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by Ian Smith
Two A-meets, or national competitions, were held in March: the US Classic Championships in North Carolina and the 16th Flying Pig in Cincinnati. A-meets are major events sanctioned by the national federation, OUSA. Compared to local meets, A-meets are higher quality events, with months of advance planning, better courses, more stringent secrecy, and novel terrain. Results from A-meets are used to produce end-of-year national rankings.
North Carolina: A map sample from the Blue Course from Day 2 |
One of the best parts of A-meets is running in different terrain on unfamiliar maps. You can only run on a local map so many times before it becomes routine and memory is as much an asset as the map. At the start of a race on a new map, you boldly run into the unknown. Each terrain type invites certain techniques and poses distinct challenges. There are two upcoming A-meets near New England: the annual West Point A-meet in West Point, NY on the weekend of May 5, and NEOC’s own creatively named Western MA 5-Day: five races packed into two days on May 26-27 in Amherst, MA. Because of the extensive logistics involved, competitors must register for A-meets weeks ahead of time. Early registration for both West Point and the Western MA 5-Day closes in mid-April, so register now! Links are on the NEOC schedule page.
The Nominating Committee is seeking motivated individuals interested in serving on the Board of Directors for a two-year term. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact the Nominating Committee by midnight May 8, 2012.
The NEOC Board recommends that the membership strive to elect a board with the following characteristics:
Today is NEOC's 40th Anniversary. See the collection of articles gathered for this special date.
by Peter Amram
Mark Monmonier, a professor at Syracuse University, is the author of the 1994 Drawing the Line, tales of maps and cartocontroversy. Prominent among the cartocontroveries are the Vinland Map, a fraud which purports to show pre-Columbian discoveries in the New World, and the Peters Projection, a misleading, politically-correct attempt to show the ‘true’ size of non-European countries. Many maps, Monmonier suggests, are best approached with suspicion.
With many of our national championships scheduled to take place this spring, Orienteering USA has announced a first-of-its-kind program to promote participation in multiple A-meets.
Dubbed the “2012 Championships Challenge,” this program will reward all individuals who enter and compete in at least three of the scheduled nine A-meet weekends from February through June, 2012. These orienteers will receive a custom-designed racing shirt acknowledging their accomplishment.
For more information on the contest go to the Orienteering USA website.