Ramblers Orienteering Club
Meet
The Morgan Arboretum –
October 24, 2004
It was a beautiful day – sunny with little wind. There were an amazing number of briliantly coloured leaves still on the trees which added to the charm of a day in Canada’s largest Arboretum. See their website at www.morganarboretum.org/english/HOME_eng.htm
We
used a total of 37 flags, many of them belonging to John Abbott College. Cooperation is on the rise with the College
and their Orienteering program, which is now under the direction of Karen
Oljemark – also a member of Ramblers O Club member.
There
were no Boy Scout or Girl Guide groups in attendance this year but our total
participation, of 178 persons, was still high.
There were 111 “starts” which
included 4 groups who did two courses.
The longest course, #4, actually had to complete Course 3 first and then
do another 4.5 km course, using in all,
22 of the 37 flags that were in the woods.
Francis
Falardeau
had no trouble in turning in the fastest time on Course 4. He completed the 10.1 kilometers in
exactly 79 minutes. There was a close
race for 2nd and 3rd places however, with Charles Deslisle edging Francis Lambert
by just over one min. (2:04:42, 2:05:59).
Bruce
Glen who
has been doing Orienteering for almost as long as this writer (he started at a
much younger age) comes to only about one meet per year, but he certainly
hasn’t lost his O-skills! Bruce led a
large class on Course 3, winning the 5.65 km course in 1:17:12. Paul Rietzschel and François Dufort
were 2nd and 3rd respectively in 1:20:20 and
1:22:04.
Just
a few minutes behind was the top performing female of the day. Lucie
Monthioux, currently attending Collège Maisonneuve but who had been an
active Orienteer in France, completed Course 3 in 1:31:40. Lucie is, without doubt, the best Orienteer
the Collège has had in the many years it has been teaching and practicing our
sport. Good luck, Normand Dionne,
with the program there!
Course
2, being
set as an Advanced-Beginner course of 4.8 (on the long side for #2), had by far the largest number of
participants – 36 individuals and 21 groups.
As might be expected, finishing times varied considerably from 50
minutes to over 3 hours. The fastest
to complete the course was Stéphane Côté (Ramblers), who covered the 13
controls in 50:08. Two more Ramblers
members were 2nd and 3rd : Harri Salo, 1:02:20 and Christope Deprez,
1:04:20. Patrick Fernet
(Ramblers) was 4th and Jean-Baptise Bacon proved to be
the best John Abbott College student of the day, finishing 5th. J-B had previously completed Course 1 in
the fastest individual time of 41:20.
Course
1 (the
easiest) had 5 runners plus 52 others who went in 19 groups. Bacon and Katel Deprez topped
the individuals, while two groups (M.Hamel & D.Samoisette and J-P Croze & L.Caron) were even
faster as pairs – 33:36 and 36:54.
We
were happy to note that there were very few people, on any of the courses, who
were disqualified for mis-punching (DSQ) or for not finishing (DNF). It leaves
us to think that the course distances and difficulties were about right. Comments welcome, please !
THANKS are due to our members who
helped with Registration and Timing – François
Dufort, Christophe Deprez, Denise OBriain, Randy Luke, Bruce Glen, Karen
Oljemark, and Gloria Charlow.
THANKS
also to The Morgan Arboretum for permitting us the use of their fine property
and of the warm and cosy Conservation Centre.
We look forward to a return visit this winter for a
Ski and Snowshoe Orienteering event.
John Charlow
Ramblers Orienteering Club