2026 Irish Orienteering Sprint Championships

2026 Irish Orienteering Sprint Championships

Well done to all our members who took part in the Irish Sprint Orienteering Championships on the University of Limerick campus last Saturday March 21st. 

After the wet and wintry start to the year it was fabulous to have clear blue skies and glorious sun-shine in UL for the Sprint event. UL is vast and interesting campus with lots to offer for the Sprint relay racing. The sunshine helped raise the spirits and made for a very sociable event with lots of post race route analysis and debates between competitors. 

It was wonderful to have 30+ CorkO members in actions on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who represented the club at the weekend, you all did us proud. Huge congratulations to all the newly crowned CorkO Irish Sprint Champions and podium finishers. Special mention to CorkO's Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan who retained the M21 Championship title and to Clodagh Moran 3ROC who claimed the W21 Championship title.

Below is a summary of all the CorkO podium finishers in the 2026 Sprint Championships.

2026 Irish Sprint Champions

M21 Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan

M16 Alec O'Brien

M40 John O'Donovan

M60 Brian Corbett

M70 Liam O'Brien

W14 Laoise O'Mahony

W40 Niamh Morrissey

W45 Mary O'Brien

Sprint Runners-Up

M12 Oisin O'Hare

W40 Sharon Lucey

3rd Place Finishers

M10 Fionn O'Hare

M14 Ruaidhri O'Brien

M16 Fiachra Morrish Wheeler

M21 Rob McEvoy

W50 Una Buckley

W65 Liz Deane

Fun 2-Person Sprint Relay

Well done to all who embraced the challenge of the fun sprint 2 person relay race which followed the Sprint Championship on Saturday. It was a fast and furious race with each team member having to complete two legs and it was exciting to watch. Congratulations to the CorkO members who were part of the winning relay teams.

Course 1 Relay Winners

Josh O'Sullivan Hourihan

Oscar Rowe 

Course 4 Relay Winners

Ruaidhri O'Brien

Fionn Hassett

Best Dressed Teams

If was great to see so many take the best dressed competition so seriously. One of the standout costumes on the day was that worn by CorkO's Mary O'Brien. He rubik cube costume (see below) may have made it difficult to read the map and run the relay legs but deserving got an award for best costume.  We know Mary had some help from her ingenious dad Bobby in the construction of this master piece and it was inspiring to see the up cycling of old CorkO Shamrock O'Ringen signage formed key parts of this structure. Well done guys on a fabulos home made costume!

Below is a link to an album of some of the interestering sites folks might have missed while sprinting around UL and Limerick city last weekend!

Urban Race - Limerick City

Following all the sprint action in UL campus on Saturday competitors moved on to Limerick City centre for the Urban Race on Sunday morning. More great courses were on offer here and competitors got to explore many of the old and new parts of the city while sprinting across Ireland longest river the Shannon in the process.

Thanks

Huge thanks to Orienteering Ireland and all their volunteers for staging an excellent weekend of Sprint and Urban orienteering in Limerick. They have set a high standard for CorkO to maintain at this year's Irish Orienteering Championships over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Weekend Results

Well done to all who participated in the the events over the weekend in Limerick.

Full Results from all the weekends events are available here:

https://ioc.orienteering.ie/results