There will be a fun orienteering training exercise for youth at the NEOC meets listed below, start at 1:00 PM.

This is a great chance to get to know other kids who are into orienteering! The exercise will be appropriate for both beginners and more advanced kids. Parents are encouraged to attend and help out.

Please contact Samantha Saeger or Barb Bryant for more information.  RSVPs not required, but they will help us to plan.

• Estabrook, May 7th
• Powissett, May 8th
• Needham Town Forest, May 22
• Nobscott, June 5

You will see links to Express Registration in the details of many NEOC meets this year (e.g., April's meet at Boojum Rock). Express Registration extends online pre-registration to NEOC's local meets, and gets you out on your course faster.

In the days leading up to a meet, Express Registration will let you register for a course, sign an online waiver, and pay securely via PayPal, at no extra cost. PayPal accepts major credit cards; you do not need a PayPal account. Of course, you can still register on-site the day of the meet.

Pre-registered runners can bypass the Registration table, and go directly to the Start table. There they will get their map, clue sheet, and loaner e-punch finger-stick (if needed), then Clear-Check and Start!

Contact the Results Co-ordinator with any questions.

In which we periodically examine how art imitates life and life imitates orienteering.

by Peter Amram

Literary Orienteering, or Lit-O, is not sterile cogitation by professors at Ivory Tower U. English departments but rather a search in books similar to that quest in the woods for little triangular box kites with a code and a recording device and a welcoming crooked orange-and-white smile, if indeed you do find the damn thing.

In Lit-O, the target is a passage which demonstrates not only that, at its best, art imitates life, but that at its best, life imitates orienteering.

Read more ...

by Peter Gagarin

A great way to finish the week. Don’t know the details yet, but it sure looks like all 6 of our skiers had really good days. And Alex showed how good she is, started in 6th after Ali’s opening leg, Alex came in in 5th, just the 4 powerhouse teams (Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Finland) ahead of her, and not that far ahead of her. Good for her, and good for all of them.

A few photos are already up on the US Team blog.

And the results are at http://www.emit.nu/resultat/live/110322/

A little more from today’s relay, the last event from this year’s Ski-O world Champs.

Read more ...

from Peter Gagarin

U.S. Team in Saturday's Long Competition 

Men:
1. Andrey Grigoryev, RUS 1:42:43
52. Scott Pleban, USA 2:26:43
55. Nikolay Nachev, USA 2:32:39
56. Greg Walker, USA 2:32:48
DNF Adrian Owens (broken ski)
67 starters

Women:
1. Helene Söderlund, SWE 1:20:52
8. Ali Crocker, USA 1:25:43
25. Alex Jospe, USA1:39:19
DNF Cristina Luis
48 starters

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Next, just to show that in ski-O, like in foot-O, everything does not always go as planned, even for the stars. Here’s Greg Walker’s report (and Greg, by the way, is a star wherever he goes in European orienteering circles because of his work developing the O’ game Catching Features):

Read more ...