Event news

Many years ago, a Norwegian group called A-Ha had a great hit with a song “The Sun Always Shines on TV”. But there could soon be a cover version “The Sun Always Shines on LuxOC”! Once again, Luxembourg OC gathered, this time for the final run in the 2024 LuxSUL Summer Urban League series, at a venue bathed by the rays of the setting sun, shining over the rooftops of the mairie in Bertrange.

Club stalwart Jonas W had planned the courses a little longer than usual (well, it was the series final) to match the flatter terrain of Bertrange. Jonas apologises for the very large hole in one street – the “route barrée” for pedestrians seems only to have appeared after the maps had been sent for printing. He hoped it didn’t spoil the run too much – either for the ambitious souls who clambered round the hole, or the fainter of heart (but more law-abiding!) who backed up and took another route.

Overall, the Bertrange area has lots of small paths and detail, especially between the village centre and the railway that bounds the north side of the map. The courses made good use of this more intricate area, with the Deer course also routing further south with some longer controls for runners to stretch their legs.

Cedric G once again stretched his legs just that bit faster than anyone else on the longer Deer course – he was just a few seconds quicker than Ondra K, and less than a minute faster than Sasha R. On the Rabbit shorter course, the family K children were well clear of the field, with Inga A a full eight minutes behind Marianka K, and Orsi L two more minutes further back still. Which all meant that the “grown-up” ladies weren’t able to improve their “best four” scores for their League results.

The results for the evening are, as usual, posted on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5577. And the final cumulative LuxSUL results are shown in the attached sheets. For the overall 2024 LuxSUL rankings, “best four from six” were counted, with times behind the winner at each run being totalled up as the way of scoring. 

The series final produced no big upsets in the overall rankings. On the Deer course, by winning on the night and taking his fourth win of the series, Cedric G improved his already unassailable lead. But Sasha R was not so far behind, less than six minutes in aggregate over the six runs. And, sliding past Vivien T with a useful run on the evening allowing him to discard an earlier slow one, in third place overall came former Club secretary Staffan V. On the Rabbit, the top three line-up was unchanged, with Inga A holding off Orsi L by four minutes overall, and Jana T a further four minutes back. Well done to all our “medallists”!

Overall, 88 Club members and guests took part in at least one of the LuxSUL runs. Thirteen recorded four or more scores, and so came at the top end of the rankings. And four Deer and one Rabbit made it to all six of this summer’s LuxSULs.

LuxSUL should be back next April – although nearer the time, the co-ordinator will be looking for volunteers to plan the courses, and perhaps to run the timing on some of the evenings.

• 241002_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul_6.pdf

Drama! There was a tie for the winning place on the Deer course at our LuxSul 5 run. Strictly, Cedric G beat Sasha R by 0.251 of a second. So said the Helga timing system and the SportIdent timing equipment that LuxOC uses. But that’s all way too precise, as the rules of orienteering only allow results to be measured to the nearest completed second. Anyway – here’s a photo of our tied victors. Cedric also narrowly wins the award for the broader grin.

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Once again, the weather gods were kind to LuxOC, and the “Sunset” Urban League participants were able to watch a fine sunset from the Kaltreis park picnic tables. It’s a good meeting point, and it was great that so many people stayed around for a quiet beer after their run while dusk darkened and a huge “super moon” rose.

Novice planner Atte A did a super job for us, and spent much time making sure the route choices looked equal, but were not too equal. We have it on good authority that it was 15 seconds quicker to go down the stairs if you were heading to Control 9 on the Deer course. The next Control 10 also caused a headache for some runners. The gate to the NE of the control wasn’t locked – all you had to do was use the handle! And anyone who tried to go direct from the path to the E of the control was only imagining a thin white line between the out of bounds olive green and the uncrossable fence around the playground! You really had to go to the end of the path and up the steep steps. That said, a mild apology for routing people through that little area, because by the time runners started passing it was obviously being used by some nefarious-looking people for some probably nefarious purposes...

The results for the evening are, as usual, posted on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5527. And the cumulative LuxSUL results to date are shown in the attached sheets.

The most impressive run of the evening – even counting the dead heat leaders on the Deer course – came from Laurent M, who was only 3 ½ minutes behind the winning pair. He claims to have been training for LuxSUL by running marathons. And young Paul M also put in a very useful time to claim 4^th place, a minute or so further back.

Among the Rabbits (the shorter course), young Jáchym K officially took the honours, to make it two wins out of two runs for him in the series. Dad Ondra actually beat him by two minutes, but the LuxSUL co-ordinator (whose decision is of course utterly final!) has deemed that Ondra was non-competitive for LuxSUL purposes, because his running time showed remarkably little evidence of the injury he claimed as his reason for not doing the Deer course. Inga A and Orsi L were the leading ladies, with Inga just a minute quicker.

For the overall 2024 LuxSUL rankings, it’s “best four from six to count”, with times behind the winner at each run being totalled up as the way of scoring.  

On the Deer course rankings after five runs, Cedric G now looks to be the unassailable leader, having done all five runs, won (or dead-heated) three out of the five, and being only a minute behind with his fourth best result. Sadly, Simon H, his closest rival and winner of the other two runs, has now moved back to Denmark, so won’t have the four results needed to challenge for the overall lead. Sasha also looks to be a cert for second place, but the bronze could go to any of Vivien T, Staffan V, Chris S, or Michael H. It’s all down to the last race, with a good run allowing an earlier less good result to be discarded! And also, on-form Laurent M could slide through, if he has another fast run to complete his set of “four to count”.

It's less complicated on the Rabbit, with Inga A and Orsi L in a straight fight, with Inga having the advantage, despite Orsi having won both the first two runs in the series.

So, LuxSUL 6 at Bertrange on 1 October will be the big decider! Full details are already posted in the Calendar webpages. We hope to see many of you then.

• luxsul_deer_cumulative_to_luxsul_5.pdf
• luxsul_rabbit_cumulative_to_luxsul_5.pdf

Eight LuxOC runners participated in this year's World Masters Orienteering Championship in and around Turku from 3-9 August - a true Finnish delight for orienteers from 35 to nearly 100 years of age.

As usual, the weeklong festival - featuring many household orienteering names and "real" world champions such as Simone Niggli (W45 - time flies!) or Baptiste Rollier (M40) alongside more than 4,000 recreational runners - kicked off with a sprint. 

The qualifying race took place in a quiet residential neighbourhood west of the center of Finland’s oldest city, with a grand finish at Paavo Nurmi Stadium. Not too easy and not too tough, the qualifier managed to achieve precisely what it was supposed to - separate contenders from also-rans. A very fast affair (even yours truly, with two wobbly knees and one worthless ankle, kept his time well under 5 min/k for much of the first half!), it nevertheless didn’t bring much glory to LuxOC, with only two runners making it into Final A (Maggie in W65 and Gabi in W50), three into Final B (Jonas in M55, missing the top final by a whisker; Jan in M50; and Helina in W40) and one into Final C (David in M65).

A picturesque finish right next to Turku’s ancient cathedral awaited the finalists the next day, after a course through the city’s university area and some older neighbourhoods that wasn’t very tricky but nonetheless did offer route choices that could make or break your race. Our best ranking: Gabi’s 53rd place.

The forest qualifier took place close to the area where LuxOC first contested Jukola and Venla back in 2015, but the terrain was markedly tougher on the feet and much less runnable - the kind of forest where Finns fly but continental runners suffer. If at the start I harboured some ambitions to « pass my orienteering A-levels » and make it if not to Final A then at least to Final B, I realized very early on that this wouldn’t be my day, and more or less resigned to the fact. Not overly difficult orienteering-wise - certainly not more than any of the Jukolas we have been to as a team - running in this extremely rugged terrain nevertheless required a certain « hop-on, hop-off » skill which I don’t posses - and, judging by the results, neither does any of my clubmates. Forests like this simply don’t grow in Luxembourg …. We didn’t muster a single A Final, but, among the categories where there were more than two final groups, Chris made it to Final B - no mean feat in M45!

The final itself was an entirely different affair though. The forest - although only across the field from the qualifier, and with a joint arena - was lovely, clean and supremely runnable (if one knew where to run …). Full of bare rocks - denoted by that typical grey Finnish map symbol - boulders and small marshes, and with not a trail in sight, this was orienteering in its purest form. Our results, too, were much better. Gabi managed a fantastic 10th place in W50B, when only two controls from the finish she was still fifth - a place that would have guaranteed her a spot in Final A for the long distance! 

The long distance race on the final day of the championships was indeed the grand finale - and the first event where it was possible, and sometimes perhaps even faster, to run « around » rather then straight! A typical LD with controls on clear objects far away from each other, the event saw our best results of the week - Gabi came in 4th in W50B while Maggie finished a close 2nd in W65C.

This was the first WMOC where LuxOC participated in larger numbers. It was also an exceptionally well organized event in fabulous orienteering terrains - hats off to the Finnish organizers! And, finally - like every WMOC - it was a source of great inspiration. Seeing a W80 sprinting to the finish, whizzing past much younger men, makes you wish: if only I could be like this at that age….

Jan

This year's Belgian relay championship takes place on 31 August near Virton.In the past Luxembourg Orienteering has participated as a guest team. If you consider running this year, please let Jan know by whatsapp or email so teams can be registered in good time.

https://www.opunch.org/event/2549

Well, the summer sun and his holidays must have got to the LuxSUL co-ordinator’s head – and he obviously forgot to post the cumulative position after LuxSUL 4 in Sandweiler last month!

Anyway, the standings are now attached.

Five “Deer” long course competitors have run at all four events so far. Cedric G has now taken over from Simon H as the overall leader, with Sasha R not too far behind, and Chris S a solid third.

Inga A is the only “Rabbit” to have run all four events, and so keeps the class lead. But this could all change, as Orsi L and Jana T also have a very low aggregate “behind the winner” times based on three runs, and either could slip in front with good runs in the two LuxSULs yet to come.

Dates in September for the last two LuxSULs for 2024 have yet to be confirmed – watch this space for an update after the mid-August public holiday weekend.

• 240626_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul4.pdf

...well, apart from the ten minutes or so during which early starters were refreshed by a short sharp shower!

Following our sun-drenched outing to Esch-sur-Sûre last weekend, the third run in the Club’s Luxembourg Summer Urban League – the LuxSUL –  series unfolded on another mostly lovely and sunny summer evening. Over 35 people – from 7 to 67 years old –  took part, as LuxOC runners revisited the park in Kirchberg and the gruelling hills of Weimerskirch.

Club secretary Orsi, our planner and host for the evening, worked hard to set interesting courses. Because the area has been used at least twice before, finding good route choice legs that hadn’t already been set was more of a challenge. But, judging from the post-run analyses that were going on in the photo, she must have succeeded. The Kirchberg Park maze, brilliantly mapped by Julien back in 2018, is at its best in summer, when the beech hedges are in full leaf and growing fast, and so are opaque and impenetrable.  The “labyrinth” kept many people amused for quite a while, with one of our fastest Deer course runners saying that, while he’d found the control easily enough, he’d then gone round all three sides twice trying to get out again!

The results for the evening are, as usual, posted on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5331. They’ve now been corrected – Barbara P didn’t really take nearly 20 hours on the Rabbit shorter course, she just missed punching at the start flag!  And the cumulative LuxSUL results to date are shown in the attached sheets.

Our clear winner on the evening on the Deer course was Simon H, 4½ minutes faster than Cedric G. Cedric thinks he lost time near the end of the course, by attempting the “diretissima” route up back onto the plateau from Weimerskirch. This hasn’t, so far as we know, been tried before, but Cedric seems not to have been put off by the nigh-vertical climb through some pretty thick forest. A tough man for tough terrain – the orthodox road or path choices are quite steep enough for most people!

In the overall LuxSUL Deer course rankings after three runs, Simon’s result sees him move into the lead, just ahead of Cedric. For the 2024 LuxSUL, it’s now “best four from six to count”, so there is still all to play for! Sasha ran carefully – he was in third place on the night, and is third ranked overall, too. Indeed, it’s his third third place result – there’s consistency!

Among the Rabbits (the shorter course), young Jáchym K was running for the first time in the 2024 series, and was the winner on the evening. He was two minutes faster than Ilari K, another newcomer, and three minutes faster than Inga A and Jana T, the fastest ladies and separated by only 7 seconds. Jana T in particular ran well. In the overall Rabbit course rankings, Inga is now leading. Orsi of course didn’t run, as she was on planning duties, and Elisabet W also missed out as she had other commitments.

Thanks to Orsi, Bence, and little Lola for hosting us in their cosy front garden, and for laying on beers and snacks. Inga A provided the yummy strawberries! And thanks too to Bence B, Chris S, and David R for collecting in the controls after the run.

LuxSUL 4 is in two weeks’ time, in Sandweiler. After the run, LuxOC’s summer social evening will be hosted by David and Maggie R. All LuxOC members – and friends and newcomers – are very welcome, even if not wanting a LuxSUL run. There should be a very short, safe Squirrel course for younger children, as well as the usual Deer and Rabbit courses.  Full details will be on the web in a few days’ time, once the planner has finalised the courses. And – apologies in advance – it’ll probably rain, as it’s high time LuxOC’s sunny weather luck ran out!

We hope to see many of you then.

• 240612_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul_3.pdf

The ruins of the medieval Esch-sur-Sûre castle provided a magnificent backdrop to the first of three races organized by our club this year as part of the 02Lux series. Some 90 runners from Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany battled steep hills and tiny alleyways of this small town in the north of the country on Sunday afternoon, with a succession of controls on the castle plateau providing an exotic twist to what is otherwise a mostly forest-based series. The Long Technical course took runners through the town and onto a steep path in the nearby forest, while the Short Technical and Begginers' courses covered mostly urban areas. Once again, LuxOC proved to be a reliable organizer, collecting kudos from competitors and even getting the town mayor intrigued by our sport! O2LUX #11 (helga-o.com) * O2LUX – L'Orientation aux 2 Luxembourg

Our Luxembourg Summer Urban League – the LuxSUL –  is now in full swing. Thanks to Jan S for organising LuxSUL 2 in Gasperich on 15 May.

An impressive number of Club members have done both runs, and some league trends are beginning to emerge. Full results to date are shown in the attached sheets.

On the longer Deer course, Cedric G has the lead, and Simon H is just behind. But honours are even – each has won their course once. Sasha is third, having come in third at both runs.

Among the Rabbits (the shorter course) it’s very close. Orsi L has had the fastest time at both runs, but is less than a minute ahead of Inga A in the league table. And Elisabet W is only another minute or so behind.

Do note that a few adjustments to the times originally published in the results have had to be made – unfortunately some time penalties have had to be imposed to cancel out the advantages some people gained during the Gasperich run by crossing a field that was marked as out of bounds. A tougher referee would have had the red cards out!

There will be two evening LuxSULs in June. One will be on Tuesday 11 June running around Kirchberg and Weimerskirch, and the other on Tuesday 25 June in Sandweiler, together with the Club’s summer social evening at the Club’s home base. All Club members – and guests and newcomers – will be very welcome. Full details of each on this website nearer the time.

• 240515_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul_2.pdf

Some 30 LuxOC members and friends, including, encouragingly, a handful of what David Bowie would call Absolute Beginners, baptized the Gasperich Parc map on Wednesday, 15 May in the second LuxSUL event of the season. The intricate map promises to be a fine orienteering playground for our future events. The urban event showed the importance of theoretical prowess - to paraphrase Gertruda Stein, we should always remember that a forbidden area is a forbidden area is a forbidden area! 

Next stop on the LuxSUL circuit: 11 June in Weimerskirch.

https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5265

We registered 53 runs this morning in the beautiful park of Mersch, but don’t ask exactly how many people turned up all in all, as we lost count quite early. Maybe around 50. Some more precise statistical data: age range: 10 months - 60 years, number of nationalities: 12, visitors from across the borders: 6, temperature: 22°C (felt like 28 for those who ran), number of clouds: 0, long-lost SI dibbers found: 1.

The traditional Squirrel and Rabbit courses were by far the most popular (for families and newcomers), but there were 7 brave runners who ventured out on one or both of the “tricky” Deer courses. In one of them the map was mirrored, causing quite a headache to the runners. Despite the ordeal they all came back smiling!

Ingredients

• 4 fantastic organizers (preferably Cedric, Ondra, Gabi and Simon)

• 30 eager participants from LuxOC (out of which 9 children)

• 4 tricky maps, at least one possibly with loads of climbing and rocks

• 1 sunny and 1 rainy day

Instructions

Meet your friends on a sunny morning, have an easy run in pairs in the forest and just enjoy. Delude yourself that it will be just as easy the whole weekend. Then run among the ruins of Hohenburg Castle with several spiral staircases leading nowhere, a damp, pitch-dark cave not many dare to go through and legs that seem impossible. Sigh with relief – it can’t get more difficult than that!

Visit the sandstone caves in Homburg and look for footprints of lizards from 250 million years ago – from below. Relax in the sun, share your lunch (and water!) with friends, then go for a run again, as if you hadn’t had enough training already that day. Pretend not to be dead tired and smile.

With Irena as head of kitchen, Míša as chef and Cedric as pasta expert, cook spaghetti Bolognese in 7 pots. Eat together, entertain each other with funny orienteering stories, let beer and wine flow. Have fun. Celebrate the two surprised birthday-girls with singing and yummy cakes.

