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Recent and Upcoming Board Meetings
- For information from the BOD call from March 22, See the President's Note
- Next Board Meeting - 28 April 2018
- AGENDA
3:00 pm Opening of Meeting
3:02 Approval of minutes from March 22 meeting
3:05 Finances and Current State – Pat Meehan
3:45 Updates on:
WOC and JWOC Team Preparation – Alex Jospe
Mapping Program – Peter Goodwin
Social Media Coordinator – Kris Beecroft
4:05 Website Upgrade and Redesign – Kris Beecroft and Bob Forgrave
4:15 Facebook Promo Program – Bob Forgrave
4:30 Discussion Items:
Lack of Championship Events
AGM, Convention? and Elections
World Orienteering Day – Barb Bryant
5:00 End of Meeting
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World Orienteering Day
World Orienteering Day now lasts a week! This international initiative is a great way to promote orienteering within your communities and form connections to local schools. All OUSA members are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity. Teachers in younger grades often welcome a parent's offer to bring map games to the students in their child's class. In older grades, a physical education teacher, principal or health teacher is often a good contact to make. Events put on for the general public also count as WOD events — be sure to make your event newcomer-friendly, and do extra outreach to families and schools.
Please register your event at WorldOrienteeringDay.com ahead of time. After the event, return to the site to report on the number of participants.
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North American Orienteering Championships
The biennial highlight of our continent's orienteering calendar is coming soon! The 2018 North American Orienteering Championships will take place in Whitehorse, Yukon from August 17-21. Combine the trip with the Canadian Orienteering Championships on August 23 and 24 for a full week of orienteering in the Great North.
As usual, the USA and Canada will battle for the Björn Kjellström trophy for the seniors and the Future Champions Cup for the juniors to determine who gets to be called North America's best orienteering nation for the next two years. We need all the best American juniors and seniors to attend, so make sure to include Yukon in your travel plans this summer.
For more information, click the picture below.
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noname Uniforms
noname is a genuine Scandinavian sports  brand specializing in the design, production, and sale of custom-made sport textiles for clubs and companies for Nordic Skiing, Orienteering, Track and Field, and Cycling. In addition, noname offer an expanding retail collection with delivery from stock.
The noname head office and warehouse is located in Vaasa, Finland, while national offices are situated in Borlänge, Sweden; Halden, Norway; Moscow, Russia; and Tartu, Estonia. During 2009, noname opened its first brand store in central Tampere, Finland.
 At noname, we live and breathe running, skiing, and orienteering. It’s in our veins and it’s built into our textiles. noname sports gear lives up to the highest standards of every aspect in sports textiles. The excellent function and style is designed by people who love their sport. No matter if you are a world-class athlete or just exercise for fun, we have the products that will help you go all the way. The rest is up to you. Blood, sweat, and tears—that’s all it takes. |
Orienteering
noname offers a complete collection of orienteering textiles. Our collection includes several training and warm-up suits, four different racing shirts, and a huge selection of trousers and pants for every level of orienteering. For many pieces, we use digital printing techniques since it is a superior technology for profiling the club with a great design and high quality sponsor logos.
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QualityNordic
QualityNordic is a Park City, Utah-based clothing distributor that sells noname sport textiles in USA and Canada. All of our products are made with the highest quality materials and available for the lowest prices possible. Shop online (no minimum) or contact us for custom made design for your team/club.
noname is the proud partner of Team OUSA since 2014.
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TioMila
The last weekend in April is a huge event on the European orienteering scene. The Tiomila relay is an annual club relay race that has taken place in Sweden each year since 1945. The race features a kids' relay (teams of 3-5 runners), a women's relay (teams of 5), and a men's relay (teams of 10, running all through the night and into the morning.) This year a total of 1000 teams will take part!
The name of the competition—Tiomila—means "10 Miles," referring to the approximately 100 kilometers (or 10 Swedish miles) that the runners will cover during the 10 legs of the men's competition.
This year, OUSA's own Boris Granovskiy will be part of the team doing a live web TV broadcast of Tiomila in English for the entire 24 hours of racing on April 28-29. You can purchase viewing rights here for 150 SEK, or approximately $18, to see the best orienteers in the world battle it out for the right to be called the best orienteering club in the world. Be sure to tune in during the weekend!
While no U.S. clubs are racing this year, some American competitors will be represented: for example, Samantha Saeger and Ross Smith will be racing for Swedish OK Linne, and Cristina Luis will compete for Norwegian Nydalens SK.
The last U.S. club to compete in Tiomila was Cambridge Sports Union, which finished 145th in the men's relay in 2014.
