Holder ITOC – Bill Simpson (LVO)
Holder Visitor – Dave Gittus (WRE)
Participation in the event is open to all. In particular there is no disability criterion. The start window has been deliberately set to give NIOC runners the opportunity to compete in TrailO. NIOC runs must be undertaken before participating in ITOC.
The competition takes place on Saturday 7th October 2006 in Lough Navar Forest alongside the Northern Ireland Championship in Foot Orienteering. Car parking is beside the A46 Enniskillen to Beleek road 15 miles from Enniskillen and 10 miles from Beleek.
In this form of orienteering, competitors visit designated decision points along the “trail” – they don’t visit the control sites – and using the detail from the map, the control description and the placement of the control circle decide which of the visible markers is correctly placed (bearing in mind that none of them may be correct). The markers are designated alphabetically as viewed from the decision point with the left-most being “A”, the second-left being “B” and so on – the angle of view of the markers from the decision point is always less than 180°. There are lettered boxes on the control card – the competitor punches the box corresponding to their decision. There is also a box lettered “Z” (zero) to be punched if the decision is that none of the markers is correct. For each correct answer a score of one point is given and, as tiebreaker, some of the controls are timed. It is the length of time taken to reach a decision which is measured; the clock starts when the map is placed in front of the competitor and stops when they give their answer.
This event is being used to “roadtest” a
draft set of competition rules for Trail Orienteering events prepared for the
Irish Orienteering Association. Note
that, as the event is being staged in Northern Ireland, any references to the
“Irish Orienteering Association”, “IOA” or “IOA-specific text” should be taken
as the equivalent British Orienteering Federation references. Copies of these rules will be available for
viewing at registration and can be found on the event web site. Further information on TrailO can be found
at www.trailo.org.
The terrain is “untidy” coniferous forest in which the deciduous vegetation marking the pre-forestation track and field boundaries remains but has not been maintained. There is a small area of open grazing land. The trail is a roadway whose metalling has broken down into a stone and gravel surface with a grassy centre.
Scale 1:5,000 with 5metre contour interval,
drawn in accordance with the IOF International Specification for Orienteering
Maps (version 2000) incorporating the Section 7 guidelines for TrailO. A TrailO map differs from a FootO map in
that the representation of vegetation relates to its effect on visibility, not
runnability. Thus white areas are
wooded with good visibility, green (60%) are wooded with reduced visibility and
green (100%) are wooded with restricted visibility. Vertical green stripes indicate areas where undergrowth
interferes with the definition of the landform.
In the open areas, isolate trees are
represented by green circles centred on the base of the tree trunk and isolate
bushes are shown as green dots.
Where distinct vegetation boundaries are
shown wholly within woodland, they represent the change in visibility at ground
level between the two regions and equate to the base of the trunks of the trees
on one side of the boundary. For
distinct boundaries between woodland and open ground, they represent the edge
of the tree canopy.
The map is printed double-sided, with the
first two-thirds of the course on one side and the last two-thirds on the
reverse; there is considerable overlap.
A full control description list is given on both sides of the map.
There is a single course of 1.33Km and 50m
climb, spread along its length. It has
21 controls of which 2 are timed.
There are two championship classes:
§
ITOC open
to Irish Nationals and those resident in Ireland.
§
Visitor
“National” is taken to describe the
eligibility to hold an Irish passport.
It should be noted that there is no
disability criterion for becoming Champion.
There is a perpetual trophy for the Irish Champion; event prizes will be
awarded for 1st place in each class. (There may yet be a perpetual trophy for the leading visitor).
There is a non-Championship class available
on an entry-on-the-day basis and after all of the Championship competitors have
started. This will not have timed
controls nor have an overall time limit imposed.
Entry fee is £5. Payment is on the day.
The pre-start from registration to start is
300metres eastwards along the A46 (level).
From the start the course is a forest road running in a southeasterly
direction. After finishing competitors
will retrace their route to registration (1.63km, at least it’s mostly
downhill!). Decision point markers will
be by the edge of the track.
Competitors must not leave the forest road.
Decision points will be indicated by
mini-markers on low stakes. These
markers will be unnumbered but will be encountered in the order of the controls
as given on the control description list.
The side of the track upon which the
markers appear is indicated by the equivalent circle and control number on the
map. For some controls the location of
the decision point is further confirmed by the presence of an arrow in column H
of the control description; this indicates the direction in which the cluster
of control flags is to be viewed from the decision point.
Farther along the track on the same side as
the decision point and before the next decision point will be found, on a
stake, the punch to be used to privately record the decision for that
control. The stake will have a tag
showing the number of the control to which it relates.
From some of the decision points it may
possible to see markers relevant to other controls; there will be tape in the
terrain separating the clusters. This
will be indicated on the control description.
Copies of these notes will be available at
NIOC parking.
Competitors bring their entry fee to TrailO
registration where they collect their control cards.
There are no pre-assigned start times. For the Championship classes registration opens at 12:00hrs and closes at 14:30hrs, the start closes at 15:00hrs and the course closes at 17:00hrs. For come-and-try-it competitors registration closes at 16:00hrs and the course closes at 17:00hrs.
Registered Championship competitors make
their way to the start where they will be set off with a minimum time gap of 2
minutes. They will be issued with their
map and have their start time recorded on the control card.
Competitors have 2hrs to complete the
course; one point is deducted from their score for each 5mins, or part thereof,
over the time limit.
At the finish competitors will have the
time of arrival recorded on their control card. Maps and control cards will be placed in a sealed envelope which
the competitor will take back to registration for results processing.
At the timed controls competitors are asked
to confirm that they can see all the flags and are given a copy of the
competition map from which has been removed the detail (except the magnetic
north lines) and control description information. This shows the orientation of the map and the position of the
control circle. The time starts when
this map is turned over to reveal the full detail and stops when the answer is
given. Only the first answer can be
accepted.
Come-and-try-it competitors make their way
to the start; they are free to start at any time after the Championship
competitors have set off. From the
finish they should retrace their steps and must report to registration.
Controller Frank Swift (UCDO)
Planner/Organiser Alan Gartside (Lagan Valley Orienteers)