If it rains on Sunday morning, just ignore it. Visit as many rocks in the forest as possible, making sure that the one with the checkpoint next to it is the one you find last. Eat Bolognese again for lunch. Don’t show anyone how nervous you are before the relay. Just enjoy it and feel relief when you see the map: no climbing, no rocks! Fall twice in the brambles. Cheer your friends at the spectator control.

Be sad to say goodbye and decide to come next year.

If you were there, please share in the comment section what you liked best. If you weren’t, hopefully see you there next year!

Photos, more results and maps from the weekend

On this page.

• 2024-04-27_-_homburg_-_pm_-_castle_-_results.html
• 2024-04-28_-_kirkel_-_pm_-_relay_-_results.html
• training_4_-_sunday_morning-short.pdf
• training_5_-_relays_course_1_bbb.pdf

Well, there were 38 results from 14 different nationalities at our first Luxembourg Summer Urban League run last night! Thanks to all who took part, especially to our visitors from Belgium, two from as far away as Brussels. We hope you enjoyed your lap of Limpertsberg – one of the joys of orienteering is that you get to see places that you would never otherwise go to.

The weather was again kind – yes, a bit chilly, but fine once you got going, and wasn’t the sunset lovely? Certainly, better weather than the other day, when the planner went out  to check all the control sites (it’s always important to find a tree, fence or railing that the control can be locked on to) – he was pelted with icy hail at one point.

Limpertsberg is one of our better areas for urban orienteering. The university campus is quite technical, and Park Tony Neuman has lots of detail even though it is very small. And Cedric’s accurate mapping now allows us to plan more testing legs there. The street network is also more complicated than a grid pattern, and there are some narrow back alleys, so there’s lots of possibilities for route choice. The planner liked to hear one comment – “he always plans it so it’s balanced, so it doesn’t matter which choice you make”. Yes, that’s often true, and the most time that can be lost is just from hesitating over which choice to make. But some legs can be more sneaky – who, on heading for control 9 on the Deer course, spotted that turning back and using the west exit from the park was at least 50 metres quicker than going north-east and up into the university?

So, perhaps helped with his mapping knowledge of the area, it was no surprise that Cedric took the honours on the Deer course – a useful 2 minutes in front of Sasha, who looks to have recovered from his knee injury. On the Rabbit course it was very close among the ladies. Orsi was fastest, but only by 30 seconds. Elisabet (on home ground), Jana, and Inga were all just behind, and within 20 seconds of each other. And Inga was only one second faster than young Matthias. The full results are at https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5223  

Thanks to Helina, the Koteckys, Cedric, and Simon for helping collect the controls in. We got them all before the park gates were locked! And special thanks to Elisabet and Ludger for hosting us, providing drinks and snacks as well as having spent quite some time making space for us in their garage.

LuxSUL 2 should be on Wednesday 15 May, using the Gasperich area, including the new park near the French School. More details on the website a few days before. Hope to see you then!

Our Luxembourg Summer Urban League – LuxSUL – a series of seven early evening urban races, is back again for 2024!

The format will be pretty much the same as last summer’s LuxSULs – two courses, both for adults, one of around 3km and the other around 5km. Distances are measured straight-line, so you will probably run or walk about 50% further. The shorter course in particular is very suitable for newcomers. Starts from 18.30 until 19.30, be back at the meeting point by 20.30.

Timing will be done using LuxOC’s SPORTident electronic timing system – LuxOC owns a large stock of SI timing chips, which can readily be borrowed by participants who don’t own one themselves. There will be few or no facilities – each event will be run from a club member’s front garden, or from a parked car or a park bench. Usually, beer or soft drinks, or a nearby bar, afterwards. As with all LuxOC’s informal events, taking part is free – but please join LuxOC as a member (only EUR 15 a year) if you want to become a regular participant.

The scoring system will be based on your time behind the winner on your course, with the best four results out of seven to count. So, if you can’t take part in all the events, you still have a chance to be well up the league table. Updated league positions will be posted on this website after each event in the series.

Dates and areas planned will be announced as the summer progresses. But mark your diaries – LuxSUL 2 is tentatively planned for the evening of Wednesday 15 May, either on a new map of Gasperich, or around the architectural treasures of Belair.

Full details for LuxSUL 1 are attached, and for the subsequent events these will each be posted a week or two before the date planned.

As well as all LuxOC members, friends, guests, visitors to Luxembourg, and newcomers to orienteering will all be warmly welcome at every LuxSUL.

• 240423_luxsul_1_final_details.pdf

In its second Interland season, and first as a regular participant after a trial run in 2023, Luxembourg finished fifth behind England, Flanders, Wallonia and Northern France, but ahead of the Netherlands. This year's edition, organized by the FRSO, took place in a forest just north of Habay, which is well know to many of us, and yielded some excellent individual results for LuxOC: Marjánka finished 2nd in W17, Míša 3rd in W40, Maria 5th in W60c Olena and Jáchym 6th in W Elite and M14 respectively, and 10-year-old Jonáš fought valiantly in M14, beating two competitors despite being four years younger than the rest of the field. A nagging drizzle and cold didn't dampen our mood - the forest was lovely and routes well set. We're already looking forward to next year's edition, which will take place in the north east of the Netherlands - and, after France in 2026, it will be our turn to organize the event in 2027!

The first climbing royals were avarded on a cold and snowy afternoon in Helmsange. Jonas had prepared four courses, each about 1.5 km long (straightline) with about 150 m of climbing. Ten fearless LuxOC memmbers performed an Anabasis that would have left Cyrus' hired greek mercenaries cold.

Not surprisingly, Cedrik was crowned King of the Mountain as he was consistently fastest on every ascent. Also Jevgenijs completed the full set of four climbs. Ondra missed the mass start but was with fresh legs fastest on the third climb.

Orsi was the only woman starting and can consequently cal herself Queen of the Mountain.

Results

Full splits

LuxOC has teamed up with clubs based in Belgium's Luxembourg Province to organize a series of events throughout 2024, giving our members a unique opportunity to try out forest orienteering on a regular basis. There will be 17 events in total - three urban races organized by us and the rest by our Belgian friends in forests very close to the Grand Duchy. All levels of orienteering prowess will be catered for, from advanced runners to complete beginners. The series kicks off in less than two weeks in Straimont. Details on a dedicated 02Lux Web  or on https://www.opunch.org

All LuxOC members, friends and sympathizers are welcome!

The sun shone once again for a Luxembourg Orienteering Club event – although this time it was a cool minus 3C during the race.

Our 2023 Club Championships took place just across the border in Belgium, in the Bois de Beynert north of Arlon. This year it was a joint event, held together with our Belgian neighbour club, SudOLux. And what a beautiful forest it was, too – mostly mature beech trees, with a carpet of crisp, frozen fallen leaves, all lit up by a weak, wintry sun.

Well – who won? There was no surprise - the top honour stays for yet another year in the Kotecky home! Hats off to Ondra, fastest by two minutes after adjustments. That said, the competition is getting closer than in some previous years – Ondra’s victory came only because the ranking system compensates for age, and Ondra as an H45 is reckoned to run only 86% as fast as an H21 elite runner. Who in this case was our silver medallist, Cedric - he actually competed the 4.8km course 90 seconds faster than Ondra. And bronze? An excellent run from H60 André, who was just a little bit faster than Miša, even after her slightly more generous running speed factor is applied.

Another of the Club’s 2023 joiners, Simon T-H, could have had the silver medal, had he not missed out a control late on the course. And Simon – as well as Julien and Jevgenijs – had opted to run the longer of the two courses on offer – here the adjusting factor simply compensated for length and climb, not for the increasing tiredness (as befell Simon) that comes with the extra distance and hills to be run.

Our junior champion is Barbora Kuželová – despite only being in the D14- class, she orienteered well and completed the same technically quite testing course as all the seniors, in a very respectable time.

The full Club Championship results, showing all the adjusting factors, are attached. Also, the overall results for the whole event are, as usual, available via the link to the Helga web results service https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4993. The formal awards ceremony will be at the Club’s next “happening”, which is our Annual General Meeting, taking place in Sandweiler on the evening of Tuesday 16 January.

And last, but certainly not least, our thanks to Jean-Noel Debehogne for planning the courses and doing much of the pre-race organisation, and to SudOLux for hosting us on their home territory.

And, especially, big thanks to five of our own Club members, who stayed until the last runners got back and then went out into the forest again in the freezing dusk to collect all the controls in – this was a big part of our Club’s contribution to the organisation of the event. Our Club couldn’t operate without this sort of volunteering support, and given how cold it was by the end of the afternoon, we owe them each more than the usual amount of gratitude. Guys, we hope you’ve warmed up again by the time you read this!

• 231202_club_champs_adjusted_results.pdf

... with a map and a dibber (the little timing thingybob that orienteers wear on their finger).

LuxOC’s first “Family and Friends” morning seems to have been a success. Well, it didn’t rain – at least until Maggie and David had nearly collected all the control units back in afterwards!

It was good to see so many faces, old and new. We had just over 30 people registered – and more “runs” than that. A lot of children decided to have a second “go”, and so tried the other Squirrel course. The idea of having two very short courses seemed to work well. And well done to all the children who managed to find the “difficult” control on the big yellow monument in the middle of the maze!

The concept of “Family and Friends” is to offer real orienteering courses that whole families can take part in. Young children can round either on their own, or with Mum and Dad following behind. And there is also a longer “sprint” type course for grown-ups, but one which is still easy enough so that Club members can bring friends to have a try.

We won’t be publishing results from this Parc Kirchberg morning on this website. But anyone who wants to see how they did should find their way to the Helga WebRes webpages, which is where results from our LuxOC events are usually published. But congratulations all the same to our fastest “Rabbit”, Dimitri, whose minutes per km time was that of a good national standard orienteer. And apologies to a few children whose time on their second “Squirrel” course didn’t get recorded properly – the timing system (or maybe its operator?) perhaps got a bit cold.

“Family and Friends” will now take a break until the early spring. The cold, grey, wet Luxembourg winter isn’t the best time of year for leisurely orienteering, either for participants or organisers. But it will definitely be back next March. We’ll also try to organise a coaching session for beginners, to try and explain things like why control codes matter, why those funny squiggles are used to describe the location of each control point, and what all the map symbols mean – as well as demonstrating some useful tips and techniques.

Thanks to all those who came, we hope to see you again.

Families with young children are an important part of our Club., and the way in which our Committee plans the Club’s activities increasingly recognises this. Starting from next spring, we intend to organise some very informal orienteering courses in or very near Luxembourg Ville, around once a month, aimed mainly at families with children and other novice orienteers. They’ll be called “Family and Friends” mornings or afternoons.

But to start the ball rolling, we’re organising the first “Family and Friends” morning at the end of this month, on Sunday 26 November. There will be a short run – or walk – around the Kirchberg Park, with the meeting point not far from d’Coque. Starts from 10.00 until 11.15 or so. There will be very short, easy courses for children. Full details can be downloaded on the attached sheet.

Everyone will be welcome – not just Club members!

And a reminder for Club members – the Club Championships is on the afternoon of Saturday 2 December. Full details can be found via the Club Members section on the web site – and please sign up as soon as you can!

All the information on the event page.

Well, we really couldn’t have believed summer was coming to an end – the weather was so warm and balmy for our last Luxembourg Summer Urban League "LuxSUL" run for the year. The only giveaway was that it got dark rather early – and even with earlier start times, a few of the later runners were out well after the sun set.

We returned to the Bonnevoie area for the first time since before Covid. The area is well suited to urban orienteering, with some parts having lots of narrow paths between gardens - these add complexity and navigational challenges. And the deep valley leading down to the bridge over the Alzette offers scope for a good “down or around” route choice. Planner Ondra’s great courses made the most of the area. He caught a few people out on the longer “Deer” course – the smart money was definitely on the “round” route heading up to control 4. The long staircases on the direct line were slow going, even downhill.

The well-kept Kaltreis park made for a good meeting place, too – a shelter with tables, toilets (good but pricey), freshly mown grass, and easy bus access (more than half of our participants didn’t come by car – well done!) are all plus factors. We’ll be back!

On the night Cedric was once again fastest on the long “Deer” course – his fifth win out of seven in the series. But Sasha was only half a minute behind – and Olena only a minute further back. Some very impressive running by all three. And there was hot competition for fourth place – Atte took it by two seconds from Francisco. The split times said it was all on the run from the last control.

On the medium “Rabbit” course, one of our guests, young Tom L from Fameck, scored a crushing win, going more than six minutes clear from Gabriella, Jacques M, and Tom’s father, Mathieu, who were all within a minute of each other. Again, some very useful minutes per km pace here.

Full results for LuxSUL 7 are, as usual, on the Helga “Webres” website, at  https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4883

The overall 2023 LuxSUL winners were Cedric, unbeatable on the long “Deer” course, and Jacques, on the medium “Rabbit”. (On the strength of this, Jacques is due a promotion to the “Deer” next summer!) Ondra kept his second place on “Deer”, despite planning duties keeping him from running in LuxSUL 7. On the night, his closest rival Julien also wasn’t able to run. And Atte held on to third – deservedly, having put in five very consistent runs over the series.

All the final cumulative LuxSUL positioning is shown on the two linked spreadsheets.

The series has certainly attracted a lot of interest – a telling statistic is that 105 people took part in one or more of the seven LuxSUL events that LuxOC has organised since April. The Club is clearly in good health, and it’s good news that we’ve also been able to welcome friends from nearby Belgian and French clubs.

A big thanks to all our Club members who have mapped, planned courses, or hosted a LuxSUL – notably Jonas (Helmsange), Jan (Belair), Cedric (Ettelbruck), Staffan (Steinsel), Maggie and David (Sandweiler), Sasha and Elisabet (Limpertsberg), and Ondra (Bonnevoie).

LuxSUL will hopefully be back next April!

• luxsul_cumulative_final_-_deer.pdf
• luxsul_cumulative_final_-_rabbit.pdf

A sunny sutumn day lured 29 starting entities to the charming village of Godbrange. The nearby forest proved to offer both the best and the worse of Luxembourg and while some praised the sandstone formation, some cursed the dense and high undergrowth. All of which was anticipated...

Results were originally calculated to the last control, now all the way to the finish line.

Results

Splittimes

A big thanks to Elisabet and her family for hosting LuxOC and friends last week! Her garage is well located at one edge of the Limpertsberg area, and it made a great base for both runners and the organisation, as well as for post-run beers, drinks and snacks.

All much appreciated! By another record turnout – we were exactly 50 runners on the night, evenly split between the longer “Deer” course and the not-so-much-shorter “Rabbit” course.

Thanks to Cedric, for upgrading the Club’s map of the area to a fully professional standard, especially of Parc Tony Neuman and the University campus.

This meant that planner Sasha could make best use of these two more technically interesting areas. He opted to add some “butterflies” to the courses – these are where the course visits the same control twice, or even three times, making part of the course into a small loop. So, the courses had plenty of twisting and turning, as well as longer route-choice legs across the grid of the Limpertsberg streets. The "Rabbit" course ended up a little on the long side (it’s meant to be 3.0km), but no-one complained, it was such a lovely summer evening!

Thanks then to Sasha for such classy planning, and also to José for doing some extra night orienteering helping to get the controls in after the run. Fortunately he wasn’t caught while snooping around the university looking in dark places, and  using the light on his iPhone to undo the cable locks that safeguard our SportIdent timing units!

Cedric G again took the honours on the long “Deer” course – he now has 4 LuxSUL wins out of 4 to count in the series of 7 – so is almost inevitably going to be our overall 2023 LuxSUL “Deer” course league winner. He was over 5 minutes clear of second-placed Ondra – and so would pretty certainly have still been the winner even if he hadn’t done the mapping and thus been rather familiar with some parts of the area! Ondra is still likely to take the overall second place in the league, but this can’t be certain until after the final LuxSUL run in Bonnevoie, as Julien would still be in with a shout if he is there and gets a fourth good result.

On the “Rabbit” young Marianka put in an impressive run to win, putting the Sandweiler winner Jacques into second place by three minutes. At the moment, Jacques is also the LuxSUL “Rabbit “course league leader.  But this could all change in Bonnevoie, when some other runners put in their fourth qualifying time. Jacques should certainly be looking over his shoulder if either or both Inga or Elisabeth S show up and run the "Rabbit" carefully!

Full results for LuxSUL 6 are, as usual, on the Helga “Webres” website, at https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4854   

And the current cumulative LuxSUL positioning is shown on the linked spreadsheets, one for "Deer" and one for "Rabbit".

To remind everyone again again how the LuxSUL works, scores for each run are decided simply by how far behind that run's winner everyone ends up. The aggregate positioning is then set nearly as simply, by aggregating the scores for the runs done. But only the best four runs out of the seven LuxSULs in the series get counted – each counting run is highlighted in green on the spreadsheet. And the ranking also depends on how many counting scores there are – so anyone with only three runs that count will always be ranked behind anyone with four or more counting runs.

LuxSUL 7, the last 2023 LuxSUL, is on Thursday 28 September, in Bonnevoie. Full details of venue etc. should be on the website (via the calendar) very soon. Venez nombreux!

• 230913_luxsul_deer_cumulative_to_luxsul_6.pdf
• 230913_luxsul_rabbit_cumulative_to_luxsul_6.pdf

David's post-race interview with the organizers - possibly the shortest he has ever given - summed it up neatly. "C'etait horrible," he retorted when asked how his race was. For LuxOC, the 2023 Belgian Relay Championships in the high grass and thorny thickets of the Elsenborn military camp were a far cry from previous years when we regularly cracked the top 10. Although it didn't have to be that way ... LuxOC 2, composed of the five members of the Kotecký family, ran supremely well and clocked the sixth fastest time overall after five legs, but an unfortunate oversight on the penultimate control of Jonáš's leg meant the team was disqualified. Regardless of the mispunch, 9-year-old Jonáš - the youngest of all 250 participants - was the undisputed star of the day, overing his 2.5K in what can only be described as lightning speed. He was closely followed by his siblings Jáchym (H12),10th on the opening leg, and Marjánka (D14), a fantastic fourth on Leg 4. LuxOC1 (David, Jonas, Maggie, Orsi, Jan) struggled somewhat in the difficult terrain under blistering sun, coming in 31st out 50 eligible relay teams (with many NCLs in the result list due to mispunches). Once again though, the LuxOC flag flew proudly over the CC, and we're already looking forward to next year's edition where we definitely will want to restore our former glory!

https://www.helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4847

LuxSUL 6 is on the evening of Wednesday 13 September (next Wednesday), using the Limpertsberg area. There will be a new 1;5,000 map, including the university campus and Parc Tony Neuman areas. These have been mapped by Cedric Guthier to a professional standard. So the courses may be a bit more technical than usual, and have a few more controls.

Full details, including where to meet, are attached.

Usual 5km Deer and 3km Rabbit courses. But as the end of summer is approaching, starts will be earlier - from 18.30 onwards, not the usual 19.00. Last start 19.30 latest.

We hope to see many members and friends there!

• 230913_limpertsberg_final_details.docx

Camel trains sighted on the rue d’Itzig? Shimmering mirages of date-palmed oases glimpsed from the top of vir Herel? Maybe not quite - Sandweiler hasn’t yet become the Sahara. But it felt pretty hot for the fifth run of LuxOC’s Summer Urban League series on Wednesday night. Many runners arrived back at download with sweat in their eyes, and perspiring more than gently.

Turnout on the evening was again excellent – 40 runners (or perhaps 41, but Cedric G did both courses, so that would be double-counting!), including some who had travelled from Belgium or Germany. The evening urban event format does seem to be most popular in the summer.

Sandweiler is a pretty good area for urban orienteering – not only are there lots of gardens with lovely roses wafting their fragrances as one runs past, but the layout of the village also gives plenty of scope for setting legs with interesting route choice. The planner felt that he had done his job well as soon as he had listened in to a few post-run conversations debating the best routes. In fact, in many places, the only “wrong” route was to hesitate – the choices were mainly designed to be fairly equal.

One bullet that was only just dodged were the two temporary fences that appeared on the day of the run at the back of the community centre near the church. Fortunately, the planner spotted these as he was putting out the controls – and still had time to mark them on all the maps before the earliest runners started. Also, apologies to a couple of runners whose up-market SIAC “contact-free” Sportident timers registered a second start, because they ran back within less than a metre from the start point on their way to the finish. David R and Michael H did some forensic analysis of the timing data to assess what their real times were - the timing system read-outs had recorded “7 seconds” for the 5.2km. In future, we’ll be more careful about how we place the start and finish timing points.

Cedric G again took the honours on the long “Deer” course – he has 3 wins out of 3 so far, having also won both LuxSUL 1 at Helmsange and LuxSUL 4 at Steinsel a fortnight ago. It’s thought that the heat suited him, as he’s rumoured to have been training in the desert earlier this year! And there were very impressive results from Olena P and Paul M, who came second and third respectively.

Cedric then went on to run the shorter “Rabbit” course as a “warm-down” – and was five minutes clear! But prior knowledge of the terrain gathered on his “Deer” run means that he has to be treated as non-competitive. So, the real “Rabbit” winner on the night was Jacques Mely – a fine result, as Jacques really wasn’t too far behind Cedric.

Full results for LuxSUL 5 are, as usual, on the Helga “Webres” website, at https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4709  

The current cumulative LuxSUL positioning is shown on the spreadsheet link from this page. It gets interesting!

To remind you, scores for each run are decided simply by how far behind the winner everyone ends up. The aggregate positioning is then set nearly as simply, by aggregating the scores for the runs done. But only the best four runs out of the seven LuxSULs in the series get counted – each counting run is highlighted in green on the spreadsheet. And the ranking also depends on how many counting scores there are – so anyone with only three runs that count will always be ranked behind anyone with four or more counting runs.

As things stand after five LuxSUL evenings, the overall leader on the “Deer” is Atte A, followed by Vivien T, André P., and with young Jan Panuska in fourth place. But Cedric G, Ondra, and Julien G are all in strong contention, and could come through to take leading positions once they record a fourth result. And dark horse Sasha could also be close to the front if he runs well in both the remaining two LuxSULs.

On the “Rabbit”, Inga didn’t run this time, and so has relinquished her overall lead to young Linda Kuželová, who is the only competitor so far to have the full four counting scores for this course. But, as well as Inga, Elisabeth S and Jacques M are also well placed to move in front, provided they can get good results at either of the last two LuxSULs in the series.

Much thanks to Valérie A, Jonas, Cedric and a few others for collecting all the controls in once we had all finished running. The planner is very grateful!

Conversely, no thanks at all to the hooligan who at some point during the evening removed the code from the timing box at control 145. And also – and why? – our sponsor’s logo on the box! Sandweiler is supposed to be a respectable neighbourhood – but over the years, LuxOC has only ever suffered from vandalism at runs that have been organised there. Strange, isn’t it?

It was great that so many members and guests were able to stay for the summer social, re-hydrating with “Czech sports drinks” on the lawn at the Club’s headquarters. A big thanks to all those who bought food, drink, or both – and particularly to Judith L for the wonderful quiche! And also to Inga, for co-hosting with Maggie – it was very much appreciated!

LuxSUL is now taking a summer break – the last two runs will be in September. LuxSUL 6 should be in Limpertsberg, on either 7^th or 13^th September. Watch this website nearer the date for the final details.

Schéi Summervakanz!

• rabbit_cumulative_to_luxsul_5.pdf
• deer_cumulative_to_luxsul_5.pdf

19/6

Courses and tracking of elite teams are found here as usual: https://tulospalvelu.fi/gps/

Jonas had his 50 seconds of fame being interviewed by the Finnish broadcaster and given the opportunity to promote Luxembourg orienteering.

18/6

After tough start and a difficult night the Jukola team got into the flow when the sun rose. Some good runs, in particular by young Jonas L, lifted the final position to an honourable 726th.

Details will be provided and maps shown after the next LuxSUL event in Sandweiler.

17/6

After strong races by our Swiss reinforcements the team ended up with a strong 592 place. Well done!

The race was won by the usual suspects.

Orsi lifted 57 places to 924 after a steady race.

981st place in the first exchange after a small mistake early on. 
 

All ready!

Update 16/6

Somehow Olena managed to slove the border conflict and is on her way, a little later than planned...

Unfortunately Olena was stopped at the Polish border and could not travel further. To save the team both David and young Jonas L. have stepped up to join the team and take over the long last leg. Kudos and thnaks to both of them. Half the team have trained well in the usual orienteering paradise to get used to terrain and mapping style. The weather is hot and dry.

Next Satruday-Sunday (17-18.6) LuxOC again appears in the world's largest orienteering relays. This time we have both a Venla team, reinforced by two Swiss runners, and a Jukola team. You may follow and support us during the day and night by following the live results and the international live broadcast. The red lion can normally be spotted at the first TV control of the first legs in each relay and occasionally "en passant".

The Venla relay starts at 13.00 Lux time  and the Jukola relay at 22:00 Lux time and continues through the night. We will try to provide updates and impressions during the races.

Live results: https://online.jukola.com/tulokset-new/en/

Live broadcast: https://orienteering.sport/event/jukola/info/

LuxSUL 5 is on the evening of Wednesday 21 June, using the Sandweiler area.

Usual 19.00 start, usual Deer and Rabbit courses. Full details.

We hope to see many members and friends there!

A record 41 runners took part in LuxSUL 4, the fourth out of seven events in LuxOC’s Summer Urban League. Maybe it was the warm evening, maybe it was because Helmsange is easy to get to, or maybe it was the prospect of cool beer on the terrace afterwards, but it was great to see so many members and friends.

The blessing of lovely evening sunshine was granted once again – perhaps as further recompense for the sleet that fell on the evening of LuxSUL 1 back in April. It was reported by one of our visitors from Belgium to have been raining, and 7C cooler, in Arlon en route to the run  – living proof that the sun indeed shines on the righteous. And (well, quite often) on LuxOC!

On the night, Cedric Guthier held off Sasha Rybakov by 30 seconds to take the win on the 5.3km Deer course, speeding through the back gardens and the other bits of Steinsel that most people never see. But Julien Gaffuri – still the League leader – and Ondra Kotecky weren’t far behind. On the 3.0km Rabbit course, Inga had the lead again, although President Jan (was he pot-hunting, we ask?) was not so far behind.

Full results for the run are, as usual, on the Helga “Webres” website, at  https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4690   Cumulative results are on the growing spreadsheet, copy attached.

Big thanks to Staffan for doing all the course planning, and hosting us all en terrace – and to his mother for helping put out the controls. There are not that many sports where three generations of a family can take part in an event!

And apologies to the Deer course runner who tried a short cut to the control on the banks of the Alzette, and reported back that “he didn’t realise that stinging nettles could grow that high in Luxembourg”. No names, but he was the man with the very itchy legs (and arms) at download! It’s thought that the nettles might have only sprouted very recently, and so that’s the reason why they weren’t on the map…

Next event – LuxSUL 5 – is at LuxOC’s formal home in Sandweiler, on Wednesday 21 June. We hope to see many of you again that evening!

• 230608_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul_4.pdf

At its May 2023 Council meeting, the IOF appointed David to its Foot O Commission, effective 1 January 2024. The Foot O Commission is the group that reports to IOF Council in supervising all foot orienteering events worldwide for which the IOF has responsibility each year, including the World Orienteering Championships. David will in particular be overseeing the evolution of each year’s World Masters Orienteering Championships. Congratulations!

It's confirmed that, as previously advertised, LuxSUL 4 will be on the evening of Wednesday 7 June, starting in Helmsange. Anyone who has already signed up - that's great, we'll see you there!

Usual 19.00 start, usual Deer and Rabbit courses. Full details attached.

We hope to see many members and friends there!

• 230607_steinsel_final_details_v2.pdf

Once again LuxOC has been blessed with perfect weather for a LuxSUL run. For this one we ventured rather further away from the capital than usual for our evening. The run was deliberately based near the railway station, so that coming by train would be a good option. And it turned out that quite a few of the 24 club members who made the journey north did indeed “let the train take the strain”!

Our thanks for an excellent evening of quality urban orienteering go to Cedric Guthier, a top German H21E competitor who has recently moved to Luxembourg after completing his PhD studies in Germany, and has joined LuxOC. Cedric planned some very testing courses with lots of small route choices – the “butterfly” circuit in the heart of the town was a challenge for some on the longer “Deer” course. And fortunately, nobody got trapped in the Etzella football stadium – who spotted that one of the gates was mapped as being only “one way” traffic through a turnstile?

Cedric is also an expert mapper, and he put in many hours of much-appreciated work to make the map we used. Unlike most of the LuxSUL series, the Ettelbruck map was both fully surveyed on the ground and carefully drawn to IOF specifications. Hopefully, the Club will be able to re-use the map again soon.

The results for the evening are, as usual, on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4670 . There were some notable performances – not least from Marie Anna Kotecká, who at only 13 years old was less than four minutes behind her father on the longer “Deer” course. Watch out, Ondra! At the other end of the age range, André Pierlot put in a very useful time for an H60. And while Cedric showed us all how quickly the “Deer” Course could be run – yes, under 24 minutes – LuxSUL co-ordinator David has had to take the harsh decision of declaring Cedric “non-competitive” for LuxSUL purposes for this particular run, given that he had both planned the course and put out half the controls an hour before! On the shorter “Rabbit” course, Inga was ten minutes clear, running below 9 minutes/km.

Detailed cumulative results to date are attached. After three out of the planned seven runs, it’s still early days for spotting our overall winners. Julien Gaffuri still has a useful ten-minute lead in the “Deer” class, despite missing LuxSUL 3. Indeed, no-one has taken part in all three runs! And on the “Rabbit”, Inga’s emphatic win last night puts her well clear in the cumulative table.

Just to recap, the rules for deciding the cumulative LuxSUL results are (relatively) straightforward. Ranking is based simply on times behind the winner of each race, with only the best four results from the seven LuxSULs being aggregated. This means that taking part in more than four runs allows one or more “times behind the winner” to drop out of an aggregate total – so expect some big changes in positions later in the season!

More information on LuxSUL 4 very soon – there will be a separate news item coming up on this website. It will however be as originally announced, on Wednesday 7 June, meeting in Heisdorf and running over to Steinsel.

• 230526_luxsul_cumulative_results_to_luxsul_3_v2.pdf

LuxSUL 3 is now scheduled for Thursday 25th May! 

Let's head north! The run will be in a new area for the Club - Ettelbruck Central. And we will be using a new map, with ground survey by Cedric Guthier.

Usual 19.00 start, usual Deer and Rabbit courses. Full details attached.

We hope to see many members and friends there

• 230525_ettelbruck_final_details_v2.pdf

The warm evening sunshine last Thursday brought out plenty of LuxOC members, their friends and guests to run in the second event of the 2023 Luxembourg Summer Urban League. Indeed, with 20 runners on the night, we ran out of printed maps for the longer 5km “Deer” course, which is the first time that this has happened. Apologies to the last arrival, who had to wait until the first finisher before a map could be recycled.

Planner Jan made the best use of the most interesting parts of the Merl area, with the schools complex in particular offering some navigational challenges. And Merl Park – well, LuxOC runners were just about stepping over the picnicking, partying, and relaxing bodies!

The results for the evening are, as usual, on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4624 . And detailed cumulative results to date are attached. After only two out of the planned seven runs, it’s early days for spotting our overall winners, although Julien Gaffuri currently has a useful ten-minute lead in the “Deer” class.

Just to recap, the rules for deciding the LuxSUL results are (relatively) straightforward. Ranking is based simply on times behind the winner of each race, with only the best four results from the seven LuxSULs being aggregated. This means that taking part in more than four runs allows one or more “times behind the winner” to drop out of an aggregate total – so expect some big changes in positions later in the season!

Big thanks to Jan for hosting as well as planning – we gather he’s now recovering from his bout of over-training and a touch of ‘flu. And apologies for some slight delays on the evening in processing entries and timing. Michael has now sorted out the problem that David had caused, so we should be back at maximum efficiency for LuxSUL 3.

More information on LuxSUL 3 very soon – there will be a separate news item coming up on this website. But please note a date change from the original plan – LuxSUL 3 will be not on Tuesday 16 May as originally announced, but in the following week.

• luxsul_2023_cumulative_after_2_runs.pdf

RESULTS: https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4590  or attached.

SPLITS: https://helga-o.com/webres/splits/splitsbrowser.php?lauf=4590

Full details for LuxSUL 1, in Helmsange and Walferdange on Thursday 20 April, are attached and can now be downloaded.

LuxOC looks forward to welcoming all participants!

• 230420_helmsange_final_details_v2.pdf
• 230420_luxsul_cumulative_after_luxsul_1.pdf

LuxSUL – the Luxembourg Summer Urban League!

Following on from the success of the 2020 and 2022 LuxNUL Night Urban League series, for 2023 LuxOC has decided to organise a series of daylight evening informal urban events over the coming summer.

The format will be pretty much the same as for the LuxNULs – two courses, both for adults, one of around 3km and the other around 5km. Distances are measured straight-line, so you will probably run or walk about 50% further. The shorter course in particular is very suitable for newcomers.

Timing will be done using LuxOC’s SPORTident electronic timing system – LuxOC owns a large stock of SI timing chips, which can readily be borrowed by participants who don’t own one themselves. There will be few or no facilities – each event will be run from a club member’s front garden, or from a parked car. Beer or soft drinks, or a nearby bar, afterwards. As with all LuxOC’s informal events, taking part is free – but please join LuxOC as a member (only EUR 15 a year) if you want to become a regular participant.

The scoring system will be based on your time behind the winner on your course, with the best four results out of seven to count. So if you can’t take part in all the events, you still have a chance to be well up the league table. Updated league positions will be posted on this website after each event in the series.

Dates and areas planned (so far) are as follows.

LuxSUL 1 – Thursday 20 April – Helmsange/ Walferdange

LuxSUL 2 – Thursday 4 May – Belair/ Merl

LuxSUL 3 – (provisional) Tuesday 16 May – probably Bonnevoie. A World Orienteering Day event.

