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Articles
SHI 2000:
Some went orienteering...
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Some didn't..?
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So this is what they got up to at Finland...
Gerry tries to impress the local Finnish girls...
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Marcus sets off on his safari trip...
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Don't they look just so innocent?!
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Love is ...
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Before... but where's the after?
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See, the Irish do actually win!
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John tries to charm the boys late one night...
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Ski and Mountain Bike Orienteering Squads
Irish squads are being formed for Ski-Orienteering and Mountain-Bike
Orienteering. The Ski-O squad is being formed with the 2006 Olympics in
mind. Squad members would be expected to do regular training on
roller-skis or roller-skates. The MTB-O squad is being formed with an
immediate short-term goal of a World Cup race in Belgium during September
16-24. A trial race may be held in conjunction with an event in England.
As with Foot-O the squads are on a 32-county basis and will include all
interested athletes (Juniors, Developmental and Elite). Funding will be
requested from the Irish Sports Council for 2001 for both disciplines and
carding criteria standards for individual funding will also be agreed.
Can you let me know if you are interested in being included in either squad
or in helping with the administration. Can you also inform anyone else who
you think may be interested.
Gerry Brady.
Park-O World Championships
Below is a letter received through the IOA e-mail address and passed on to
Aonghus and myself by Rosie. You can see from the proposals how orienteering is
becoming a more diversified product, at the elite end, as the demands of
television and the winter/summer Olympics take effect. The proposal here
relates to Park-O but there are also advanced IOF plans to bring Ski-O into
urban areas where it can effectively be Street-O on snow. The next big
development is probable Ski-O inclusion in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.
This will make orienteering an Olympic sport and should give access to
increased funding and a new category of Sports Council Carded athletes. Any
cross-country O-skiers out there to form a 2006 squad or do you know any Irish
passport-eligible European based Ski-O competitors?
The Bord Failte initiative offers opportunities but we must decide what we want
out of it before we can make a proposal that has broad support. Do we want
publicity or new maps or new members or a profit? How much work will we put in
and who will put it in? Do we want a combined elite / mass participation
competition? If we go for a big show then we would probably need substantial
local tourism support especially if the venue is in the countryside. For
example, new photogrammetry and maps of Little Killary and Union Wood combined
with a Park-O event in the equivalent of Ashford Castle in Cong, Co. Mayo!
Maybe a Street-O in Kinsale? Maybe new maps of the Comeraghs and the John F.
Kennedy Estate in Wexford? An edge orienteering has on other sports is that it
can be held outside the cities and the towns. A weakness it has is a small
administration base.
For further information, try checking out the Park World Tour site at http://www.pwt.org!
Gerry Brady.
"
To the International Orienteering Federation Council...
World Championships Series in Park Orienteering
The Park World Tour association hereby confirms its willingness to organise
the Park World Tour as an official World Championships series in Park
Orienteering to be held on an annual basis from the year 2001 onwards.
The Park World Championships series 2001 would be organised as a seven to
fourteen (7-14) day tour in October-November, including five to eight (5-8)
races in three to five (3-5) countries. Accommodation, meals and transport
costs for all the participating athletes would be covered by the Park World
Tour from the organising city of the first race, two days before the opening
race, to the city venue of the last race, the day after the final race. The
best athletes would be awarded prize money, both for each race respectively,
and on the basis of the total results in the Park World Championships series.
The participants in the Park World Championships series would be selected
during two days of regional/continental Park Orienteering qualifying races,
organised in America, Asia, Eastern + Western Europe, Northern Europe, Southern
Europe, Africa and Oceania respectively The specified regions, number of
participants and selection criteria would be decided by the IOF.
All the races would be organised according to the guidelines in the current
Park World Tour Organisers Manual, updated in cooperation with the IOF, to
ensure in particular that the criteria for fairness are fulfilled. The entire
Park World Tour crew, including the Organisers, Coaches, Map Makers, Map &
Course Controller, Event Manager, Jury Chairman, Media Officer, VIP & Guest
Hosts, Treasurer, Marketing Managers, Designer, International Speaker,
Language and Translation Consultant, Internet Managers, Photographer and TV
Production Team, would ensure the successful organisation of each Park World
Championship event, in conjunction with the local organisers.
The applicants who have already notified their interest in staging Park World
Tour / Championships series events in the year 2001 include the federations or
clubs from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, South
Africa and China. All the above countries offer good opportunities for
national TV coverage, and the options for international TV coverage are
increasing.
The Park World Tour association is willing to continue the planning and
preparations for realising the inaugural Park World Championships series in
2001, in cooperation with the IOF, so that all the details for this will be
able to be presented as soon as possible, and by October 2000 at the latest.
As part of the process, the Park World Tour association is willing to be
incorporated as an autonomous committee or sub-committee under the IOF, from
1.1.2001 onwards, with its own budget, and with an official IOF observer and
supervisor (currently Foot-O Committee Chairman Ove Gasbjerg) as part of the
group.
27 March 2000
Anders Vestergård, President, Finland
Sepp Hartinger, Vice President, Austria
Jaroslav Kacmarcik, Czech Republic
Hans Mårtensson, Sweden
Jörgen Mårtensson, Sweden
Erik Unaas, Norway
Gåvert Wååg, Sweden
"
Yea Andrew, that's right - go turn that chick on!!!
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These pages were last updated during November 2000 by Conor Creedon.
Comments and suggestions to ccreedon@ucc.ie.
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