Ramblers Orienteering Club

MEET REPORT: Centennial Park, DDO – June 7, 2009

Another beautiful day for Orienteering! The skies were sunny and the temperature was just right. 105 persons took part, including 30 little folk under 12.

15 of the ‘wee ones’ did the “String” Course which is proving extremely popular with families. The youngest who ran enthusiastically around the 300-meter cord-defined route, with its 9 mini-controls, was (possibly) almost-3-years-old, Benjamin Skira.

There were four standard courses, varying in technical difficulty, as well as in length. Competi-tors on the # 4 “Long” were moving pretty quickly around the 23 controls, resulting in a very tight finish. Jean-Marc Meyer, an experienced Orienteer from France who is visiting Montreal for a short while, edged Dmitri Golovanov by just 24 seconds on the 7.85 km (straight line measurement) course. Stéphane Rousseau came in 3rd at 1:00:12, taking about 1½ minutes more than Dmitri. The majority of the 15 “starts” on the course were out for between 65 and 83 minutes. Course 4 consisted of first completing Course 3 and then receiving a second map that covered an additional 4 km.

Another close finish developed between the 18 who did Course 3, by itself. Although they took off one hour apart, there were only two minutes separating their elapsed times: Dave McFadden completed the 3.85 km in 0:36:52; Denise OBriain did it in 0:39:00. Never mind, Denise, your 3-year old son was one of the stars on the String-O!

On the easier courses, Christian Reid with Nathalie and two youngsters (10 & 7) ran the 3.1 km #2 course in 0:39:28, while Florent and Beatrice Vilotte, with their 3-year-old daughter, Celia, completed the 2.5 km #1 course in 0:44:01.

A BIG THANK-YOU to those that made this event possible…

Bruce Glen and Elaine did most of the organizational work. As Meet Director, Bruce designed the courses and hung all the flags (and picked them up afterwards).

A Word from Bruce & Elaine…

We'd like to thank all the volunteers who helped with the meet—Dmitri, Christian, Tania, Yee Fun (starts/finishes, setting up & taking down the string course, attaching control descriptions, etc).  We apologize if we missed anyone.

A special huge thank you to GLORIA for once again tackling the daunting challenges of registration meticulously and, as always, with a smile. Her ongoing, sometimes over- looked, contribution in this vital role is greatly appreciated. Thanks, too, for the cookies!

And thank you, JOHN ! for providing the map, guiding Bruce in setting up/verifying the courses, arranging for the PeRfecT weather, verifying/tabulating the results and writing this report which provides us with wonderful reminders of another great day!

Congratulations to all who participated,

Until September,

John