2025 Summer League Finale

2026 Summer League Finale

The 2026 CorkO Summer League drew to a close on Tuesday July 21st in Fota House and Gardens. The stakes were high for many participants at our final competitive event. Several were keen to complete the league and others were vying to improve their overall league standing in the hope of edging their way onto the podium or just over taking their orienteering rivals.

With the 2026 OOCup taking place in Kerry just days after this event a few international orienteers had arrived in Ireland early for this event and our Fota event provided an ideal opportunity to get a taste of some easy Irish terrain before taking on the far more technical terrain at the Black Lakes and Crohane mountain. The unexpected attendance of these experienced orienteers may have slightly diminished the chances of some of our regular summer league participants hoping for a good finish in Fota to improve their league standing.

The Fota event planner John O'Donovan set a fitting test for our league finale. The terrain was flat but the challenging course had lots of directional changes and had competitors criss-crossing the gardens and wooded area in all directions. After a damp start to the 2026 Summer League the weather was exceptionally hot again in Fota but which orienteers would handle the heat best in our final event, would the cream rise to the top or would they crack under the added pressure. Time to see who rose to the challenge and edged their way into the podium spots at the final event.

Our 2026 Short Course Summer League Champion was crowned in advance of our final event with Ciara Caball having a commanding lead heading which meant that she could not be overtaken. Ciara showed no signs of relaxing on the final day and achieved her third event win at Fota. This allowed her to discard her poorest finish and saw her reduce her points total to an impressive tally of just 10 points. Congratulations to our Short Course Champion Ciara Caball. Heading into the final event the runner up spot wasn't guaranteed with just one point separating the next two finishers with Billy Caball on 54 points and Robert O'Connor hot on his heels with 55 points. Good runs around the fast terrain at Fota House and Gardens would allow them both to discard some higher event placings from other league events. Both handled the added pressure well on the night and had good runs finishing 9th and 11th respectively and reducing their points totals in the process. Billy further strengthen his hold on the runner up spot by reducing his to 48 points and claiming the Short Course runner-up prize. Robert's good run saw his points total reduce to 52 and claims 3rd place on the Short course.

Heading into the final event on the Long Course Men's section Marc O'Sullivan needed to attend and finish the event to complete the league and in doing so could dislodge our league leader Kevin Carey. On the night it was visiting orienteer Niklas Wetzel who took the Fota House and Garden event win however Marc's runner up finish at the event meant he completed his 6th summer league event and with a points total of 10 rose up to the top of the leaderboard and becomes our 2026 Long Course Champion. Following Marc's late move onto the podium the league leaders heading into Fota got demoted and neither improved there overall standing at the Fota event so the Long Course Men's runner up honor goes to Kevin Carey with 23 points and the final podium spot goes to Jonathan Lucey  with 28 points

The battle for the Long Course Women's Champion title went down to the wire with two ladies - Mary O'Brien and Niamh Morrissey tied on 10 points heading into the event. Niamh needed to finish 2nd or better to improve her points total while Mary required a 3rd place finish or better to reduce hers. However with Niamh Corbett recently returned from her travels abroad and back in Cork she was in attendance at the Fota House and Garden event and her pace and orienteering prowess shone through on the night as she was the fastest lady and grabbed first place. Furthermore two of the visiting internationals Emila and Jannika Wetzel finished 2nd and 3rd respectively at Fota. This meant that neither of our ladies league leaders managed to improve their standing and it looked like there was going to be a tie for the champions title. However, when the results were cross checked and verified it turns out there was an error in averaging of the event organisers points awarded to Mary for the Currabinny event. When this was corrected her points total increased by 1 which means our 2026 Women's Long Course Champion is Niamh Morrissey with 10 points. Mary O'Brien finishes runner up with 11 points. There was great competition between this pair throughout the league. The remaining podium spot in the Women's section went to Eibhlin Cleary with 21 points.

Thanks again to everyone who has participated in the 2026 CorkO Summer League we hope you all enjoyed the adventures around Cork city and its environs. Full league tables can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.corko.net/Summer-League-Results

If you did not manage to achieve one of the top places in the league don't worry, as all league finishers will receive a specially designed t-shirt. Like last year to avoid waste and ensure that you receive a t-shirt that fits you we will order your desired size. Although our summer league boutique in Fota, we may not have fitted everyone. If your League Finisher status is TRUE in the results table and if you have not already specified your desired size please let me know ASAP as we will be placing the order very soon to ensure the t-shirts arrive in time for distribution to finishers at the first of our Autumn league events.

After all the sunshine and excitement of the 2026 Summer League we will be taking a short break for a few weeks but will be back in action again on Tuesday August 26th in Farran Forest Park for the start of our Autumn league and for our 2026 Summer League Prizegiving.

Enjoy the break and hopefully see you in Farran for the start of our Autumn series!