The Canadian Orienteering Championships August 10 and 11 are the dates on which we once again hope to have a sizable contingent of New Brunswickers excel in the Ottawa area at our country's premier event. You should have received an entry form in your latest issue of Orienteering Canada. If you have not, please give me a call at 452-1804, or Ray St-Laurent at 459-4827.
Orienteering Canada
It is my understanding that a few ONB members are not
getting Orienteering Canada, even though they are full
fledged members, not recreational, of ONB. If this
applies to you, please contact
Ray at the number given
above.
Be Advised that....
.... according to ONB Rules for membership you are
restricted to competing on course 1 and 2 if you are a
recreational member. If you wish to compete on another
course, you must become a full family, adult or 20 and
younger member.
Shad Valley
For the 11th year ONB put on a clinic and a score meet
for approximately 65 Shad Valley participants (gifted
high school students at a UNB summer camp). Thank you
for all those Foxes members who gave me a hand.
High Performance Athlete Assistance Program (HPAAP)
Orienteering New Brunswick elite athletes continue
getting excellent support under this program.
According to a list giving HPAAP funding, Cherie and
Doug Mahoney (national junior team members) received
$750 and $500 respectively, and Alexandra (7th in F21-
at Canadians), Mike (national junior team member) and
Wil Smith (national senior team member) received $500,
$500 and $1,750 respectively.
This compares very well, perhaps even better than what
other sports have been getting. Examples are:
Alternate Course Designs
In an attempt to make orienteering more interesting for
you we have tried alternate forms of events this
spring. The Saas Peepre was run as a two heat short-"O"
event, with one heat in the morning and one in the
afternoon, and the shortest combined time determining
the winner. The Eastern Canadians were run as a
classical event on the first day and a short-"O" on the
second. It is up to you, the orienteering public, to
make us aware of what you would like to see.
What we have left on the menu, and which has not been tried before, is the long-"O" and the endurance event for pairs, rogaine, which lasts 6, 12 or 24 hrs. Look for these in the future. Orienteering Nova Scotia have already planned one six hour event this August 24 at Peggy's Cove, and one 24 hour event in the Cobequid Mountains in May 1997.
Support Nova Scotia
In this newsletter you will find details about a few
events our neighbours are putting on. We encourage you
to attend their events, especially the innovative
"Rogaine" and the Nova Scotia Championships. The
latter event is an opportunity to gather ONB ranking
points, since the event is being used to select our
provincial team.
Support New Brunswick
Having written the above plug for Nova Scotia, I also
feel inclined to encourage both New Brunswickers and
Nova Scotians to support the events we are putting on.
Being very candid, I have to admit that I am personally
very disappointed that so few (4) from Nova Scotia
attended the Eastern Canadian Championships. Surely
you guys (no gender excluded) can do better.
In this context it is also surprising to me the number of competitors that have attended one day of a two day event, or one heat of a two heat event, and then not show up for the other part, without offering any explanation to the organizers. Your comments, please.
Proposal for Revised Ranking System
Albertans have recognized that event organizers should
also be entitled to ranking points. They have an
Alberta Cup where points are awarded in age categories
21+, 35+ and 45+. Points are calculated from the best
four out of five events. At least three competitors
need to be in the age class in order for points to be
awarded. Members under 21 years old may compete and
qualify for points in the 21+ group. Event organizers
are also eligible to receive points. The meet
director, course planner, controller and mapper (on a
new map) will be awarded 4 points per event. The
competitors get 5.25 points for first place, 4 for
second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth. If
you feel we should do something similar, please send
your plan to Ray St-Laurent
for a discussion item at our next AGM.
Web Pages
There are opportunities to read a bit about
orienteering on the Internet. The Fredericton Foxes
have a very good page at
http://www.fan.nb.ca/cfn/info/Recreation/FredFoxes/index.htm
courtesy of Benjamin Lee.
Another club with an interesting page is the Alberta Foothill Wanderers OC
with news on
http://www.merak.com/users/adrian/fwoc/fwoc.htm.
If you are interested in international news you seem to have access to more than 100 other news groups all available through a search on the Internet under the subject "Orienteering".