Autumn League #2: Watergrasshill Results and Report

Post date: Sep 05, 2012 10:25:41 PM

Watergrasshill was the destination for the second event in the Cork Orienteering Club Autumn League. Tuesday was a lovely bright sunny evening which afforded the 64 competitors a most enjoyable adventure in the woods. The planner set courses with something to suit everyone from technical controls which required accurate navigation to some fast legs which favoured the fast runners in the field. The Short course on the night involved a loop of the Southern portion of the map while the Long course brought competitors to the Northern section of the map and entailed an excursion into the quarry. The new trails course proved popular this week with 12 competitors choosing this option. The 5.7km course comprised a loop of the Southern area of the map followed by another loop around the Northern region of the map.It was implied that the Long course wouldn’t be as long as that during the Summer League but afraid this information was a bit misleading and the course was in fact about 200m longer than the summer course, that is assuming you didn't take some sub-optimal route choices in which case it may have even been longer again! Thankfully it was a glorious evening and all seemed to enjoy the additional value they got for their entry fee.Things didn’t start too easy on the Long course with controls one and two taking competitors into some tricky slow forest run. Splits times to control one ranged from 1 minute 58 seconds to 22 minutes and 52 seconds! The earth walls in the forest were convenient navigation tools to these controls. The going varied from fast and furious on the wide fire roads to rough and slow in other places in particular around controls four, five and twelve. There were some incredible views of the surrounding landscape visible to those that took the time to look around while heading towards controls eight and nine on the Long course. Control ten in the quarry was another control which proved costly for some. After control 14 people may have felt they were on the home straight but there was one final challenge in the last control.So who demonstrated the optimal route choices and combined their speed and navigational skill to the best effect. On the Long course for the second week in succession Dermot O’Sullivan takes the honours with an impressive time of 40:45. A little under two minutes behind him was Donal Murphy who was second with a time of 42:41 and a just under a minute and a half adrift of Donal was Rob McEvoy who claimed the final podium spot with a time of 44:08. The fastest lady was yet again Niamh Corbett who completed the course with a time of 51:08. Second place went to Ailbhe Creedon who finished with a time of 54:45 and Trishia O’Mahony claimed the third spot completing the challenging course in a time of 57:14.

It seems that team work was the order of the day on the Short course with Cillian, Kate and Fiona finishing first having completed the course in a time of 20:19. The trio waited nervously at the finish as other Short course participants downloaded to see if anyone could surpass their good run. Lucky for them no one could better their time and they were thrilled with their event win. Second place went to another team, Micheal and Peter who finished with a time of 21:24. The final podium spot went another pair, Joe and Joshua who finished the course in 23:01.

The trails course was all on fire roads and Denis McCarthy was first to complete the two loops in a notable time of 29:54. Last week’s trails winner Fiona Craven had to be content with second place on Tuesday with a time of 41:45. Third place went to Audrey Burkley who completed the circuit in a time of 56:49.

Full individual results with splits are available here.

Thanks to Liam O’Brien for planning the challenging and enjoyable courses. Thanks also to Willie Fitzgerald for helping with control collection.

Next week we return to the Currabinny Wood for the third event in the Autumn league. Can someone deny Dermot O'Sullivan the hat trick in the Autumn League? If you can't challenge Dermot then why not check out the results and find someone you can race next Tuesday. Further location information and some forest trivia is available here.

A reminder to those who haven't yet collected their summer league t-shirts these will be available to collect in Currabinny so be sure to ask when registering on the night.

Hope to see you there!