Irish Orienteering Championship 2017

Our members traveled from near and far to be in the start box for the most prestigious event in the Irish Orienteering calendar and these championships certainly didn't disappoint. Those in attendance got to enjoy three days of challenging orienteering on technical terrain. We were very fortunate with the weather which made this testing landscape all the more enjoyable. There were some fabulous vistas of Lough Corrib and its environs on offer to remind those who struggled to find the controls they were looking for just why we enjoy this sport so much.

I'm sure there are some tired bodies today but it was all worth it. So huge thanks to WEGO for staging three fantastic days of orienteering. Excellent courses and great organisation all around. Thanks for a great weekend!

There was some fierce competition across all the classes and several CorkO members demonstrated their orienteering prowess and their competitive edge to claim some of the prizes on offer over the weekend. Darren Burke secured the Middle Distance championship title for Cork while CorkO's Marcus Pinker claimed his 10th Classic Distance title. Incredible consistency from Marcus means this record number of wins will be exceptionally hard to beat. Frank O'Brien was the only member of the club to do the double taking the M16 Middle and Classic distance titles. He is already the bookies favourite for the 2017 Summer League title!

The Relay action on Monday was an exciting affair and following a very close contest CorkO secured the Men's Open Premier title. There was an exhilarating finish in Women's Open Premier race and CorkO narrowly missed out on the Women's Open Premier title which went to CNOC on the day. Our Handicap 12 relay team set a blistering pace in this category and had a very comfortable winning margin in claiming the H12 Championship title.

Here is the full list of the CorkO Champions and podium finishers. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough podium pants to go around!

M70 2nd Bob Pinker

W55 2nd Elizabeth Deane

W70 2nd Clare Nuttall

M21S 2nd Brendan Wall

M70 3rd Robert O'Connor

W12 3rd Mia Kelly Morrish

W21E 3rd Toni O'Donovan

W45 3rd Eadaoin Morrish

Classic Distance

M21E Champion Marcus Pinker

M16 Champion Frank O'Brien

M55 Champion Brian Corbett

M75 Champion Ted Feehan

W70 Champion Clare Nuttall

M21S Champion Brendan Wall