 To prepare for Tiomila, we asked QOC juniors Max Ahmed and Patrick Hession to try to pronounce the names of some of the best Scandinavian orienteering clubs. See the video here:
In addition to spending the long dark winters preparing for racing at Tiomila, some Scandinavian clubs take great pride in announcing their final lineups before the competition. For example, the Finnish club Tampereen Pyrintö released the following fun video announcing their men's team, composed of runners from Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden, one leg at a time:
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Tampereen Pyrintö's Tiomila lineup announcement
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Make sure to tune in this weekend to catch some of the action, and encourage your clubmates to form a team for future years!
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Highlight Your Club/Event!
Every club is unique and can contribute to the growth and health of orienteering in the U.S. Whether your club had an extraordinarily successful event, is planning something unique or special, or simply wants to advertise quality events that it puts on, we want to highlight it here!
Please contact the editors at newsletter@orienteeringusa.org to add content to the next newsletter!
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Notes:
* = OUSA Board of Directors Meeting. All members are welcome.
** = pending OUSA sanctioning
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Recap: California Orienteering Week
The 2018 California Orienteering Week (COW) was udderly fantastic. Nearly 300 different people made well over 900 starts in the seven races spread over nine days, March 17th through 25th. Terrific courses were created by the course designers (Matej Sebo, Steve Gregg, George Minarik, Matias Arola, Dwight Freund, and Bill and Heidi Cusworth) with the help of vetters and course consultants. The venues were fast and challenging, the races were hotly contested, the weather was great for running, and, yes, the hills were green. Very green. Many attendees were heard to say that they’d love to come back to these venues whenever the chance arises.
The first four stages (“March Middle Madness”) of COW were hosted by BAOC with Vicki Woolworth as Event Director. The last three stages, which also comprised the U.S. Junior Team Trials, were hosted by the Gold Country Orienteers (GCO) in their first-ever foray into National Events. Mats Jansson was the Event Director for those latter three stages. The redoubtable Morgan Territory was the site for the first two stages: fast running, but only for the most agile and fittest. (Apologies to those in the oldest classes. We should have had a second, shorter Brown for them.) The event then moved to the stunning Point Pinole, surrounded on three sides by water, challenging competitors to run as fast as they possibly could without making a mistake. The scenic college campuses, Mills College (for an “urban middle”) and Sierra College, provided surprisingly difficult navigational challenges for the next two stages. The final two stages were held at the wonderful Deer Creek Hills, with its gentle, rolling, green hills begging for fast running tempered by constant concentration. It really was an exhilarating set of races.
A thousand points were awarded to the winner of each class each day, with everyone else getting proportionately less. One’s best five scores counted for the final results. Complete results, plus splits and routes, can be found here.
Come join us in the summer of 2020 for our next mega extravaganza, in the Lake Tahoe area. This will include the World Rogaining Championships, quite possibly the North American Championships, and boatload of other fun.
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Here is a video recap of the sprint at the JWOC Team Trials.
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Recap: OCIN's Flying Pig XXII
This year's spring edition of Orienteering Cincinnati's Flying Pig offered fast and furious racing at unique venues that included a sculpture park and an old golf course converted to a park.
The racing was so fast that the M21 winner, Greg Ahlswede, averaged under 5 min/km for Sunday's middle distance race!
You can see full results here.
 
Diana Aleksieva (QOC, F-20) racing at Pyramid Hill M21 podium. From left to right: Eric Bone (COC, 2nd),
Sculpture Park; Photo by Julie Keim Greg Ahlswede (DVOA, 1st), Will Enger (COC, 3rd); Photo by Mike Minium / Stephanie Ross
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The cadets of the U.S. Military Academy's Orienteering Club hosted their 39th (!!) annual National Event at West Point, NY the weekend of April 21-22.
Section of the Day 1 Red Course
The racers had to contend with the steep, rocky slopes of Lake Frederick on Day 1 and the mountain laurel-covered hills of Harriman State Park on Day 2.
You can find the full results here.
RouteGadget for all the courses is available here.
Team Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA) checking out West Point between the races; photo courtesy of FUMA
E-punch guru Valerie Meyer (QOC) instructing cadet volunteers as she sets up her equipment for Day 2 of racing at Lake Welch; Photo by Roger Meyer
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Recap: CRNA Trail-O
Capital Region Nordic Alliance, a U.S. Paralympic Club based in Albany, NY recently held a three-day Trail O clinic with events at Five Rivers Environmental Education center in Delmar, NY, April 12-14, 2018.
Daniel Heimgartner (QOC) working with the U.S. Trail-O team; Photo by Russ Meyer
This integrated event enjoyed wonderful weather and consisted of veterans along with others. Participants received classroom instruction and simulated station analysis followed by direct station analysis in both PreO and TempO. Instruction sessions were followed by a 15-station PreO course on Friday and 4-station TempO on Saturday.
