This info sheet should be read in conjunction with the NIOC 2018 event page

Welcome

Thank you to all the people who have entered the Northern Ireland Orienteering Championships at Pomeroy, especially those competitors who are travelling a long distance to attend the event. We hope you find your course interesting, challenging and enjoyable.

Late entry

We have a limited number of maps for late entry to the Championship courses. The price will be the same as pre-entry. We need the name, class, club, dipper number and preferred start time. Acceptance of the entry will be confirmed by email.

Please use contact page to request an entry.

Entry on the Day

Green, Light Green, Orange, Yellow and White Courses.
Prices as for the N.Ireland Colour Series.

For full infomation course see course details.

Forest access

The access to the forest is located at Grid reference H708720 off the B160. We highlight that the entrance to the forest is on a bend at a junction with another minor road. Care is needed when turning into the forest.

See Getting There for map and details.

Runners crossing

You will drive past the start on the way to the parking area. The route from the forest access point to the parking area is along a road which will be used by most courses. Please take care.

Parking area

Follow signs to the parking area. Note that there are a number of old buildings around the parking area to which we have no permitted access. Please keep out of these. Two mobile toilets will be available near the parking area. Please consider a toilet stop at a café or shop before you arrive at the event.

Out of Bounds

The whole of the forest is being used for the competition and so all areas apart from the parking area and access road are strictly out of bounds unless competing at the time. Warming up is permitted along the access road, however any paths or tracks off the access road are out of bounds. Areas which are out of bounds whilst competing are clearly shown on the map, and these are: gardens and grounds around buildings; and sections of public road to the north and south edges of the map.

Hired dippers

Hired dippers must be picked up from Registration prior to proceeding to the start.

Crossing points

Crossing points are relevant to all courses except courses 10, 11 and 12. Crossing points are not compulsory, however are strongly recommended. Two of the crossing points are crossings through areas of thick forest, marked with red and white tape. The third is a fence crossing.

Start

The start is located within a few minutes of the parking area and will be indicated by signage. Competitors will be called up at their start time minus 4 minutes when start times and dipper numbers will be checked. Competitors should clear and check their dippers before entering the start boxes. Code descriptions will be available in this box. Blank maps will be available to view after time minus 2 minutes. Maps for those on Course 12 (White course) only will be allocated at this point. The start will be a ‘punching’ start for all courses, however please note that competitors are expected to start on their allocated start time. Late arrivers will be started at a time to be decided on by the start official. After the starting “beep” from the electronic clock you must dip the start box and proceed to pick up your map. The maps and courses will be pre-printed on waterproof paper. They will be held in boxes displaying the respective course number. It is the competitor’s responsibility to ensure that the correct map is picked up. The start flag adjacent to the start area corresponds with the start triangle on the map.

Code Descriptions

Code descriptions for all courses will be available within the start boxes at time minus 4 minutes. They will be printed on waterproof paper. For courses 1 to 10 (inclusive) the code descriptions will be in IOF symbol format. For courses 11 and 12 they will be in English text format. Code descriptions will also be printed on the maps.

Competitors on courses 7, 8, 9 and 10 should note that their descriptions include a “special item”. This is a hide, denoted in the descriptions as a circle and indicated on the map as a green cross.

Course 1 (M21L)

Competitors on this course should note that the course is split into two parts and will be printed back to back on the same piece of paper along with respective code descriptions.

Finish

The finish is immediately adjacent to the parking area. All competitors must dip at the finish flag. There are a number of last controls, all of which will be taped to the finish flag with tapes. Please ensure that you download at the download point to have your finish recorded. Please note that even if you do not finish or retire early, you must download so that we know that you have returned from the forest.

First Aid

This will be located at the Download point at the parking area.

Prize giving

Prize giving will be as close to 15.30 as possible. We ask that if you are in line for a prize please stay to add to the occasion.

This info sheet should be read in conjunction with NIOC 2018 event page