Lagan Valley Orienteers held first proper timed event since March

Mark Pruzina member of Lagan Valley Orienteers comments: 

“Here in Northern Ireland, Lagan Valley Orienteers held our first proper timed event since March yesterday on 1 August at Meelmore in the Mournes. We were able to offer 80 pre-entry places with 10 starts per 15 minutes in compliance with British Orienteering guidance.

We used SIAir and SRR Radio Controls which worked well with live Start, Finish and one Radio Control data coming back to me at Registration 1km away. This meant that the entire race was contact free from Start to Finish, with minimal contact and good social distancing at Registration/Download.

Social distancing was great throughout and everything was actually relatively unhurried and relaxed due to the spacing of the 80 people across the 2 hours. When I uploaded the results to British Orienteering website last night I think we might be the first proper timed event in the UK since March!

Everyone had a great time. The joy of getting out into an actual competitive, timed event was amazing.

We are hoping for a second event using the same protocols and processes in a couple of weeks’ time if we can finalise permissions.”

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Juls Hanvey, Northern Ireland Sporting Clubs Coordinator who attended the event, says:  "I heard three different people say “Our sport was made for social distancing!” – so true!"

Here are another few quotes from Facebook users, they include:

Photo credits:  Juls Hanvey (NIOA)

Thank you to Helen Pruzina (Organiser), Steph Pruzina (Planner), Mark Pruzina for sorting out all of the IT side of things including pre-registration entries and payment, Graeme Francis (Controller) and to all the additional volunteers helping with starts and registration.

For more information please visit:  www.lvo.org.uk

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Is your club busy planning a return to orienteering event? 

We would love to hear from clubs about the what they are planning and the organising is going.  Have you any first hand experiences of what you found particular worked well?  Any examples of stumbling blocks and how you and your club overcame them?  Have you any particular experiences and solutions which  you can share with other clubs and members?  Please email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk