Summer League #7: Corrin Hill Wood Tuesday June 20th Results and Report
Post date: Jun 23, 2017 9:39:21 PM
The seventh event in the CorkO Summer League took place at Corrin Hill Wood near Fermoy on Tuesday evening. This prominent landmark with it's distinctive Cross at the summit is very visible from afar when passing near Fermoy and this historic venue attracted over 90 orienteers into action on the night. We were delighted to welcome back the Fermoy Cubs for another orienteering adventure. Their orienteering skills are definitely improving with all the practice and it is showing in their results as one team achieved a podium finish this week.
As the location name suggests it was going to be difficult to avoid the climb in Corrin Hill Wood. However the planner set out a great Short course which was a little longer than usual but encompassed a lovely loop around some of the gentler trails in the wood. The Long course was a slightly more demanding affair with 130m of climb. The start of the Long course might have deceived people into believing there wasn’t going to be much climb at all but seasoned visitors to this area knew precisely what lay ahead. By having a nice gentle start and a downhill finish maybe the planner was hoping that people would forget the very tough climb in the middle of the course.
The course began with several short legs on the Southern section of the map taking competitors into areas of charming runnable forest. This was followed by a circuit along the lowest trail on the eastern part of the map with controls in some delightful areas of the wood. The sound of cars passing at speed could be heard along this part of the course which was a reminder of just how close this section of the woods is the M8 motorway. Unfortunately, the control codes for controls 6 and 7 were inadvertently swapped on the night so apologies for the mix up and hopefully nobody lost any time here as a result.
From the lowest section of the wood the only way was up and the leg from 7 to 8 was probably one of the most physically challenging on the night. The warm and sunny conditions we’ve been experiencing over the last few days certainly added to the difficulty on this leg. It's tough running in the heat and this steep climb definitely had participants sweating. The grueling climb to the cross at the top was broken with a leg which contoured around the one of the middle trails on the steep slopes. Following this leg there was another demanding climb to control 10. The refreshing breeze on exiting the forest trail from control 10 was most welcome and helped cool down some exhausted orienteers before the final sheer climb towards the cross and control 11. On reaching the summit I hope everyone took some time to admire the fantastic views of the surrounding countryside which were clearly visible on such a fine evening.
The next series of controls was a sequence of short control legs around the summit to controls 11, 12 and 13 and it seems these proved the trickiest on the night. There was a nice soft track leading into each of these controls but some competitors opted for the direct approach and ended up battling their way though some rather long ferns. Following control 13 participants scrambled out of the forest and commenced the final downhill run toward the finish remembering to punch the final two controls en route. The course took in many of the distinctive features in the wood from the fort earthen walls, stations of the cross and the barony boundary wall so we hope you all enjoyed the return of the Summer League to Corrin.
The honour of Long course event winner went to Agris Kramins, he powered his way around the hills at Corrin and completed the 4.7km course in a time of 27:38. We hope Agris’s winning streak continues next week when he journey’s home to Latvia and will be taking part in the national three-day orienteering event there during his visit. It is great to see CorkO represented on the start list there and best of luck to our members Agris, Zane and Aldis who will be competing at this event. Runner up at the Corrin event was Cian O’Mahony he punched all 15 controls in a time of 30:27. There was a tight contest for the final podium spot and Dan McDonnell just edged out Niamh Corbett to take third place. He finished in a time of 31:21.
The fastest Lady around the hilly terrain at Corrin was Niamh Corbett. Once again, she demonstrated great speed and navigation skill in completing the course in a time of 31:31. This result makes it five consecutive event wins for Niamh so she just needs one more event win to secure the 2017 Summer League title with a perfect points tally of 6. Runner-up on the night was Aoife O’Sullivan she finished in a time of 39:43. Aoife will also be competing abroad next week as she will be part of the Irish team participating at the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC) in Slovakia next week. We wish her and the rest of the Irish team the best of luck at this event. Similar to the men’s section there was a very close battle for third place on Tuesday night and just five seconds separated the next two finishers. It seems in the sprint to the finish Elaine Sheridan manged to overtake Trishia O’Mahony to claim the final podium spot. Elaine completed the course in a time of 40:01.
On the Short course Zane Kramina wasn't going to let her Dad Agris have all the glory on the night and she took the Corrin Short course event winner title thus achieving the double for the family. She completed the testing 3.3km course in a time of 22:39. We also hope her winning streak continues next week in Latvia. Second place on the Short course went to Aoife Moriarty who punched all 9 controls in a time of 24:53. Remarkably there was another fantastic contest for third place on the Short course. The team efforts from the Fermoy Cubs1 group saw them edge past Carmel Kearney to earn third place. Their experience from previous Summer Leagues events stood to them on the night as they finished the course in a time of 26:03 and mere 12 seconds ahead of Carmel.Well done to all who participated on the night. There was plenty of fierce competition throughout the field and full individual results with several interesting split times can be viewed here.Huge thanks this week to Jim O’Donovan and Robert O’Connor for resurveying the area for this event and for planning great courses. Thanks also to Brian Corbett for helping with registration, Dave O’Donovan for taking charge of starts, Gerlad Duffy for the refreshments at the finish and Robert for also directing parking on the night.The next event in this year’s Summer League will take us to Moabaun Wood near Watergrasshill. The “White Bog” is a popular hangout for the midge so if you tend to be a tasty treat for these pesky little critters you might want to come prepared to do battle with them. Further information and directions are available here.