Orienteering

In the depths of winter and far from home we take our charges and drop them in the middle of the woods with a line map and a compass. Great fun to be sure. They then have to find a number of marked points, stamp the card at each station and get back to the start in the shortest time. This is called a sport? Well it is fun for us.
A well-established Scandinavian sport (If they did it in the States it would already be in the Olympics and there would be a beach version). The school started to take part in the long standing Munster Schools League in 2003. We have already had a string of victories. Including representatives at the European and World Junior Championships.

 

Orienteering 2008/2009

Our level of participation in the orienteering events this year was unfortunately slightly lower this year, due to a variety of reasons, weather and clashes with other sporting events and school activities. The Cork School's Championships took place in Bweeng in January. In the senior girls event Laura McPadden and Jen Preston finished first and second respectively. The senior boys took second team placing (Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan, Michael Sheehan, Andrew Power and Criostoir Humphreys) with Josh finishing second in the individual standings. The second and third year boys were victorious through Alex Simonin, with Ned Hodson claiming second place. The first year boys team of Jeffrey Swanton, Rob Scandrett, David Woods and Chris McPadden finished second in a successful day.

The Munster School's Competition brought more success with the junior boys claiming first team placing (Alex Simonin, Oliver Kane, Oliver Ind and Owen Monagan). We made a clean sweep in the individual event with Alex, Oliver K and Oliver I claiming spots 1-3. Second place in the minor girls event was taken by Hattie Durrant, with Jen Preston also finishing second in the senior girls event. The senior boys team of Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan, Andrew Power, Criostoir Humphreys and Daniel James ended the day in second spot overall, with Josh once again coming second in the individual event.

The final event of the season was the All Ireland Championships in Curragh Chase, Kilcornan, Limerick on 13th May. We finished the season on a high with our most successful outing of the season claiming first team places in the senior boys (Josh, Andrew, Michael and Daniel) and first year boys (Jack Cowhig, Jeffrey Swanton, Daniel Moore, Chris McPadden), and second in the second and third boys (Alex Simonin, Owen Monagan, Oliver Ind and Oliver Kane).  Once again Josh finished second individually with Andrew Power third. Laura McPadden and Jen Preston finished second and third in the senior girls event, while Alex Simonin came second in the second/third year boys. The first year boys Jack Cowhig and Jeffrey Swanton ended in second and third place. Congratulations to everyone who took part throughout the year, in all sorts of weather conditions!! I want to thank Paul and Rosemarie O'Sullivan-Hourihan for all the help and organisation throughout the year, it is very much appreciated.

A final note of congratulations goes to Josh O'Sullivan-Hourihan and Alex Simonin who are involved in the Irish Junior Orienteering Squads at u18 and u16 age groups respectively following on from their various success throughout the year.

                                                - L.C.