) suggested that a wall be built on the Northern Bank of the Liffey parallel to the Great South Wall. The proposal was seriously considered by the Port of Dublin, but was superseded by a broader plan, which led to the construction of the existing North Bull Wall. The breakwater, designed by Francis Giles and George Halpin, was completed in 1824 and stretches for 1.7 miles from the shore of Dollymount to the North Bull Lighthouse at the entrance to the Port. Its purpose was to deepen the Liffey Channel using the natural scouring action of the river, and also to prevent the movement of a sandbar on to the Clontarf shore. The Wall did succeed in deepening the channel to a depth of 16 feet at low water. But the sand dislodged was carried by currents and deposited on the North Bull Bank. Bull Island came into existence and has been growing steadily since.

Today the island is 5.6 km in length and 1 km in width, and is home to two golf courses, and a wide range of natural habitats including sand dunes, salt march, freshwater marsh, and beach area. The EU has designated Bull Island a Special Protection Area and a Special Area for Conservation.

William Bligh was born at Plymouth, England on 4 Oct 1754. After entering the Navy he sailed with James Cook on his second voyage around the world (1772-74). He saw service in Naval battles in 1781 and 1782, and in 1786 when the Commission for the Port of Dublin was established, he was taking part in the naval blockade of French ports.

In late 1787 he was assigned to HMS Bounty. While sailing from Tahiti to the West Indies he and 18 of his crew were overpowered and set adrift in a small boat in the Pacific (April 1789). Bligh's skill as a navigator of the highest quality was demonstrated by his ability to sail the Bounty's lifeboat to Timor, a distance of 3618 miles with only a sextant as a navigational aid. He returned to England in 1790 and continued his career in the Navy.

Captain William Bligh was invited to survey Dublin Bay by the Directors General of Inland Navigation in Ireland. He had a terrific reputation, earned in the South Seas, as a skilled navigator and marine surveyor. Bligh arrived in Dublin in Sept 1800 and completed his survey and report in three months. The chart based on his survey was extraordinarily accurate and detailed, and was greatly superior to all previous charts. He proposed the construction of a wall on the north side of the channel parallel with the South Wall to speed the flow of water and to combat silting. This proposal was accepted in principle.

He returned to his naval duties in early 1801 and fought under Nelson in the Battle of Copenhagen in that year. He was appointed Governor of New South Wales, Australia, in 1805. An army mutiny took place in the colony during which Bligh was deposed and held in custody until Feb 1808. He returned to England in 1810 and in 1811 was promoted Rear Admiral. In 1814 he was elevated to Vice Admiral. Bligh died in London in 1817.

AO’C (Material sourced from Dublin Port Authority and from Dublin City Council.)

see also Bull Island on wikipedia

Hard to get photos of these photographer guys, but Farina Freigang caught this fellow, Martin Flynn (AJAX) cutting up through the forest without his camera.

Peter Kernan

Link to Farina's Djouce photos