LuxSUL 4 – Wednesday 7 June – Heisdorf/ Steinsel

LuxSUL 5 – Wednesday 21 June – Sandweiler (LuxOC members summer social evening)

Summer holidays break

LuxSUL 6 – (to be confirmed) Wednesday 6 September – Limpertsberg

LuxSUL 7 – (to be confirmed) Wednesday 20 September - Bertrange

Full details for LuxSUL 1 are now posted on this website, and for the subsequent events these will each be posted a week or two before the date planned.

As well as all LuxOC members, friends, guests, visitors to Luxembourg, and newcomers to orienteering will all be warmly welcome at every LuxSUL.

Some 28 LuxOC members braved the rather nasty weather forecast for the day, and joined our LuxOC training morning in the Howald woods. As it turned out, after about 09.00 there were only a few short showers.

The “Switcher” Score course seems to have given both pleasure and an intellectual challenge to all who ran it. The final results are attached. Ondra K managed to do ALL the controls just outside the 45-minute time limit, which planner David hadn’t expected to be possible. A worthy winner, although closely followed by Julien G, who had only left out one control. The best junior result was by Barbora K, who made a notably clever choice of controls to visit.

The Rabbit course was more straightforward, and it was good to welcome three newcomers to our sport. Apologies here to those who struggled with number 8, after having got used to controls on the path network. It was there - down by the crag, just off the path, as shown on the control description list!

Apologies also to Jonas and one or two others who found that the river crossing shown as a path just near control 144 on the score course was slightly fictional – although to be fair, it has rained a lot in the last week. Planner David should have edited the map to stop people being lured towards a watery doom here. He now realises that this cost some people time, or spoilt their choice of routing. Sorry!

Lastly, thanks to Maggie R for helping at the meeting area, and for collecting the controls afterwards from the seriously muddy bit of the forest up near the tennis club. And to Jana T for feeding the organisers with some greatly-appreciated cakes!!

Our next meetings are planned for the evening of Thursday 20 April in Bertrange, for the first in our LuxSUL summer urban league runs – and on the afternoon of Saturday 22 April for our April “training”, more family-orientated, at Klosegrondchen near the Serra roundabout. More information on both nearer the time.

• 230326_howald_results_-_score.pdf
• 230326_howald_results_-_rabbit.pdf

Interland 2023 is over. Congratulations to Orienteering Vlaanderen on their decisive win and thanks to the Hamok orienteering club @hamokham for great organization. Happy that Luxembourg Orienteering could compete for the first time! @LuxOrienteers

Dutch article which also includes the team standings: Netherlands fifth at the International Competition 2023 – NOLB – Nederlandse Oriënteringsloop Bond

Plans for our first training event of the spring/ summer season, on the morning of Sunday 26 March, are now fully finalised. It will be in Howald, with the meeting point in rue des Bruyeres.

Everybody is welcome. Two courses are offered. For experienced orienteers, there is a Score competition with a 45 minute time limit. For beginners and children (and anyone else who fancies a walk with some navigating!), there is a 2.5km simple course using tracks and paths.

Full details and sign-up, including an explanation of how the Score competition will work - please read carefully.

Date for your diary - our next training event is provisionally scheduled for the morning of Sunday 23 April, using the Kirchberg/ Klosegrondchen area.

At its Council meeting in Prague over the weekend, the International Orienteering Federation accepted Luxembourg Orienteering as a provisional member, filling the final blank spot on the EU orienteering map and providing a boost to our sport in the country. The provisional IOF membership caps five years of continous growth of LuxOC and is a reward to all those who have relentlessly promoted orienteering in the Grand Duchy. Dräimal Hurra fir all Orientéierer vu Lëtzebuerg!

• letter_confirmation_membership_lux.pdf

Update 29.4.2023

Interests declared so far:

Venla: Gabi, Orsi, Sabrina Meister, Brigitte Grüniger (4/4) FULL TEAM!

Jukola: Jevgenis, Jonas W, Sasha, Jonas L, Roland, Jan, Olena (7/7) FULL TEAM!

__________________________________

A Happy New Orienteering Year to everyone!

This year, Jukola will beld June 17-18 in Porvoo/Borgå just 50 km east of Helsinki. The terrain covers open rock hills that have been left untouched by farming and these are intersected by many roads, paths and fields. Consequently, navigation will include as well fast running as control picking in very detailed areas and the courses are overall quite long. The women’s relay in the afternoon will have four legs between 6 and 9 km. The men’s relay will start at nightfall and have 7 legs, of which three shorter than 10 km. More information can be found on the website: https://jukola.com/2023/en/home/ and the invitation at: https://jukola.com/2023/en/event-invitation/

For now, I would like to know if you are at all interested in participating. The qualification is very simple, everyone that is willing to sacrifice the time, money and reputation needed to travel to the north for the sake of one weekend and one event, is likely to make the team. We will try to find those willing and able to take the longer legs and in case we can’t find enough runners within the club, we can reach out to friends and family in neighbouring and/or home countries. While everyone will have to organise his or her own travel, on site we will as usual book a club tent that is available from Friday to Sunday. More to be clarified later.

Please indicate if you are interested in either event and also if you prefer any particular leg (day or night, long or short). Women are also allowed to double, so indicate if you’re willing to do that. You can reply to me directly or “register” your interest by commenting this new item below.

We can discuss this at the Annual Meeting January 25^th, hopefully concluding whether there is interest of not for the club to participate.

Old maps from next year's competition terrain are found here: https://jukola.com/2023/en/1038-2/

Here is a little teaser. The semi-official "pre-event" and simultaneously the final in the Finnish relay-league was held last September next to the Jukola terrain. The race was televised and the broadcast is available on youtube. A lot of speaking in Finnish but also a lot of GPS-tracking and running cameras. Its starting in daylight and ending in darkness en includes a lot of elite orienteers getting lost (e.g. 38 min into the race). And the terrain is very nice! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW1jU4nXdzY

The full GPS-tracking can be viewed here: https://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2022vlfinaaliD1/(change the last D1 to D2, D3, H1, H2, H3 for all legs)

All the best!

Jonas

First sunlit fall training is over. You were many to run the quick 150m-long no-codes full-speed full-concentration sprints and you were also many to run the ~2 km long run in the park. All in all 106 readouts. Maps and results are attached below. Results with splits are here.

You were more than expected to run up the steep slopes of the Lëtzert – we ran out of printed maps. As you know this exercise was without sportident.

See you on the next fall training. To know the date, please follow the website announcements or sync the LuxOC event calendar with your calendar desktop or mobile app.

Results

midi long 2.3 km (10 Controls)

midi easy 1.5 km (9 Controls)

mini A 0.1 km (6 Controls)

mini B 0.2 km (6 Controls)

mini C 0.2 km (5 Controls)

mini D 0.2 km (6 Controls)

mini E 0.2 km (5 Controls)

mini F 0.2 km (5 Controls)

mini G 0.2 km (6 Controls)

• results_with_splits.html

SudOLux, our good neighbour club across the border in Belgium, have very kindly invited all LuxOC members to take part in their Club Championships later this month.

The course will be run on a totally new map, Croix-Rouge (6730 Etalle - Le Trou des Fées) - it’s a good area, about 30 minutes drive beyond Arlon.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LhrJxn2VViFE63yL9

There will be a social gathering with food and drink afterwards.

When : Saturday November 26, 14h30.

Registration : via below link, before 15 November 

https://forms.gle/BLBDvWk57JGphFth6

Sébastien Daune, the organiser, sebdaune@yahoo.fr  will send starting times some days before the race...

Hope to see you there!

• November 26th, 2022 14:30 – 17:00  
• location Virton, Luxembourg, Wallonia, Belgium  geo coordinates
• linkhttps://sudolux.be/

The map is made, the courses are planned, the control sites all checked… everything is ready for our annual Club Championships in two and a half weeks time! 

This year it’s on the morning of Sunday 16 October, and the event will be in Luxembourg - indeed, right in the Ville! The competition area is the Drai Eechelen woodland, and for the adults' course, Pfaffenthal - we are using half of the top-quality map that was made for the 2021 City Race. The meeting point is on the Place de l’Europe, behind the Philharmonie.

So be ready for some spectacular views, as well as a few steep hills!

The event is open to all Club members, as well as invited guests. It's planned so that all can participate, it’s not just for the fittest runners. The handicapping system gives everyone a better chance.

If you are thinking of taking part, there’s one change from the usual routine. Rather than signing up on this website, please - if you can - register using the Belgian O’Punch system  https://www.opunch.org , and please do this by midnight on Friday 14 October. This will make timing and preparing the results much easier for the organisers. And, although we’d prefer that you pre-register, we will still be taking entries on the day.

Attached is a sheet giving the full final details - course lengths etc.

Looking forward to having as many competitors as we can on 16 October.

David R - the organiser

• 221016_luxoc_club_champs_event_details_fr.pdf
• 221016_club_champs_event_details.pdf

It was good to see more than thirty members, friends and first-timers at d'Coque. Thanks to you all for coming. LuxOC prides itself on good weather for most of its "happenings", but clearly today we only did just enough to placate the rain gods!

Big thanks to Sasha for planning - the Deer course, which most people opted for, had some entertaining route choices. And the control in the maze wasn't that bad, was it? 

A few people chose to go through the d'Coque building - not a route choice the planner had foreseen! Strictly, the international rules say that you aren't allowed to go through buildings unless there is a passage shown on the map as a permitted route - but then, our event was only "informal". 

The results were promptly posted on the Helga website - see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4286. We're sorry that we weren't able to provide people with an instant print out of their time for each control - as is the standard practice at most events these days. The printer is now returned to life - we are not sure why it ran out of power so completely despite a recent full charge. If you want to see your individual "split times" at each control, click on your name in the Helga results list. You will see a list of recent events that you've participated in.  Then click on the little "pdf" symbol on the right, and you will have all the information!

Our next event is our annual Club handicap championships. It's at Drai Echelen - meet near the Philharmonie - on the morning of Sunday 16 October, with starts from 10.30 until 11.30 or so. 

We hope to see you then.

Two dozen LuxOC members and friends of the club said goodbye to the spring season on Sunday with a training session on the Parc Klosegrondchen - Kirchberg South-East map, a great orienteering area mapped some years ago by Julien but seldom used for club activities. As usual, there were two courses on offer - a longer one of about 3.2K for experienced orienteers and a short course around the park for kids. Some runners seemed to have a problem finding control #134 on account of a sleek new path built rather trecherously in parallel with an existing one some time between 2017 and now (sorry, some of our maps only get updated once a decade :-) - memo for the next training: if all else fails, read the countour lines!), but in the end everyone enjoyed one last bit of orienteering before the holidays. The first half of the year was very successful - we had a record turnout at the night urban league (so much so we're thinking of a new format that would span a longer period of time that just the winter months); the club did well at Jukola / Venla; and orienteering has attracted many newcomers. For the autumn season, we're still hopeful of renewed forest access, and we're again planning a club championship. Have a great summer, and stay on course!

Jan

• klosegrondchen_final-long.pdf

Our Finnish orienteering adventure is now successfully behind us. The men's team - Jevgenijs, Jonas, Sasha, Roland, Jan, Jerome and Ondra - finished 419th out of 1,592 participating teams in the Jukola relay, while the women - Marie, Aurelie, Gabi and Misa - bring home a formidable 343rd place out of 1,432 teams in the Venla competition. Both results are new club highs. Thank you for your support!

LuxOC team members competing in this weekend's Venla and Jukola have successfully arrived in Finland despite chaos in European skies (4 of out our 11 plane tickets cancelled, two of them at short notice) and immediately hit the forest in a mini-training camp kindly organized by Jonas in the vicinity of Karis, some two hours south-east of the competition centre. Thursday and Friday were spent in supreme Finnish terrains where we honed (or tried to acquire) our compass-relief skills in anticipation of the big day and night. 

After a three-year break due to COVID, LuxOC will once again contest Jukola next weekend - and also field a Venla relay for good measure. Misa, Gabi, Marie and Aurelie will represent us in Venla on Saturday, 18 June while Jevgenijs, Jonas, Sasha, Roland, Jan, Jerôme and Ondra will compete in Jukola overnight from Saturday to Sunday. The races will take place in a forest outside Mynämäki north of Turku. The largely flat terrain will be punctuated with many rocky hillsides and the map will feature that characteristic Finnish grey denoting large, mostly runnable moss-covered rocks. You can follow us here:

https://jukola.com/2022/en/jukolalive-web-tv

or of course via online results. We'll be grateful for your support!

Dear club members, due to multiple orienteering events taking place on the weekend of 25-26 June, LuxOC's next training will be organized by Jan and Orsi on Sunday, 26 June (instead of Saturday, 25 June) at Parc-Close-Groendchen and the adjacent Kirchberg housing estate. The meeting place will be by the middle water fountain on the western edge of the park. Starting times from 3 to 4 p.m. Further details (including the length of the courses) will be published on our Web site closer to the date. Please let us know in advance, and if possible by 24 June, if you would like to participate by writing to us at orienteer@orienteering.lu or better by signing up on this page.

Luxembourg Orienteering celebrated this year’s World Orienteering Day in style with a convivial urban event in Kirchberg that attracted 35 participants, one from as far afield as the French Atlantic city of Nantes. A strong LuxOC contingent competed with orienteers from neighbouring SudOLux and many unafilliated runners (hopefully soon-to-be LuxOC members!) on two courses set by David.

The unforgiving 5.3K Deer course took orienteers all the way down to Weimerskirch and back up the hill again, with the long climb taking anywhere between 11 and 25 minutes to complete, while the more lenient 3.5K Rabbit route didn’t venture much beyond the Kirchberg plateau. The lovely makeshift CC at Orsi’s porch, equipped with quality local and Czech lager, saw many a lively discussion on routechoices as well as debates about our next orienteering adventures. Jukola / Venla beckon on 18-19 June for both a male and a female LuxOC relay team, with another training in a parc or urban setting in Luxembourg to follow on 26 June (please check our Web site for details closer to the date).

Results: here or at Helga

A fun evening, thanks for participating! Please add your own photos if you have any.

Luxembourg Orienteering Club is pleased to announce that it is supporting the World Orienteering Day, sponsored by the International Orienteering Federation, which showcases mass participation in the sport of orienteering throughout the world. Luxembourg is thus one of 45 countries already registered as taking part in World Orienteering Day 2022.

Any orienteering activity in the week from 11 to 17 May can be counted as part of World Orienteering Day. Luxembourg Orienteering Club is organising an informal evening urban orienteering event on Tuesday 17 May, using the Kirchberg and Weimerskirch network of streets and parks.

All participants - including newcomers - will be very welcome. No-one needs to be a Club member to take part.

Full details are given in the attached information sheet.

• 220517_kirchberg_wod_2022_flyer.pdf

LuxNUL 6 - the last of the six Luxembourg Night Urban League series of events - will take place as planned on Wednesday, 6 April, in Bertrange.

Unlike the previous events in the series, it will be light. And flat - there are no hills on either course!

Details of the event are attached, starts are (as usual) between 18.45 and 19.30, with courses closing at 20.30.

All participants are welcome!

• 220406_bertrange_event_details.pdf

LuxNUL 5 - the fifth out of the six Luxembourg Night Urban League series of events - will take place as planned next Wednesday, 23 March, in Limpertsberg.

Details of the event are attached, starts are (as usual) between 18.45 and 19.30, with courses closing atr 20.30.

All participants are welcome!

• 220323_limpertsberg_event_details.pdf

Nearly 20 competitors took part in round 4 of this year's Night Urban League. It was good to see a few new faces, as well as some long-time members turning out for their first LuxNUL run of the year. The evening's results are posted here.

Thanks to Staffan for both hosting the evening, and planning the courses. For the Deer (long) runners, it turned out that the pre-event information warning of "some climbing" was rather an understatement - while the course did offer some interesting route choices, no-one could escape going to the top of the village not once, but twice!

And mild apologies are due to everyone for the rather well-hidden, sneaky last control - the only feature that the SI timing unit could be attached to was a lamppost, behind a bush, behind a small electricity sub-station. But it was in the right place! 

Next week's (Wednesday 23 March) LuxNUL 5 will be in Limpertsberg - full details to be posted in a day or so - all welcome.

LuxNUL 3 took place as planned on Wednesday 9 March. We were blessed with perfect weather, with a clear sky and the air cooling after a sunny day. So our "outdoors only" arrangements, to take COVID concerns into account, weren't a problem.

Spring is on it's way - planner Jan had to move one control to make sure we didn't trample a bed of crocuses in full flower!

We were 15 runners on the night - including three first timers. Race honours went to Ukraine! The results from the evening are available https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=3923. Cumulative results are posted in the Club section (members only).

The next LuxNul is next Wednesday, 16 March, starting in Helmsange and running over to Steinsel. Follow the link from the LuxNULs revived news item for more information. 

David R

Luxembourg Night Urban League co-ordinator

With the gentle relaxing of Covid restrictions in Luxembourg, it’s been decided to revive the 2021-22 LuxNUL series of evening urban orienteering competitions. Some may however now turn out to be “LuxSULs” – Luxembourg Sunset Urban Leagues!

Also, these events will be very “outdoors only”, to keep Covid risks to a minimum. Please come ready to run, there won’t be bag storage. For some runs, registration and download will be in a parked car. And sorry, it’s less than likely that there will be any post-event beers on offer!