Special heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Daniel Heimgartner from Quantico OC for PreO and Mika Latva-Kokko from NEOC for TempO. Without their monumental assists, nothing would have happened.
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Preview: Junior Nationals
The New England Orienteering Club is hosting the 2018 OUSA Junior Nationals and the Troll Cup at Mt.Tom Reservation in Holyoke, Massachusetts, April 28-29, 2018.
Start times for Junior Nationals and Troll Cup are now available.
The 2018 US Junior National Championships is a 2-day classic championship event sanctioned by Orienteering USA. (This event was previously called the Intercollegiate/Interscholastic Championships.) There are championship classes for college, high school, middle school, and primary school students. These competitors will have pre-assigned interval starts both days. Champions will be determined by their cumulative time for the two races.
The 2018 Troll Cup is a 2-day classic national event sanctioned by the Orienteering USA. There will be pre-assigned interval starts for the first day. The second day will feature a chase start based on the first day’s results. For each course, the winner of that course will start first. Subsequent competitors will start at intervals equal to their time back on the first day. Awards will be determined by cumulative time for the two races.
Click on the map for a larger version
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For a taste of what's to come, take a look at OUSA Team member Greg Ahlswede (DVOA) running through the Mt.Tom terrain.
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Preview: Rochester Orienteering Club Event
Rochester is pleased to host a National Ranking Event (NRE) at Letchworth State Park on Saturday, May 5, 2018. The meet will offer a full array of OUSA courses and a chance to get a credit day toward your OUSA ranking.
A number of people considering our NRE have asked about additional orienteering activities for the weekend. This what we have in mind.
"Due to low interest we will not be leaving the flags out on Sunday, but you are welcome to run a second course on Saturday. The second course will not be timed or posted.
"In addition we have a permanent course on the West side and lots of old competition maps from events on the East side that could be used for training. A 20-mile or so section of the Finger Lakes Trail runs down the East side which could be run or biked in either direction. And don't miss the views of the falls and the new train trestle (the old one pictured is gone!)."
The Finger Lakes Region of New York offers many other opportunities including wineries, farm breweries, and waterfalls. The Corning Glass Museum is close by and Rochester offers many other museums and cultural activities. http://www.fingerlakes.org/explore/lakes http://www.fingerlakes.org/outdoors/hiking-biking
Camping is available in the park. https://www.reserveamerica.com/camping/letchworth-state-park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NY&parkId=375
Complete meet information and registration can be found at http://roc.us.orienteering.org/national-event
Looking forward to seeing our orienteering friends at Letchworth.
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Westchester County Challenge/Team Trials
On Memorial Day weekend, May 25-28, DVOA will host the Westchester County Challenge National Ranking Event in Westchester County, NY. The event will also serve as the Team Trials to select the athletes who will represent Team USA at the World Orienteering Championships in Latvia this summer. You can see the U.S. Team selection rules here.
The event will consist of a Sprint on Friday (open to Team Trials participants and possibly some others, depending on attendance); Middle Distance on Saturday; Relay on Sunday; and Long Distance on Monday.
Here is some info about the terrain for Saturday-Monday:
Westmoreland Sanctuary Middle Courses
Map samples: Westmoreland Sanctuary
You will get it all: fast and physical, technical and not so much. Since visibility in this terrain is good, controls are strategically placed, usually behind the feature from the most probable approach, so precise navigation into the circle will be rewarded by seconds won.
While climb figures may look staggering, it does not feel this way when you are running those courses. With that said, great physical shape is required to win or to be close to predicted winning times. Our Middle courses will be a little longer, but our Long courses are a little shorter.
Enjoy this fast terrain, good maps and challenging courses. Good luck to all.
Mountain Lakes Long Courses
Mountain Lakes is a wonderful orienteering terrain with generally good visibility and firm ground, allowing for high speed! The main challenge will be finding the optimal route choices and managing tempo changes. Rock features, including stony grounds, are accurately mapped. The light green vegetation on the map is typically old mountain laurel, which is becoming more open and runnable. The mountain laurel is distinct and can aid in navigation. Note that the northeastern part of the map has more trees down than other sections of the park. These areas are still runnable at high speed, but require picking your route more carefully.
Map samples: Mountain Lakes
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Newsletter Contributions
If you would like to send content for the next edition of the newsletter, please email it to the editors by the 20th of the month.
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Newsletter Compiled and Edited by Allison Brown and Boris Granovskiy
Banner Photo credits: Cristina Luis, WCOC/HVO, Valerie Meyer, Facebook
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