Summer League #6: Curragh Wood Results and Report

Curragh Woods was the destination for the sixth event in the Cork Orienteering Club Summer League and despite all the inclement weather of late it was another idyllic evening for orienteering. A total of 92 participants registered on the night which led to some intense competition on both the Long and Short courses. We were also delighted to welcome some new families to the sport of orienteering and we really hope they enjoyed their adventure in Curragh Woods. We promise not all the forests are as steep as this one!

Curragh Wood is renowned for the steepness of the terrain and last night’s planner decided to embrace this feature and set a good challenging climb to the first control on the Long course. It was our current league leader Rob McEvoy who seemed to relish this climb the most and had the fastest split to the first control. Recent heavy rainfall meant a lot of the paths were very muddy in spots which gave those with orienteering shoes on a slight advantage over those wearing runners who left a trail of skid marks behind them. The rain also caused a great growth spurt which meant the forest was looking very lush indeed.

A number of controls on the long course seemed to catch some people out especially controls 3 and 5 which required a bit of contouring. Control 7 took in the very scenic ring fort for anyone who took the time to observe it. Unfortunately, Curragh Woods hasn’t been immune to the harvesters and some recent felling meant that the hill around control 10 on the Long course which was usually quite tricky is now highly visible. Interestingly Coillte manages 7% of the land of Ireland, that’s bigger than the entire county of Cork and 95% of the wood products they manufactures are exported. One of their products is actually cladding the walls and ceiling system of Dubai International Airport and another can be seen in the stunning new Art Museum in Qatar, so who knows where the Curragh felled trees will end up.

Sorry I digress, the final control on the Long course also proved costly for some who overshot the path junction. Leaving the last control participants had to endure one final ascend before the fast descent to the finish. The fastest finish honours go to Tim O’Donoghue who incidentally won the Dingle Adventure Race last weekend. So congratulations to Tim, and all the other summer league regulars who participated in this race.

Down to the business of results, well it seems that local knowledge proved the deciding factor on the Long course with some Midleton natives taking the top two positions and others finishing high up in the rankings. Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan made amends for his narrow defeat last week by taking the number one spot in Curragh with a fantastic time of 33:09 giving himself plenty of winning margin over second place finisher John Chandler who covered the course in 34:34. Last year’s Summer League runner-up Donal Murphy took the final podium spot with a time of 36:15. It will be interesting to see how these results impact the overall league tables. 

In the Ladies section the return of one of our elite Cork O club members Toni O’Donovan forced all our regular ladies to move down a place or two in the results. Toni completed the course in a time of 46:20 and I’m sure the ladies will be glad to know that she is only home on a short visit! Second fastest female was Eibhlin Cleary who completed the challenging course in a time of 50:45 while Trishia O’Mahony took third place with a time of 56:53.

On the Short course the Bosonnet sibling rivalry continues and this week it was Joe Bosonnet who emerged on top. Joe has been so close over the past few events and he finally got the win he thoroughly deserves given his speed. Despite a small error at control 5 and his sister pipping him on leg 6, Joe had the fastest splits to all the other controls on the Short course and finished with a winning time of 24:41. He even had over two minutes to spare on his sister Sienna Bosonnet who finished second in 26:45. Jonathan Lahive just nudged Sean Bosonnet out of the top three this week and took third place with a time of 27:32. Perhaps the terrain, mud and the ferns encroaching on some of the path didn’t suit Sean this week.

In the team event, UCC once again took the honours on the Long course accumulating 31 points and were followed by team Fitzob in second with 54 points. The defence forces team were third with 84 points. On the Short course team Bosonnet further extend their lead with another great score of just 7points while team Cott were second with 36 points.

Full individual results with splits and Route Gadget are available here.

Check out the following link or visit the gallery page of the Summer League website for some action shots at the event.....the reason some people are so happy is because I snapped them on the downhill stretch!

Thanks to the Corbett family for organising last night’s event. Brian Corbett planned the courses while Liz Deane and Niamh Corbett took care of registration, data entry and download. Thanks also to Dave O’Donovan for helping with starts and Liam O’Brien for assisting with control collection.