The revised planned dates are as follows

• Until 2 March              LuxNUL 2– Walferdange “self-service”          Jonas Wolff planning, (all results recorded in UsynligO before 23.59 on 2 March will count!)
• Wed 9 March             LuxNUL 3 – Belair/ Merl         Jan Sliva planning
• Wed 16 March            LuxNUL 4 – Steinsel                Staffan Vowles/ Balian Martinez planning
• Wed 23 March            LuxNUL 5 – Limpertsberg       Sasha Rybakov/ Elisabet Wirtz planning
• Wed 6 April                 LuxNUL 6 – Bertrange             Jonas Wolff provisionally planning

Start times will – as usual – be from about 18.45, until 19.30 or so.

Further full details for each run will be posted on the members’ section of the Club website, and e-mailed to our other contacts, nearer the time – keep an eye out for these.

Hope to see you soon!
David Roach
LuxNUL Co-ordinator

The planned return of the Luxembourg Urban Night League (LuxNUL) was postponed due to the pandemic and the restrictions around organising public events. Now there is a possibility to try the next best thing, or LuxNUL as "self service". All you need to do is:

1. Download the UsynligO app to your mobile device

2. Print out one of the maps below (but try not to study it in detail before you start running).

3. Find your way to the railway station in Walferdange. The finish is just by the parking place north of the station (west of the track) and the start is just a few hundred meters away  on the other side of the N7.

4. Start the app, select your course and start your run. Note that there are no physical control flags or or other markers anywhere, just the virtual beep, to confirm you've found your spot.

5. Enjoy!

• walfer-long.pdf
• walfer-short.pdf
• walfer-middle.pdf

Following the AGM last week, our club has a new President in Jan Slíva. The other Board members continue in their roles, Staffan Vowles as Secretary and David Roach as Treasurer.

Presidents, past and present, met for a proper handover on the Bambësch trails.

Dear members,

we would like you to pencil in the date 23-24 April 2022 for the Interland competion where we will take part for the first time. See below info from Jan:

April 23-24, 2022 (main race on the 24^th, warmup on the 23^rd. Spectator races included, meaning anyone can run even if they’re not on the team). Here’s some basic info:

Interland is a an annual competition of five teams (VVO / Flanders, FRSO /Wallonia, NOLB / the Netherlands, LHFCO / Norther France and EOC / England. FRSO will host the 2022 edition, which will take place in the forests around Habay la Neuve, literally at our doorstep. Luxembourg Orienteering is invited as a guest, with a view to (possibly) joining permanently (TBD). We’ll need (ideally) 3 runners per category in the following classes: M14, M17, M20, M Open, M40, M50, M60, W14, W17, W20, W Open, W40, W50 and W60.

To be returned on description:

• Keys
• a thumb compass,
• a brown buff,
• a woolly hat with a “meow” logo, and
• another pink/purple woolly hat.
• And a o-shirt, see image below.

Please contact us by email on weekend2021@orienteering.lu 

Dat ass awer keng Kaart, wéi een se am Touristebüro kritt, mä eng déi speziell fir dësen Orientéirungslaf gezeechent gouf a mat där déi ronn 500 Participanten eréischt beim Depart Bekanntschaft gemaach hunn.

https://www.rtl.lu/sport/news/a/1806688.html

Get your GPS watch in the backbak! After each day a Livelox event will be published.

Livelox is a service that lets you record and compare your orienteering races with family, friends and fellow competitors. Record your route in real time using a mobile app (android, apple), or upload it from your GPS watch afterwards.

• Saturday
• Sunday

Following new legislation coming into effect in Luxembourg this week, it has now become clear that, specifically for sports events, all obligations to pass the CovidCheck are already only now applicable to children over 12 years and 2 months old. (Bulletin 2 had noted that this change was going to take effect on 1 November 2021.)

Consequently children under this age will not need to take a Covid-19 test in the days before the Weekend, and will not be asked to show any certification at the CovidCheck points that our events will be operating. They must however still visit the CovidCheck point on arriving at the event and be issued with a wristband, and wear the wristband afterwards.

Startlists for Saturday and Sunday are published.

Bulletin 2 featuring final details including the venues, distances and important information on the Covid protocol was published. The start lists will be published in the middle of the week.

The Luxembourg Government has this week voted to prolong the legislation and regulations regarding COVID sanitary measures, which will now apply until at least 18 October 2021.

Please therefore note that we are continuing to have to impose important restrictions on who may participate at our 2021 Weekend. In order to avoid difficulties at the event venues, we are therefore confirming that the position is as follows.

In accordance with procedures agreed with the Luxembourg Ministry of Health in order to allow the event to take place, to be permitted either to run at the event and/or to be permitted to enter either of the event centres, a valid EU COVID Certificate (in Luxembourg known as "CovidCheck certificate") with a QR code will be required, on paper or in digital form. The only certificates that can be accepted without a QR code are those issued in Luxembourg by persons authorised to do so (e.g. a school or local authority; usually restricted to Luxembourg residents). All participants need to be either fully vaccinated, recovered or negatively tested. This applies to all participants 6 years and older.

The organisers will not be able to provide rapid antigenic tests.

Please note the Luxembourg rules for the CovidCheck certificate as published here: https://covid19.public.lu/en/covidcheck/certificate.html  

More generally, please note the Covid-19 related measures currently in force in Luxembourg published here: https://covid19.public.lu/en/sanitary-measures.html

We ask for your understanding, and apologise if these restrictions mean that you have to decide that you cannot join us for the 2021 Forest and City Weekend.

By popular demand for those of you who do not fell competitive or would prefer an easier course, we added Open Short, Open Medium, and Open Longer courses. They are now available in both reservation systems today.

The estimated times are published in Bulletin 1.

If you already registered, if needed you may edit the registration. Feel free to contact us if needed.

Club activities resumed after the summer break with two races in the bushes of Camp Lagland, a military base south-west of Arlon, last weekend. On Saturday, Jáchym Kotecký, an H-10, won the 2021 club champs just ahead of his sister Marjánka (D-12) and younger brother Jonas, for whom a category is yet to be invented. The adults all ran the „Noir court“ course (3.5 K) of a „régionale“ organized by CO Liège in a forest entirely overgrown with prehistoric looking fern; the kids’ course („Vert“ – 2.9 K) was a bit more welcoming, with parts leading through a lovely heath in full bloom. There were many knolls, larger depressions and pits in the forest (alas, not all of them on the map, or at least not in the right place), and finding them sometimes resembled a blind man´s holiday – try looking for a tiny pit in a fern bush. Ondra dominated the men´s category and Míša won among the women, but at the end of the day it was the kids who got took the laurels, all thanks to David´s elaborate handicap system where, if you´re small and fast, you have a big chance of winning.

On Sunday, two LuxOC teams contested the Belgian Relay Championship in a different part of the forest at Camp Lagland. Twelve years ago, the precursor of Luxembourg Orienteering participated in the BCR in this very area for the first time (see fresh-faced Ondra, Míša, Orsi, Gabi and Ondra’s dad in the picture; Marjánka had just been born). Today, LuxOC is well-known on the Belgian orienteering scene and participation in the BCR has become a tradition. The weather was gorgeous, the CC as welcoming as can be (thanks CO Liege!) and the forest very technical and demanding. Lose concertation for a second, and you lose the race. LuxOC1 – Míša, Sasha, Marjánka, David, Jáchym and Ondra, broke into the Top 10 after very strong performances of the kids on the 3K legs, while LuxOC2 – Jonas, Jevgenijs, Maggie, Jan, Elisabet and Balazs - finished 17th among 37 relays. After 6 legs and 29K, the two teams were separated by just 30 minutes.

It felt great to be out again with the club; hopefully the sanitary situation will remain stable throughout the school year so we can tackle the upcoming exciting challenges: Luxembourg Forest and City Weekend on 23-24 October, our foreseen participation in the Interland next April and, finally, Jukola in June.

Jan

Attached are the final results from the Club Championships at Lagland on Saturday 11 September. The handicap system uses the relative speeds of runners compared to H21s - for example an H65 is 0.64 times as fast. The source for the data for the relative speeds is in an appendix to the published rules for the sport in Britain - it is not just a set of figures made up by the handicapper, David!

• 210913_luxoc_champs_handicap_final.xlsx

Intending participants who have already entered using the OrienteeringOnline channel may find that their bank transfer, to pay their entry fees for either or both days’ competitions, has been rejected.

We are very sorry that this problem has arisen. Luxembourg OC changed its bank earlier this year, and the details of our old bank account were shown in error in the OrienteeringOnline system.

This has now been resolved - the correct banking details are now shown in the OrienteeringOnline system, and in Bulletin 1. Please make your payment to this account.

Please contact weekend2021@orienteering.lu if you need any further help.

With apologies,

Luxembourg OC

The pandemic situation being stable in the Grand Duchy, we confirm that the registrations opened on September 1 as expected. The information bulletin was published.

I am inviting you to a classic orienteering training on the map Tony Neuman on Limpertsberg. You have the choice between 5 different races: short and easy races stay inside of the Park, longer and more challenging races are including the steep slope down to the Rollingergrund. You can run as a family or alone. Beginners welcome!

More details and how to enroll here.

No orienteering and on the verge of a partial lockdown is not exactly encouraging. However, there is some good news. This evening our club and orienteering in general was in focus in RTL's radio programme Sprint. Our member Andrew Edmondston did a great job talking to RTL's Jana Peters.

So why not light up your evening with five minutes about Luxembourg Orienteering Club in luxembourgish! Here is the link: https://www.rtl.lu/radio/sprint/s/3330999.html And here the audio:

And let’s spread the word a bit and let the locals know about orienteering! Please paste the link on your social media pages etc.

Following a long spell of forced inactivity, a first open training was held on Sunday. After a few weeks of rain, the weather cleared up suitably for the weekend to allow the 29 participants to enjoy a part of Bambësh, never mapped before. While the paths are well know for most leisure runners, the forest between can be full of surprises. 

The map has been procured during Summer and after our collected comments, surely a lot from today's participants, it will be put in its final form. Only a part of the mapped area was visited today, and we will return with more trainings in the Spring, and more surprises, next year.

Léif Orientéierungs Leefer,

When the last LuxOC newsletter went out a year ago, little did we know what´s in store for our club – and humanity. The plan was to stick to a quarterly rhythm of newsletters and report on club life and races past and future. Then corona struck.

I vividly remember bading farewell to the last of about a dozen or so diners gathered around our dinner table after the final race of the LUX NUL winter series on 4 March and being blissfully unaware of the severity of the situation. Then came a lovely season opener near Thionville on 8 March, still more or less normal (although one could already see things were amiss, what with the habitual „trois bisous“ frowned upon) and then – lockdown.

More in the Newsletter 14

PS: do not miss the training on the new map in Bambësch on Sunday 11th.

Do you know where in the City to look for the control point on the image below?

Well, no matter what you answer, this lockdown challenge (1745-1930) is for you. Take a pair of shoes for hard surfaces, forget about the compass but print a map (below), do take a phone with UsynligO installed (charged, power saving disabled, location service on and permission to the app given). Reception of the GPS signal is generally of a lower quality in valleys and cities. To make the app tolerate it better, set a higher "control radius" in the app in the course settings. And don't use the "where am I" spoiler button in the app!

You may want to check the map on a screen already at home before heading to the start -- thanks to its legibility, compared with a print, gives more details. If you moved to Luxembourg recently, the cheat map might come in handy.

• longer map-app 1-page-A3 pdf
• longer map-print 2-pages-A4 pdf
• longer_descriptions.pdf
• longer_descriptions_text.pdf
• cheat_map.pdf

With the beginning deconfinement and borders opening, the neighboring countries publish plans for allowed club trainings. No official timed competitions are allowed in France, Belgium and Germany for the time being. The situation is described in the following documents:

• France (club trainings and semi-permanent or permanent circuits; document valid until June 2),
• Belgium (FRSO & VO; document valid until ~ June 8),
• Germany: only scattered information suggesting that competitions will be held again in July.

Beyond spring 2020?

In France all major competitions are cancelled until the end of summer. Championships that were supposed to be held during spring are reschedulled to 2021. When it comes to local competitions, there are no official news. OOcup organizers still hope to hold the 5 days in August.

In Belgium, a calendar speculates about competitions withou timing to be allowed from July 1st on, and regular competitions from August 1st on.

Summer 2020 (update 2020-06-17)

In Belgium as of July 1st the races are reopened for up to 200 competitors.

France is waiting for the written confirmation of races and trainings open to everybody. In France, the races are organized again, under these conditions. OOcup, one of the bigger events this summer, will be held in August (ipo July).

In Germany regional-level events are held again, the situation is different in each land.

The FLA - the organisers of the JP Morgan City Jogging event planned to take palce at d'Coque on Sunday 5 July - have today announced that, regrettably but in line with Government Covid-19 measures, this event is CANCELLED. This means that there will be no "come and try orienteering" on offer that day.

Luxembourg Orienteering Club hopes to support the 2021 JP Morgan City Jogging event, on 4 July 2021, again by offering orienteering courses, and guidance for anyone new to orienteering.

More information nearer the time!

Luxembourg Orienteering Club is delighted to be associated with the 2020 JP Morgan City Jogging, being organised by the FLA in Luxembourg Ville and Kirchberg, on Sunday 5 July 2020.

There will be a course of about 3km for adults, crossing parkland and the Kirchberg arboretum. And also, two very simple and easy courses of about 1km for kids, to try either alone or with Mum or Dad “shadowing”. 

The meeting point for the orienteering will be beside the lake outside d’Coque, adjacent to the start for the main City Jogging. And the orienteering courses will all share the finish with the Joggers. You can orienteer before, or after, the City Jogging – or instead!

Members of Luxembourg Orienteering Club will be on site throughout the event, to offer help, advice and explanations. No compass or special equipment is needed – the orienteering will be satisfying but easy.

For further information, and how to sign up before the day, please visit the City Jogging website run by the FLA.

Luxembourg Orienteering Club welcomes everyone!

To confirm that LuxNUL 6, scheduled for Wednesday 25 March, will not now take place, and is cancelled.

This means that the results of the five runs to date are now the final results. Well done to the league winners, Sasha and Elisabet, who had each already won three runs and were thus unbeatable anyway! Attached below are what are now the final standings.

LuxNUL hopes to be back next winter - thanks to all who supported this year's runs, especially those of you who travelled from outside Luxembourg to take part.

David

LuxNUL Planner and Organiser

• 200304_luxnul_results_cumulative.pdf

Dear club members,

As you are all aware, the Corona-virus disease has been decleared pandemia and is affecting an increasing number of people around us. It is also affecting organisers and practitioners of orienteering. Effectively, all events around us have been cancelled for the near future. This goes for events in all our neighbouring countries.

Even if the Luxembourg limit for events currently is way above what we even dream off attracting to an orienteering event, we will lie low and are not planning anything for the Spring season. It is still recommended to be physically active and to exercise outdoors. We just need to minimise physical and social interaction. 

However, we are about to contract a professional mapper for Bambesch. Given the overall situation, there is no timeline yet, but at least something to look forward to! 

In the meantime, I wish the best of health and happiness through these strange times for all of you and your close ones!

Best Regards,

Jonas

The fifth event in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League (“LuxNUL”) series, in Belair and Merl, saw some fast running, on a flatter and technically easier area than some of the earlier LuxNULs. The most interesting part of the course was in Merl Park, at the beginning of the courses in order to beat the 20.00 locking of the park gates. And the only real hill came at the end, climbing up from the “LuxLait” new development (Luxembourg’s answer to Dubai, as one runner described it). 

The weather was dry (there was luck here – it came on to rain hard while the controls were being collected in), and not too cold. But the recent weeks of rain meant that a few runners got unusually muddy feet in Merl Park, which had become notably swampy in places.

On the long (“Deer”) course, Sasha Rybakov made it four wins out of four starts, easing round the 5.1km course in under the half hour mark. An impressive victory. Jonas Wolff again came in second, running as hard as he could but still six minutes down on Sasha, having faded on the climb to the last control. Roland Ludwig was third, narrowly ahead of a pack (of two). Staffan Vowles, Chris Scott, Ondra Kotecky and Rob Hembrow were all absent, so the field was rather thinner than the planner had hoped. This also meant that the overall standings are little changed since LuxNul 4. 

The leading three on the medium (“Rabbit”) course were again close together, with Elisabet Wirtz taking her third win in the series, and thus confirming her position as the overall LuxNUL winner on the Rabbit course. This time Elisabet was some two minutes ahead of Elvire Pierlot in second, with Maggie Roach coming third, a mere seven seconds further back. It was also good to see Shane Enright in action, returning gently from a back injury. Shane won the evening’s “best dressed” competitor award with some ease, turning out in a jacket with an impressive acreage of reflective patches, and positively glowing in the dark. 

As usual, the full results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the Helga website – see https://helga-o.com/webres/?lauf=3172

Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached. Remember – the best three results are counting, out of the series of six runs.

Thanks to Jan Sliva and his family for hosting us, and not just for letting us use their maze of cellars, but inviting us all upstairs for some very relaxing and congenial food and drink afterwards. Thanks too to Maggie Roach, for collecting the controls in the park, and then doing most of the footwork as the planner drove a lap of the area, sometimes thwarted by the many one-way streets, to collect the rest of the controls.

Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming all members and friends to the final LuxNUL, run number 6, on Wednesday 25 March, probably starting from Clausen. (This is however still “to be confirmed” – the planner is waiting for a non-rainy day before checking out the bar and the area!) Usual start times, although by then the days should have grown long enough to make a torch unnecessary. And this time, plenty of hills to run up! Final details on this website, a little nearer the date.

• 200304_luxnul_results_cumulative.pdf

The next LuxNUL (Luxembourg Night Urban League) informal event of 2020 is planned for Wednesday 4 March. Everyone is welcome to come and run in the streets of posh Belair. As with the other LuxNUL runs to date, the emphasis is on route choice and careful map reading.

The first few controls should be in Merl Park. The park closes at 20.00, so last start time will be no later than 19.30.

Check this site after 21.00 the day before the run, if it looks as if snow or ice may cause the event to be postponed.

Full details here.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

That’s said to be the motto of the US Postal Service, but it’s also true of the dozen Luxembourg OC members and friends who turned out to run the fourth event in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League (“LuxNUL”) series, in Bonnevoie. The weather wasn’t quite as the planner had expected – cool and cloudy was the forecast, and this was the basis for the decision to go ahead and not postpone the event. So the sleet white-out that blew in just as the planner set out to hang the controls was an unwelcome surprise. And – although the skies then cleared – the icy ground and patches of freezing fog that greeted runners after the first couple of controls made for tough conditions. 

On the long (“Deer”) course, last starter Sasha Rybakov made it three wins out of three starts, easing round the 5.1km course in under 37 minutes. But not too far behind was Club president Jonas Wolff, with his best run in the series to date, making some shrewd route choices along the way. And, with Ondra Kotecky out of action, third place went to Club secretary Staffan Vowles – the only runner to have completed all four LuxNUL runs so far. And while Sasha can now already be sure of the overall LuxNUL Deer course title, with his three wins putting him in an unassailable lead, Staffan moved up to fourth LuxNUL place overall, having dropped the slow time he put in at Limpertsberg. 

The leading three on the medium (“Rabbit”) course were also close together, with Elisabet Wirtz taking her second win in the series, just ahead of Renelde Pierlot, who was making her first appearance as a LuxNUL runner, but running and navigating very steadily. Maggie Roach was two and a half minutes down in third, but Maggie, a D60, has the overall lead at the moment as she has run the most times in the series. 

The courses both involved a big route-choice leg early on – with the options including a drop down to the bridge towards Hamm over the Alzette and then a brutal ascent up a long flight of steep stairs, or a rather longer no-climbing run towards the centre of Bonnevoie and back out. The Deer course had an extra twist at the start of the leg – climbing up through the dark forest, or an easy flat run along the bank of the Alzette but with an extra 250 metres of distance. By accounts, most people braved the woods and the steps. Which way would you have chosen? A copy of the Deer course is attached.

The last control rather emphasised the “urban” character of the LuxNUL series, hung right outside the main entrance to the busy Cactus supermarket. But the beggar sitting under the flag only arrived during the event – the planner apologises for this extra local colour.

As usual, the full results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the Helga website – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=3153 Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached. Remember – the best three results will count, out of the series of six runs.

Thanks to Balazs Duhy for hosting us, in the garage behind his apartment. The Club banner, draped over the entrance alley, came in handy as an aid to finding the venue. It wasn’t the most luxurious event base there’s ever been – when the planner asked what facilities there were, he was told that it “had an electric light”. But the location was ideal, and LuxOC is not ungrateful!

And thanks also to Maggie Roach, for co-piloting the planner as he drove round the streets after the event to collect all the controls. The car navigating challenges, and roads that by then were like a skating rink, made the task feel a bit like one of the icier stages of the Monte Carlo rally! 

Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming all members and friends to LuxNUL 5, on Wednesday 4 March, in Belair. Some super jugendstil and bauhaus architecture to admire, and hopefully the weather will be kinder and will encourage a few more runners to take part. Further details – see the next news item on this webpage.  

• 200212_v4a-deer.pdf
• 200212_luxnul_cumulative_results.pdf

Simply to confirm that the run is ON. This is despite only rather few sign ups.

The weather looks as if it will be better and calmer than the last few days, although there will still be some wind, and maybe a few sleet showers.

So dress warmly!

There are a couple of interesting route choices awaiting you.

A demain

David

The next LuxNUL (Luxembourg Night Urban League) informal event of 2020 is planned for Wednesday 12 February. Everyone is welcome to come and run in the streets of Bonnevoie, Luxembourg's nner-city cosmopolitan working-class suburb. As with the other LuxNUL runs to date, the emphasis is on route choice and careful map reading.

Snow or ice seem unlikely to force postponement, but check this site after 21.00 the day before the run if the weather does turn worse.

Full details here.

Who knew?! Helmsange turned out to be a great area for night urban orienteering. On Wednesday 29 January, Helmsange and Walferdange hosted the third run in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League (“LuxNUL”) series. Luxembourg OC were also once again blessed by the weather gods, with earlier sleet showers petering out just as the planner put out the last couple of controls. 

With a lower turnout than in Limpertsberg (only 15 starters – illness and injuries seem to be proliferating), Sasha Rybakov again took the honours on the long (“Deer”) course. This time, with no home advantage. That instead went to Ondra Kotecky – who said that the best route to the first control (which he didn’t take) was “probably through his garden and house”. 

Ondra did manage second place, only two minutes and one second behind Sasha. Indeed, he claims a moral victory – sadly, he was the main victim of the theft of control 12, which he got to before the replacement flag could be put out. He later provided a very impressive GPS trace of this part of his run, which showed him making a futile search of several nearby trash bins! He also reckoned that this all took him exactly two minutes and three seconds. 

So, there’s all to play for between Sasha and Ondra in Bonnevoie on 12 February. 

On the medium (“Rabbit”) course, newcomer Caroline Germeaux was home more than seven minutes ahead of Maggie Roach, closely followed by young Elvire Pierlot, visiting from CO Liege. An impressive result for Caroline, who has only just joined the Club, and was having her first competitive run.  

As usual, the full results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the Helga website – see https://helga-o.com/webres/?lauf=3137

Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached. The outcome is beginning to look clearer now that some people have their three scoring runs, and can begin to drop their least good runs. Remember – the best three results will count, out of the series of six runs.

A copy of the Deer course is also attached – if you weren’t running, which was the best route? The planner thought that using the subway at Walferdange station was the best way to the second control (it was the shortest alternative by about 40 metres), but most runners seemed to prefer a less technical route heading out into the fields further north. To make it fairer, the planner had announced in advance that times would be adjusted downwards for anyone who (honestly and accurately!) timed how long they had to wait at any of the level crossings on the infamously busy railway line. Michael Hock ended up with the longest “rest”, of just on two minutes.

Thanks – firstly and mainly to recently re-elected Club President Jonas, for hosting us in his garage and opening his beer fridge, handily located five metres from the finish line, to us all. And also to Staffan, Jonas, and Rob for collecting in controls. (Apologies to Damien and Judith, because the collectors got to the last couple of controls before you did!)

And lastly to André Pierlot, for spotting that control 12 on the “Deer” course had been removed during the 90 minutes or so after the planner had put it out. But, no thanks at all to the thief of rue Pierre Conrardy, who now presumably is the proud possessor of an ageing 15cm O-flag plus one of the Club’s newer pin punches. Why do people do this? It seems to happen in Luxembourg much more often than in other countries. Don’t they realise that it is, purely and simply, theft?

Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming all members and friends to LuxNUL 4, on Wednesday 12 February, in Bonnevoie. Further details on this website a few days before the run.

• 200125_v3-deer.pdf
• 200129_luxnul_cumulative_results_v2.pdf

The next LuxNUL (Luxembourg Night Urban League) informal event of 2020 is still planned for next Wednesday, 29 January. Everyone is welcome to come and run in the streets of Helmsange and Walferdange.

Snow or ice seem unlikely to force postponement, but check this site next Tuesday after 21.00 if the weather does turn worse.

Full details are attached. Do please note the special rule, needed to keep the results fair if the railway level crossing gates are closed! 

• 200129_helmsange_final_details.pdf

On Wednesday 15 January, Limpertsberg saw the second run in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League (“LuxNUL”) take place. Just like in Sandweiler last month, the only people to get wet were the planner putting out the controls, and the control collectors after the event.

Despite a few regular contenders being absent – business trips, new babies, illnesses, it happens… there was a good turnout, 24 in total.  It was particularly good to welcome five SudOLuxiens, our guests from Arlon and beyond. 

Sasha Rybakov took the honours on the long (“Deer”) course. Some might say Sasha had a home advantage – and yes, it is true that the course did start and finish at the front door of his very own flat. But, to be fair, Sasha has only very recently moved to Limpertsberg. It was a close result, too, with Ondra Kotecky only five seconds behind, despite trying to cross Parc Tony Neumann in the dark with the gates shut. Not the “approved route”, Ondra. (The planner apologises for having marked the out of bounds area not quite as extensively on the map as it was on the ground – sorry if one or two people were misled because it looked as if there was a way round the Parc, there really wasn’t!)

On the medium (“Rabbit”) course, Elisabet Wirtz won by three minutes. Again, home advantage may have contributed – Elisabet lives two blocks away from Sasha, and had very kindly offered to host a control in her front garden. (The planner, whilst grateful, opted not to!) Second place went to Maggie Roach – here it can be confirmed that being the planner’s wife conferred NO advantage at all!

As usual, the full results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the Helga website – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=3115

Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached. The outcome will become clearer once people have three or more runs, and begin to drop their least good runs. Remember – the best three results will count, out of the series of six runs.

The planner was delighted to see so many people talking after the event with maps in their hands, comparing route choices. Views seemed to differ on which was the optimum route on several legs, especially those with hills, so it looks as if the route choices the planner was offering were well balanced. The consensus seemed to be that Limpertsberg had made a much better area for urban orienteering than anyone had expected, and that the University of Luxembourg campus in particular was tip-top terrain. 

People seemed to manage with a map without contours – this time, it hadn’t been possible for the LuxOC mapping guru to work the magic of adding brown lines to the base OpenOMap. The planner just had to add lots of spot heights instead, to keep things fair. It seemed to work.

Thanks – firstly and mainly to Sasha, for not just hosting the run, but also for collecting some of the controls – the planner really appreciated not having to do the whole 5km circuit twice. Thanks also to the school caretaker at control 85, for forgetting to lock his gates – the planner only found out after the run had started that these gates are officially locked at 20.00. And thanks too to the good citizens of Limpertsberg for not removing any of the controls. Especially to the deaf old lady who (after a long and difficult conversation, speaking none of the same languages as the planner) eventually agreed that the planner could tie a control to “her” lamppost, outside her front window.

LOST PROPERTY – a nice pair of green Innov8s were left in Sasha’s front hall. Email the “info” club email address if you want them back – or collect them at the AGM on Wednesday 22 January. Also, we also still have no taker for the nice blue gloves left in the garden at LuxNUL 1 in Sandweiler last month.

Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming all members and friends to LuxNUL 3, on Wednesday 29 January, in Helmsange and Walferdange. Further details on this website a few days before the run, but the start and finish will be in the Club President’s garage. Venez nombreux!

• 200115_luxnul_cumulative_results.pdf
• limpertsberg_v2-deer.pdf

The first LuxNUL (Luxembourg Night Urban League) event of 2020 should take place next Wednesday, 15 January, as planned. Snow or ice seem unlikely to force potponement, but check this site next Tuesday after 21.00 if the weather does turn worse.

Full details are on the event page.

The first run in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League ("LuxNUL") took place on the streets and paths of Sandweiler on Wednesday 11 December. The rain stopped just before the first starters set off, and runners were set some interesting route choice challenges.  

The winner on the long ("Deer") course was Chris Scott, putting in a fast performance after some time out with injuries. He was 2 1/2 minutes clear of Jonas Wollf and Ondra Kotecky - both of whom will remember to bring headlamps to the next LuxNUL! Honours were even between Staffan Vowles and Michael Hock, and Rob Hembrow was only one second ahead of Brigi Gersey - bet Rob will be putting in some training before the next run!

Winner of the middle distance ("Rabbit") course was young Elvire Pierlot. She and her family were welcome visitors from the Belgian club CO Liege.

Youngest participant was Lola, Orsi Luckoczky's recently arrived daughter, taking part in the D0 age category, for which the use of a stroller and a mother to push are fully permitted.

The results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the HELGA website - see here.

Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached.

LOST PROPERTY - a nice pair of blue woollen gloves was found outside the venue. Please contact David Roach either directly, or via the "info" club email address, to arrange safe return.

Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming members and friends to the next LuxNUL run, on Wednesday 15 January 2020, in Limpertsberg. Further details on this website nearer the time.

David Roach

LuxNUL Co-ordinator and Organiser

• final-deer.pdf
• 191211_luxnul_cumulative_results.pdf

This winter, Luxembourg OC is organising a series of low-key night urban orienteering courses. And to make it more entertaining (and to encourage you to turn out even if it’s cold and raining!), times will be kept and noted, and at the end of the series, we will have LuxNUL league winners.

Each run will happen on a Wednesday evening – starts from 18.45 to about 19.30. ALL are welcome – especially orienteers visiting Luxembourg from foreign parts (please write to info@orienteering.lu, if you would like any more information).

No entry fee - just turn up and run. Join our Club for the year, if you want to contribute!

Dates and meeting points are as follows

• Wed 11 December: Sandweiler, 55 am Steffesgaart
• Wed 15 January: Limpertsberg, 108 avenue Victor Hugo
• Wed 29 January: Helmsange, 37 Cité John F. Kennedy
• Wed 12 February: Bonnevoie, meeting point to be confirmed
• Wed 4 March: Belair, 9 rue Walram
• Mon 23 March or Wed 25 March: Ville / Grund meeting, point to be confirmed

If it looks as if there will be lying snow, verglas, or any other weather that might make it unsafe, the run will be postponed by one week. Postponement will be announced here as a news item on this website, before 23.00 on the night before.

There will be two courses – a longer one of 5 to 6 km, and a shorter one of around 3 km. Neither will be suitable for children unless accompanied by an adult. Controls will be 15cm flags, with pin punches (very 20th century retro!). Most of the courses will be on lit streets or paths, but a torch or headlamp might still help.

The maps will be 1:7,500, each based on publicly available data, rather than specially surveyed - so please don’t expect mapping perfection! But there will be 5 metre contours. Maps will be printed on waterproof paper, with the “control card” for punching on the reverse.

Safety – everyone takes part entirely at their own risk. Please wear high visibility clothing. Take especial care crossing all roads (some courses will cross busy roads), and use the pavements whenever possible.

How will the LuxNUL league work? Very simply. Best three runs from as many as you are able to take part in. Times behind the winner will be aggregated. Results - of each race, and cumulative standings – will be published on this website the day after each run

Welcome to LuxNUL!

The clubs Annual General Meeting will be held at the club seat at 55 am Steffesgaart, Sandweiler, on Wednesday 22 January 2020. More information will follow in due course.

Dear everyone - especially those of you that braved the autumn monsoon season and ran at Trier today!

A big thank you to Sven, Birger, Lisa and others in Trimmelter SV and Gymnasion Offenbach for hosting us at their double sprint event. The university campus gave some good technical sprint orienteering, and the courses were well planned, to make the most of the area. A great day out, even if a bit wet. And a big congratulation tothose of you that braved the autumn monsoon season and ran at Trier today!

Please find below as well  the “clean scratch results" as - having applied Ondra’s mystical Speed Ratios -  the “ final handicap” results. And the referee’s decision is final, I am afraid!

Congratulations to our worthy winner Gabi - who just beat the Mens’ Champion this year, Sasha. And many condolences to our speedy D60, Maggie, who would have clinched the Handicap honours if she’d checked the code at number 12 on the first race!

• 191020_luxoc_champs_handicap.pdf
• 191020_lux_champs_results.pdf

We are really proud of those tough runners and adventurous families that came yesterday — the worst day of the autumn so far in terms of weather. The forest was misty and wet, at places even a bit scary for the smallest ones, but still beautiful. And the numbers: 30 people all in all, out of which 6 individual runners and 6 families (with 9 adults and 15 kids). Thank you for coming!

Hmm, where is the forest? It should be somewhere in the background!

The first World Championships in orienteering were held in 1966 in Fiskars, a small village in the south of Finland best known for scissors, knives and garden tools. A lot can and probably should be told of the organisation that went into that event, e.g. that the venue was kept secrret until the morning of the race and the runners were driven by bus 100 km from downtown Helsinki directly to the start. 

But leaving that aside, below you can find the competiton map, a 1:25,000 enhanced standard topographic map from the time, with the forses for both men and women. The men's 14.1 km was won by Åge Hadler in 1:36:05 and the womens's 6.6 km by Ulla Lindkvist in 52:45. Results

This past weekend, the Finnish long distance champs were held in the same village and the same forest. Two participants from 1966 returned, Juhani Salmenkylä (born 1932) and Anja Meldo (born 1945).

The organisers chose not to do a rerun of the of the old courses. While the forest as such probably hasn't changed that much, there are some new logging roads and a transmission line that make the old courses significantly easiers in terms of navigation. But also the change in mapping standard and other expectations required a change in approach. Over courses with sgnificantly more control points, Miika Kirmula won the men's 15.8 km with 1:26:19 and Merja Rantanen the women's 11.2 km with 1:14:09. That especially the women are faster today is illustrated by the winning time in the over 45 class with 50:10 over 6.8. km. Obviously navigation is also easier with a modern map.

