Setanta Orienteers

Congratulations to Niamh O’Boyle (CNOC) and Nicolas Simonin (BOC) on their top 40 finishes in the Long Distance finals of the World Orienteering Championships in Trondheim, Norway. Niamh ran a fantastic race finishing in 34th place and Nick placed 39th in the men's final. Nick was also 41st in the Sprint final.

Both Niamh and Nick are the reigning Irish Long Distance Champions.

Good luck to David Healy (GEN) in the middle distance final on Saturday and to all team members in the relays on Sunday.

Moire O'Sullivan, back in Ireland for a short 2 weeks from her current base in Kathmandu, took on the challenge of the Mourne Seven Sevens on Saturday 7th August and succeeded. She was first lady in the race and 15th overall, recording a new ladies record of 5hours 19minutes 25seconds for the course. The previous course record was 5 hours 44 minutes.

The Mourne Seven Sevens is a race over the seven highest peaks of the Mournes, all over 700M. The route is 19 miles long, with just over 2500 meters of climbing and takes in the hills Donard, Commedagh, Lamagan, Binnian, Ben Crom Dam, Meelbeg, Meelmore, Bearnagh and back to the finish at the Pavilion in Donard Park.

It starts off the same way every year, a few months before the event a couple of emails are sent around to see if anyone is interested in entering a team for the Beast of Ballyhoura. A team of four is sort of assembled, which includes at least one female member, and then people drop out, get injured, others come in and a completely new team emerges if you're lucky. So it was again this year, and I found myself on a team with Conor O’Meara and Andreas Kusch (both mainly hill runners) and triathlete, Hilary Jenkinson.

World Wife Carrying Championships - Sonkajarvi, Finland. Report from Paul Keville.

Aoife Desmond from Setanta and John O'Shea took part in the World Wife Carrying Championships last weekend the 3rd of July. They came in a very respectable 6th place with a time of 1.13'6. The winning time came from Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen who came from finland with a time of 1.04'9.