Here you can see for yourselves, what the new map looks like and compare your percieved navigational abilities.

M21 GPS-tracking

W21 GPS-tracking

Routegadet other classes

Routegadget qualification races (different part of the forest with finish line almost the same as in 1966)

Results

LuxOC fielded two teams in the Belgian Club Relay championships last weekend, and came within seconds of notching a Top 10 result. LuxOC 1 (Jonas, Ondra, Staffan, Jan, Marjanka and Misa) finished 11^th out of 42 teams, six seconds behind the 10^th spot and a mere 45 seconds shy of the 8^th place. LuxOC 2 (Gabi, Sasha, Elisabet, Inga, Brigitta, Chris) came in 21^st despite a mishap on the first leg where a dubiously placed control cost many teams lots of time.

The race took place near Vielsalm in eastern Belgium, as close as to our borders as it gets, in perfect weather in a forest that was last used for a competition many years ago. The updated map featured every shade of green, with thickets galore and barely discernible vegetation boundaries. The terrain was difficult physically; part of the forest was covered in branches, while the northwestern part of the map featured a large depression overgrown by an impermeable thicket.

The star of the day was 10-year-old Marjánka Kotecká, the youngest of all 252 competitors, who covered an adult leg of 3,3K in 44 minutes and had the second fastest finish of all runners on her leg, covering the distance between the last control and the finish line in the same time as her dad!  The day was wrapped up with a lovely barbecue courtesy of the Kotecký family. LuxOC members will now soon disperse into their respective summer destinations, with lots of orienteering planned in various countries. A good holiday to all!

Results

• Club champs
• Couse du jour

A footnote on after the race

The archives reveal that on 19 January 2009, on the day of a regional event at the map Hinter den Sandgruben, Orsi, Chris and Ondra (Marjánka was about -3 months at that time) undertook an expedition to the Kneiff mountain, believed today to be the higest point of the country. (It must be very tall – you remark that the expedition members stand above the trees!)

As since hundred years extensive efforts are carried out by the Administration du cadastre et de la topographie make the location and the height of the highest point change every few years, Jáchym, Marjánka, Jonáš and Ondra undertook a proactive expedition to the Buurgplaatz after the race. In fact, there is a reason to belive that it is precisely this place that will hold the title once again, as soon as the new lidar data is released later in fall.

Below is a panel installed in front of the water tower at Buurgplaatz before the 1997 change, claiming for it the title.

This year Jukola has attracted almost 20 000 runners among them a team from Luxembourg. After finishing on 1190th position in 2015, year we finished 599th last year and gained a starting position closer to the starting line here in Kangasala, so needed given the arrangement of the start corridor this year. We plan to run in the following order:

599 Luxembourg Orienteering Club

Follow the competion live

Those not travelling can follow the endeavours of the team through the organiser's websites: https://live.jukola.com/ for live feed and http://online.jukola.com/tulokset/en/ for online results

In addition, the public broadcaster YLE is sending live from the competition in  Finnish https://areena.yle.fi/tv and Swedish https://arenan.yle.fi/tv. These are restricted to a Finnish IP-adress, so this is for the as well IT-savy as polyglot!

And few quotes about the terrain by the course setter:

There are very few marshes or ditches.

The area is woodland with barely any man-made paths. The paths will be created during the competition by the feet of the previous runners.

One should ignore small-scale deviations (in this case meaning stones and smaller boulders) and concentrate on larger and more obvious landforms.

The map this year...

The connaisseurs say that the mapmaker has the habit to make very generalized maps and the snippets show they're right. We trained in a terrain where the map was not dissimilar from the above and a generalization will make the map readable.

... and the terrain should look something like this

or this: https://www.mapant.fi/?lat=61.4323561&lng=24.2094819

Honza, which one is ours?

The weather is announced to become fair when Olena starts her Venla leg wearing OK Orion's colours. Jevgenijs will have the sun setting in his back.

Meanwhile in Tampere

And meanwhile in Karis

Arrival

The "balisage" started 75 kilometers from the event center.

The starting block is quite unusual this year: the runners will be aligned in rows by 10, in blocks by 100, on a road. The pack of first leggers will be 450 meters long! Jonas on Jevgenijs' position 599, some 10 hours before the sharp start.

This is how it looked like when the same number of women started this afternoon: https://twitter.com/worldofo/status/1139853054436675584?s=09

2 hours 45 minutes and many mistakes later for certain favourites, Fredrikstad SK celebrated the victory.

Our team is complete, Sasha and Olena went to get some sleep. The organizers are praising small countries that aligned their teams. Jevgenijs is gone to the warm-up area from which there is no way back.

The relay is started. But please, don't think of start as an instant, rather as a moment with a certain duration - it takes two and half minutes before the back works it through to the starting line!

Can you spot Jevgenijs?!

Good morning Kangasala!

It's quarter to five, Sun rose an hour ago, Jevgenijs and Jonas delivered, Ondra is muddy and bloody, David is out and Honza impatient, the Sild brothers fly and after nearly six hours of race Andreas Kyburz running for IL Tyrving is in the lead with mere 5 seconds ahead of the second.

And came back happy after stripping some 57 places!

Olena and Sasha run an excellent race both. Olena, get well soon !

We did not win this year (remark the four Svensk brothers in the winning team of Stora Tuna)

but finished 24 places better than last year despite the physically  very demanding terrain full of bull-head sized rocks and branches on the ground that only nordic runners fly across without noticing.

And the GPS tracking if top teams is available here.

See you next week in Vielsalm!

I gave a short introduction to orienteering to the Telstar Scout troop in Parc-Klose-Groendchen (Kirchberg) on Thursday 23 May. Our daughter is part of the troop.

The scouts were aged between six and eight, and I showed them how to use a compasss, what a feature was, and what to look out for on a map.

I set a five-control course of just over 1km. The Scouts have four groups (or 'lodges') so I set a different route for each of them. They all arrived back within a few minutes of each other.

Afterwards I told them all about our club, and for any of them who are interested to ask their parents to come to one of our events. It was popular with the leaders and I've been asked to do it again next year.

For information I got permission from the Fonds Kirchberg, who also asked me to get permission from Administration de la Nature et des Forêts as well. They both responded within a day to the request.

On Sunday, 19 May, Elisabet organized a training exercise for LuxOC in the Bambesch. Surprisingly, it turned out that our old map still offers possibilities for challenging orienteering routes, especially the eastern part with its ups and downs and runnable, hidden forest parts. Eighteen runners or teams had a choice between 5 different routes. This time the event attracted not just the habitual families with kids but also adults including a couple of orienteers from Hungary and Spain, respectively, who had just moved to Luxembourg and are now looking forward to becoming members. Also, much to our delight, two former club members showed up as they were spending their holiday in Luxemburg: Annemarie and Ritva from Finland.

Here are the results:

Course A:
Miki 12'
Vitek & Thomas 22'
Ciolabaya Volna 34'
Enright 41'

Course B:
Ciolabaya Volna 49'
Jamaan & Saan 62'

Course C:
Miki 21'
Matthias 34'
Vitek & Thomas DNF

Course D:
Agne 27'
Ludger 34'
Jakob 37'

Course E:
Sascha 25' (including time spent collecting some flags J)
Inga 34'
Brigitta 38'
Ritva 39'
Robert 40'
Bence 42'
Mark 69'
Paul (CNF because of missing flags that Sasha had collected ....)

LuxOC's annual World Orienteering Week event was held on Thursday 16 May.

Records were broken! We had more participants this year than ever before, and were delighted to welcome several non-members, both "first-timers" and orienteers who "just happened to be in Luxembourg". It was great to see Ritva, one of our founding members, passing back through Luxembourg. And we think we broke a WORLD record, by having 15 different nationalities participating!

Here are the final results - thanks to Michael Hock of Helga for making them look pretty.  http://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=2789

Big thanks to all involved - mostly to Orsi, for letting us turn her front garden into the pre-start area, and for generously hosting our post-event social with much food and drink.

Also to Julien, for much digital magic in adding contours and a "zoom" of the Coque Maze to our map, and teaching planner David how to use PurplePen, the cool app that draws courses on the map. The contours were rather important, as they shaped several of the route choices, especially the 1.4km long leg (6 to 7) on the Deer course. Planner David was delighted that the top three runners each seemed to have taken a different route - but he apologises profusely for not spotting that builders had blocked a path just near the European School, which slightly spoilt the route that he thought was the best one. Which way would you go?

And lastly to Jurgen and Jana for helping to collect the controls afterwards - bikes are so much quicker. 

We'll definitely be having more evening urban events of this type - next one probably in the autumn.

David - Planner and Organiser

We lost count of how many people turned up in the Kirchberg Arboretum on the last, sunny day of March, but we are certain that there were more than 80 participants all in all, out of which at least 50 children. We even managed to convince a passer-by dog walker to try out a course! We can safely say that orienteering is getting popular in Luxembourg, even if most kids were just walking, getting to know the map.

Watch out for the next event on 27th April!

One of our youngest and most enthusiastic participants

You got used to the Forum of our website, it's mainly used through the event and news pages. With the new season behind the door, we have a new section to offer for sale or give away orienteering gear: Classifieds.

For the moment it has a clear shortcoming: it is not possible to accompany the offers with photos. An issue to be solved later. For the moment please be patient and write thousand words instead of an image.

You'll need to be logged-in to access the page.

Seven brave runners challenged the cold rain and showed up for the year's prime training event. The intention was to saty as close to, according to ones own abilities, the red line trespassing the deep but hardl untouched Grengewald between Gonderange and Helmsange. Everyone drifted somewhat from the, admittedly loosely, prescribed corridor but also made to the end before nightfall, to the big relief of the organiser.

This is an easy way to organise something at least resebling orienteering in Luxembourgish forests and we will surely try something similar again...sometime.

See the participants enjoying well deserved awards afterwards.

• return_of_winter_part_1.pdf
• return_of_winter_part_2.pdf

The 2018 Club and National Championships were held in beatiful Esch-sur-Sure. 29 runners bravely challenged the weather and although it stopped raining just in time for the event. However, the rain had made the ground, rocks and stairs slippery in places; something that had to be factored in in selecting route-choices.

The results below show runnig times and corrected time where coefficients recognising gender and age are factored in.

Congratulations to our Champions!

The clubs Annual General Meeting will be held at the club seat at 55 am Steffesgaart, Sandweiler, on Wednesday January 16 2019. More information will follow in due course.

Please find invitation to 2018 Club Championships in the Calendar:

https://orienteering.lu/en/calendar/events/luxembourg-orienteering-championship-2018/

48, 30 and 0 – these are the most important numbers related to our latest training: 48 participants, 30 control points and 0 drops of rain (which is close to a miracle on a wet day like that).

The most enthusiastic and successful participant is definitely Jan Panuška, who ran 3 different courses and won all of them!

The longest course (the so-called “Norwegian master map” map memory game) was won by Julien – is it because he drew the map himself and knows every nook and cranny? Next time in this terrain he’ll have to run with his eyes closed :-)

And the three fastest runners of each course:

Squirrel 1 (1000 m)

1) Jan, 10:05

2) Jáchym, 12:50

3) Marjánka and Jonáš, 18:11

Squirrel 2 (1000 m)

1) Jan, 11:35

2) Jáchym, 16:10

3) Marjánka and Jonáš, 21:31

Rabbit (2200 m)

1) Jan, 23:35

2) Eva, 31:00

3) Christos, 53:30

Deer (map memory) (3300 m)

1) Julien, 24:54

2) Sasha, 28:20

3) Miša, 32:00

Thanks to the helpers: Jonas (for putting out checkpoints, welcoming people and organizing the weather), plus Sasha and Miša for collecting flags afterwards.

Spot the flag!

Jan in action

Hmm, why doesn't David have a map?

The Luxembourg orienteering championship 2018 will be held on Sunday, 2nd December. More details are coming later, check the event page from time to time.

Few photos from the yesterday, organisators' perspective.

And a 1.5D rerun of a resolute LuxOC runner, taken from the start of the second sprint on:

Today, we had a great start into the series of five orienteering events organized by LuxOC members in this fall season. About 40 runners met on a sunny Sunday morning in the Tony Neuman park on Limpertsberg. A new map, prepared by E. Wirtz, make the runners explore the beautiful park on a steep slope as well as the surrounding residential areas of Limpertsberg and Rollingergrund. Five different courses were offered from the very easy children's run of 0.5 km to the advanced adult version of 2.9 km where runners had to go down and climb up the hill at least three times. One could hardly get lost in this area, however, the choice of the best route was quite challenging. It could very well happen (and did happen) that you found yourself on the wrong side of the fence 1 meter away from the next control post.

Here the results (errors in the timing cannot be excluded):

A: children easy 0,5 km

• Marie Anna 5'
• Jan 10'
• Les filles 11'
• Matthias 11'
• Tomas 11'
• Vitek 14'
• Jonas 20'
• Jachym (without timing)

B: children middle 1,0km

• Agne 12'
• Jan 18'
• Mikulas 18'
• Vitek 26'
• cha-man 41'
• Les sisters 42'
• Damel Mukai 52'
• Juna & Myntje 65'
• Misa (did not finish)

C: families 1,1km

• Jan 18'
• Mikulas 22'
• Matthias 27'
• Les filles 35'
• Tomas 58'
• Jachym (without timing)

D: children difficult 2,3km

• Jakob 36'
• Marie Anna 38'
• Sandra 50'

E: adults 2,9km

• Kriss 27'
• Marek 33'
• Atte 34'
• Robert 35'
• David 38'
• Helle 38'
• Jan & Eva 39'
• Anne-Laure 41'
• Agne 42'
• Brigitta 43'
• Ludger 45'
• Zita's lost team 89' (including a stop in a bar)
• Stefano 42' (one control missing)
• Maggie (did not finish)

Luxembourg Orienteering ladies’ Masters A team finished just five minutes shy of the bronze medal in the Belgian Relay Championships on Sunday, 9 September. Maggie, Orsi and Misa came in fourth, behind Belgian teams ASUB, Omega and ARDOC.

LuxOC fielded a record four squads and did respectably well in other classes, too. In the men’s Open category, Yevgeny, Sasha and Ondra finished eighth, beating a number of elite Belgian orienteers. In the women’s Open, Gabi, Agne and Anne-Laure came in seventh. The men’s Masters A team sadly was not classified due to a control mixup on one of the legs. Meanwhile, Jan teamed up with SudOLux, who finished eighth in a Masters A race won – somewhat surprisingly – by Michael Hock’s ARDOC.

The championships took place in Les Fosses, some 45 minutes away from Luxembourg, on the southernmost part of an eponymous map which had never before been used for an official event. The terrain was a typical Belgian mixture of pale and deep green, with vegetable boundaries barely discernible and one or two areas where finding anything at all was down to pure luck – some competitors dubbed the race a “guessing game.”

Result

Thanks for all the 24 participants for coming to Weisshauswald on Saturday. One of them cycled all the way from Luxembourg just to conquer the steep slopes (check out the map sample attached).

Those who didn’t concentrate only on the map and the flags could enjoy the wild raspberries and even make friends with the local deer population.

Have a lovely summer and see you in the autumn training sessions!

A section of the deer course

Refreshment at control 7 of the squirrel course

A squirrel team at the most beautiful control 6

In this news article you may find photos uploaded progressively throughout the day and night.

Arrival

On Friday, tents are up, few chairs and a jar with water ready for Saturday. Is our tent be the most visible tomorrow too?

The competition terrain was difficult during a day training. How will it be at night?!

At quarter to three, at about the time of the first exchange of the Venla relay, a smaller tornado swept the competition centre and removed some maps from the map fence. Chris: "The tornado looked hilarious on the web stream from the drone."

Simone Nigli says at the finish line of her third leg that after yesterday's training she was scared but today it was easier and beautiful.

Honza nd Jonas following the tense fourth leg.

Stora Tuna winning the Venla relay.

Maggie and David are just soaking up the evening sun with a quiet sports drink. Blue skies and an amazing atmosphere.

Last preparations:

In one minute the sun sets in the ... North !

1 minut to the start, check your number!

Jevgenijs at the first tv control...

What's that flag??

Good morning Finland! So what happened during the night? Jevgenijs ran his first lag with a very respectable time and gained 300 places with regard to the starting position. This is far from obvious given the number of people running in lines and the difficult terrain where traces are only being formed.

Ondra and Sasha had the deepest night, with red sky in the North. Except deeper depressions forest was not dark completely, partially thanks to many lamps around.

Jonas is now back, with a twisted ankle, David out there in the long morning shades and Honza is getting ready.

Koovee crosses the finish line with a comfortable 4 minutes gap to the second, also favourite, IFK Göteborg, another 4 minutes in front of Paimion Rasti.

Jan battling and Cedric getting ready for the mass start as the changeover will be missed just by a few.

A snapshot of a GPS track from an area we've visited tonight and that Cedric will certainly cover with his 15km leg. Some areas were covered with many shallow holes, others were completely flat or - on the contrary - drilled with 30m deep depressions. Here on MapAnt the equidistance is 2.5 metres.

And the same area on a true map.

Cedric flies: 10.3km in 1:08. Five more kilometers to go.

Jan back in finish.

And short before 11am Finish time Cedric is in the finish. We'll wait a moment begore the final result is confirmed.

Not an official result but a stable figure unlikely to change is: 599.

Covered were 142 controls on 82 kilometers, all punched correctly! With an average speed 9:14 per kilometer, in this very difficult terrain that Finns described as extraordinarily difficult (as if their other terrains were not!)

And this seems to be nearly the end of the adventure of a 6-month long training (with an average of over 400km per team mate, for those who logged since the end of February), several preparation sessions in type-specific terrains kindly organised by Jonas (thank you! these trainings certainly saved dozens of minutes to everyone of us during the race as we learned how to move in this difficult karst terrain) and one long night full of lights.

We would like to debrief and simply see each other before the summer comes. Maybe on one Wednesday evening in Bambësch. Depending on the weather. The date and the modalities are to be confirmed.

The results from the World Orienteering Day in Howald are available in Helga: https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=2336

Many thanks to the 50 participants, of all ages and levels but all highly motivated and enthousiast, who managed to navigate in such green and flowered park. Check out the ticks ! Find attached the maps.

Results

Deer

25' 50'' - Oleksandr
28' 15'' - Jevgenijs
36' 21'' - Jonas
41' 02'' - Jan
42' 5'' - André
42' 34'' - Inga
43' 4'' - Filip
43' 23'' - Orsi
55' 40'' - Renelde
56' 15'' - David R.
56' 28'' - Staffan
56' 39'' - Elvire
1h 6' 10'' - Brigitta
1h 10' 40'' - Robert
1h 18' 30'' - David S.
UNK - Morag

Rabbit

31' 0'' - Maggie
59' 20'' - Emma

Squirrel 1

27' 13'' - Mick & Emma

• klose_groendchen_park.pdf
• maps.pdf

On Sunday some of you came by bike, others by train, one ran in, another ran back home. Few pictures from the park and two samples of the exercises: an A or B circuit with penalty checkpoints for those who answer wrong, and simple but swift courses with many control points. We were nicely surprised how well did the children understand the countour lines!

Thanks for coming and see you next time. (And special thanks to Inga for the warm cider!)

A or B circuit with penalty checkpoints for those who answer wrong

simple but swift courses with many control points

World Orienteering Day is on Wednesday 23 May this year. The International Orienteering Federation is hoping to have 500,000 people doing an orienteering activity that day. LuxOC's contribution will be a very informal "semi-urban" event in Howald and Houwald (the woodland next to Howald). Three courses - 2.0km (easy), 4.5km (moderate), or 6.5km (hard, lots of hills!). Starts from 19.00 until 20.00. All welcome, members or not!

Full details are attached.

• 180523_howald_wod_2018_flyer.docx

Today morning at 7:30, when I arrived in the Bambësch to depose the first flags, I was wondering who would come to my training on this rainy Sunday morning. Only 5 family had inscribed. If they did not appear for bad weather reasons or illness my whole work would be useless.

Nevertheless I was enjoying to be alone in a forest in the early morning and the leafs were protecting me against all the raindrops...

But luckily, at the end, 20 different teams showed up and did at least one run each. Among the runners were a lot of Czech nationals, thanks to the strong Czech community! Unfortunately in run D the flag number 13 was missing at the end.

Hope to see you next time again, Elisabet

Here the results, but notice that the times are approximative:

Run A (very easy, children alone)

1. Conie (10 Min.)
2. Mila-Dani (11 Min.)
3. Katrina (15 Min.)
4. Vitek (20 Min.)
5. Matthias (23 Min.)

Run B (families beginners or children alone)

1. E and S (12 Min.)
2. Sofija (28 Min.)
3. Conie (28 Min.)
4. Katrina (32 Min.)
5. Zawrel (30 Min.)
6. Böhm (35 Min.)
7. Vitek (46 Min.)
8. Cramer-Trio (52 Min.)
9. Barni (55 Min.)

Run C (advanced families or children alone)

1. Eva (20 Min.)
2. Ian (25 Min.)
3. Katrina (29 Min.)
4. Emma (33 Min.)
5. Matthias (shortcutted)

Run D

1. Staffan (33 Min.)
2. David (38 Min.)
3. Marek (40 Min.)
4. Maggie (47 Min.)
5. Sofija (67 Min.)
6. Paul (until flag 13)
7. Jakob (until flag 13)

See below the result of today's run. Congratulations to all participants, especially the newcomers ! Find the map here.

Woman

Man

Family

Please note that the Luxembourg City Race has been nominated for "Course of the year" at Worldofo.com. If you liked it, please go ahead and vote for it!

http://news.worldofo.com/2017/11/22/vote-for-course-of-the-year-2017-now/

You'll find live results on Helga: http://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=2078

The start list for the City Race next Sunday has now been published. All start times - which are between 10.00 and 11.30 - can be seen by following this link http://helga-o.com/start/?lauf=1230

Please remember that you should allow 20 minutes to get from the Event Centre to the Start.

Juniors and Children (Courses E and F) do not have set start times - they are all listed as having a start at 00.00.00. This should give the flexibility that parents often appreciate. As soon as they present themselves at the Start, Juniors and Children will be given the next available start time within the 10.00 to 11.30 overall period of start times.

Please contact the Organiser via cityrace@orienteering.lu if the start time you have been allocated is going to be a problem, and we will do our best to help you. However, please note that Courses B and C are now 90% plus subscribed, and so there is very restricted capacity for change, or entry on the day, on these two courses.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

The start list for the City Race next Sunday has now been published. All start times - which are between 10.00 and 11.30 - can be seen by following this link http://helga-o.com/start/?lauf=1230

Please remember that you should allow 20 minutes to get from the Event Centre to the Start.

Juniors and Children (Courses E and F) do not have set start times - they are all listed as having a start at 00.00.00. This should give the flexibility that parents often appreciate. As soon as they present themselves at the Start, Juniors and Children will be given the next available start time within the 10.00 to 11.30 overall period of start times.

Please contact the Organiser via cityrace@orienteering.lu if the start time you have been allocated is going to be a problem, and we will do our best to help you. However, please note that Courses B and C are now 90% plus subscribed, and so there is very restricted capacity for change, or entry on the day, on these two courses.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

As already announced in the Final Details, because of the unexpectedly high number of entries, we have had to change our original plans - all pre-entrants (except for Courses E and F - Juniors and Children) will now be allocated a start time. The start list will be published on the evening of Monday 30th October.

Juniors and Children will not have set start times - this should give the flexibility that parents often appreciate. Juniors and Children will be given the next available start time as soon as they present themselves at the Start.

We look forward to seeing you next Sunday!

Pre-entries have now finally closed for the City Race next Sunday. There are almost 300 runners, with clubs from 14 countries participating.

Final Details for the event have been posted on our City Race sub-website.

If you have not yet entered, and would still like to run, entries on the day will be available, until map stocks run out. Please note however that Courses B and C are already nearly fully subscribed, so only a few places are left on these courses.

We look forward to seeing you next Sunday!

Pre-entries have now finally closed for the City Race next Sunday. There are almost 300 runners, with clubs from 14 countries participating.

Final Details for the event have been posted on our City Race sub-website.

If you have not yet entered, and would still like to run, entries on the day will be available, until map stocks run out. Please note however that Courses B and C are already nearly fully subscribed, so only a few places are left on these courses.

As already announced, because of the unexpectedly high number of entries, we have had to change our original plans - all pre-entrants (except for Courses E and F - Juniors and Children) will now be allocated a start time. The start list will be published on the evening of Monday 30th October.

Juniors and Children will not have set start times - this should give the flexibility that parents often appreciate. Juniors and Children will be given the next available start time as soon as they present themselves at the Start.

We look forward to seeing you next Sunday!

Final city race details were published.

Originally we had intended not to allocate any start times, and for competitors to simply queue at the start for the next available start time. However, there will now be a start list, with all pre-entrants being allocated a start time. We apologise for this change in organisation. However this has become necessary because of the unexpectedly high level of pre-entries received. The start list will be posted on the website on Monday 30 October.

If you count on an entry on the day, please plan to come early. The last start time is 11.30 – rather earlier than at many events. And you need to allow 15-20 minutes to get from the Event Centre to the Start.

Just a reminder that pre-entries will close at midnight on Wednesday 25 October!

If you are still thinking about coming to our City Race, please pre-enter using OrienteeringOnline. We will be taking entries on the day, but only until stocks of pre-printed maps run out. So to be sure of getting a run, pre-enter!

At 19 October, we have 200 pre-entries. We look forward to seeing you all on 5 November.

Yes: there is life in Kirchberg on Sundays! Around 50 persons, including many highly motivated children, came and enjoyed a fresh orienteering afternoon. See the route maps and the blank map, with few photos:

• orienteering map Kirchberg luxembourg coque
• maps.pdf

The autumn season started with our participation on Belgian club relays where one men and one women teams defended our colors. The event calendar is rather packed, some of us travel to the Belgian long distance champs this weekend, other events will follow. Keep an eye on the calendar and certaily do not miss the first first championship of the Grand Duchy organized in Trier on October 21st.

Throughout the following months several trainings on maps will be organized. Most of the time one or more courses for children and beginners are offered but experienced adults will be satisfied too. The agenda is being finalized, stay tuned!

One highlight of the season will be the race we organize in the city. For the day volunteers will be needed but you will have the opportunity to run too.

Before the summer break on Wednesday evenings we ran together from the park in Bambësch. The qgendq for this fall will be published during the weekend.

See you soon!

Not orienteering - but the Route du Jus de Raisin fun run for children under 13 is taking place at Remich on the afternoon of Sunday 24 September. More information here - http://www.routeduvin.lu/en/19/info/kids-run/?CC=OK

And there is of course the Route du Vin half marathon for fit grown ups - all good training for orienteering!

Preparation for the first-ever Luxembourg City Race, to be held on Sunday 5 November 2017, is going well.

We now have an advertisement for the City Race, and entries - using orienteeringonline.net - can be made from 1 September onwards.

Come and be part of history!

Following the example of open orienteering map, we now have our own simplified orienteering map of the whole country: See HERE !

This map is not a proper orienteering map of course but may be used for some kind of events such as street orienteering, trail running orienteering and mountain bike orienteering. The maximum scale is approximativelly 1:15000. If you want a proper printable PDF file of an area, ask us !

Here are some more details for our small and informal run on World Orienteering Day!

• sandweiler_wod_24_may_flyer.pdf

Good news - the Luxembourg Ville authorities have confirmed that LuxOC can organise our first City Race - and the date set is Sunday 5 November.

Over the summer we will be updating and slightly extending Ondra Pijak's existing urban orienteering map of the Vieille Ville, the Grund and the Petrusse. Ondra Kotecky and Jevgeny Sproge are our course planners - we will be offering a Middle Distance race, with all the classes for competitition that the Euro City tour offers, right up to Mens' and Women's Ultra-Vets, for over 65's.

David Roach is the event organiser. He hopes that as many club members as possible will be available on the day to help make the race happen, and allow "job-sharing" so that all club members can run, too.

Watch out for advertisements for the City Race, and more information, over the summer. This will be LuxOC's first effort at organising an event open to all orienteers - let's hope it will be a big success. We certainly have one of the most interesting and challenging areas for urban orienteering in Europe - well worth coming some distance for! Here's a preview.

26 adults and 28 kids are drying their shoes at home now, after a rainy training in Mersch park. The weather didn’t seem to bother anyone, and some even said orienteering is more fun if it's wet!

Check out the photos here, you can even see how the flags are drying, already back at home. And have a look at the maps, attached below.

LuxOC contested the spring edition of the Belgian Club Relay Championships last weekend, coming in 12th out of 30 teams. Jan, Jonas, Elisabet, Anne-Laure, Ritva and Chris were greeted with open arms and a touch of curiousity by the Belgian clubs ("Oh, there's a club in Luxembourg? Fantastic that you've managed to put a full team together!"). In a lovely, runnable forest in southern Ardennes, LuxOC clocked 5:45.47 over six legs (5k,7k,3k,5k,3k,7k), some 45 minutes shy of the Top 10.

Photos (including many featuring LuxOC relay members) accessible below:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNbb4Ll3-czeujYmYvxcefJDzPl3pUYBE0k3tTVuV6qkQ6bLUWDWZ-jout7_wBQqA?key=NThWNnZ3eDlESy1lYXpkTjFBSUl4NDM4LWZIckhR

Full results here:

http://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=1850

We're looking forward to the autumn edition in Flanders!

• Nolinfaing map

"...and meanwhile, in dark corners of 10 offices of high-profile European agencies, high-tech companies and law firms in Luxembourg, coffee is sipped, terrain and earlier maps are patiently studied..."

Our club team has spent recent months in physical, technical, mental and spiritual training and preparation for the Tiomila relay in Sweden. The relay will start at 9 pm in the evening of April 29 and the winning team is expected to finish at around 7 am the following morning. Our team is expected to need a little more time than that.

Anyway, you can and should follow the excitement online.Intermediate results will be published continously on the competition homepage http://10mila.se/index.php/en/ and there will be a live stream with speaker sound and live footage from the arena and even the forest. There will even be parallel streams with commentary in Swedish, Finnish and English. To follow the live feed you need to pay a small fee and register at https://webbtv.10mila.se/. This service will be available not only for the night but alos for the youth relay (starting 10:30 on Saturday April 29), the women's relay (starting 13:15 on satuday April 29) and the night relay.

If you want to check the quality of the production before paying up, you can check last year's feed htat has been published as a series of youtube videos (Swedish only), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU3_YFYjro0&list=PLTzPzHL_pRWDonZoK2w1xnYYqWutVGa2N

In any case you should cheer for our team, listed below in the intended running order:

The training took place and despite a fresh temperature, around 50 persons took part and found their way out of the maze... If you missed it, you can still have a look at the maps !

• luxoc_training_01_04_2017.pdf

Following an exciting and adventurous trip to the Jukola relay two years ago the club moves further into the upper echelons of internationla orienteering by sending a team to the Tiomila relay in Sweden at the end of April. Tiomila being a large relay similar to Jukola but older, longer, darker, wetter and colder.

Following an initial expression of interest among the members, the offer was extended to potentially interested runners in the vicinity. Today, we have 10 confirmed and committed runners: Jevgenis, Jonas, Roland, Ondra, Misha, Jan, Andrew, Staffan, Jan and Jonas as well as the reinforcemtns Pascal and Marie from VALMO. In addition, David has promised to join us as a team manager and substitute runner.

With less than three months to go, the team is busy studying old maps and collecting basic training kilometers. We'll inform about our preparation closer to the event and eventually you'll be able to follow the race even online. In the meantime, please find the homepage with some basic information here: http://10mila.se/index.php/en/

We are happy to announce that LuxOC has a new twin brother across the Belgian border: SudOLux orienteering club was created last Sunday by a group of motivated and experienced Belgian orienteers willing to boost the practice of orienteering in the south of Belgium, in an area within 1 hour driving distance from Luxembourg city. Some synergies between our clubs are foreseen. LuxOC members willing to join an additional Belgian club in 2017 are encouraged to join SudOLux to support them !

New: Check their website out.

After a three-year hiatus, LuxOC has again competed in the annual Belgian club relay championships – and didn’t do badly at all! Jan, Ondra, Elisabet, Misa, Maggie and Jonas (in that order) came in 17th out of 39 teams, clocking 4 hours, 20 minutes and 12 seconds, 48 minutes behind the winners and only 24 minutes shy of the Top 10. Contested on the Zwarte Weg map (1:7 500), the legs were 5-7-3-5-3-7 kilometers. The title went to C.O. Liege with Tristan Bloemen narrowly beating TROL’s Benjamin Anciaux on the last leg.

Braving cold and damp weather at the military grounds near Leopoldsburg in the Limburg Province, the competitors faced a fairly passable forest interspersed with lots of ditches and trenches and flanked by vast sandy heaths. Given the abundance of roads and paths and an easy layout, the race favored fast runners, with the top times per kilometer under 5 minutes.

Photos and maps from the race to follow ...

Results

The next Committee and Social Evening will be held on Wednesday 5 October at 20.00 - at the Roaches' - 55 am Steffesgaart, L-5222 Sandweiler (the Club’s legal “seat”). Beer, wine, soft drinks and light bites provided - no need to bring anything!

All members are welcome - as usual, part of the evening will be a discussion of Club matters and plans.

The World Masters Orienteering Championships were held in Estonia from 6 to 13 August - around 4,000 runners took part, aged from 35 to over 90. And Luxembourg can claim a medal!

Annemari Vierikko ran brilliantly to secure 3rd place in the W50 class in the Sprint Final race, held in the heart of the old city of Tallinn. Unfortunately, she couldn’t go on to run in the Long races, held 60km east of Tallinn in intricate runnable pine forests - she had to rush straight from the Sprint medal ceremony to catch the ferry to Helsinki, ready to start her new teaching job back in Finland the following morning. So, sadly, a big loss for our club, but LuxOC can claim a share of her success.

Chris Scott, Inga Ausekle, and David and Maggie Roach also made the long trip north, but weren’t in contention for any of the top places. But the Luxembourg flag was prominently on display, and David Roach did the honours at the Opening Ceremony.

The membership procedure is described on this page.

• membership_form.xlsx