NEWS ARCHIVE
X TA OK Rogaine results are published.
23.09.2009
Information from the course setter
17.09.2009
Dear rogaining friends,
TA OK invites you to participate in our annual rogaine, which this year will be held on Sunday, 20 September, in the eastern part of Lahemaa National Park. The event centre will be at Oandu Nature Centre. The National Park specialists have made the conditions of using the national park territory harder. Please read through very carefully all the information we shall publish before the event. The number of entries is also limited — 1200.
There are no changes in other conditions compared to previous years. Registration will take place in two stages: the 1st stage beginning on 1 August and ending on 14 September, unless the entry limit is reached. For registration please use our website.
The event to be held this year will be tenth — hence a small jubilee, and we shall remember with a souvenir all those who have attended on all ten events. Don't forget to tick this fact on registration. All other people can also subscribe for the souvenir, which is a 15 cm diameter decorative wall plate with an imprinted emblem of the event and relevant text. The price for the plate is its cost price — 50 EEK and you can subscribe for it until 3 September.
You are welcome to participate in 10th TA OK Rogain.
Ilmar, president of TAOK
19.07.2009
Thanks to all participants of the 9th TAOK rogaine!
This was the first, but probably not the last TAOK rogaine in South Estonia. We were glad to see again many Latvian teams, but also some Finnish teams took the long travel to the southernmost corner of Estonia. We believe it was worth the travel as this is one of the best terrains in Estonia. We hope you enjoyed the terrain and the event!
As you for sure noticed, the course was quite technical. The course setter Tõnis Erm considered that the technical terrain also requires a technical course. It should be also pointed out that Tõnis designed the rogaine course in-between winning medals at the World Championships and European Championships in mountain-bike orienteering!
It was quite a challenge for our club to organize two major rogaines, the World Rogaining Championships and the TAOK rogaine, within one month. Both rogaines gathered around 800 participants! While we acknowledge that we still have some room for further improvements, overall we were quite satisfied with our performance.
Next year we approach our first anniversary - 10th TAOK rogaine. We hope to announce the time and place quite soon. But we also recommend you mark in your calendar the dates 15-16 August 2009 – European Rogaining Championships, which will be held in Finland, Lapland. See you at rogaining events!
TAOK 14.10.2008
Start list
09.10.2008
Course setter information added - click here!
TAOK 04.10.2008
The event center of IX TAOK rogaine will be located in Laanemetsa
village Valga county, by Valga-Võru road, near the Laanemetsa
old school
house and church (see schemes under Event center).
TAOK 02.10.2008
Instructions of the IX TAOK rogaine are published.
Our traditional 8-hour rogaine will be held 11 October 2008 in Laanemetsa, South Estonia. The terrain will include parts of the terrain of the 8WRC.
TAOK 02.12.2007
8th World Rogaining Championships are held 13-14 September 2008 in the Karula National Park (http://www.karularahvuspark.ee/?nodeid=1&lang=en) and surrounding areas. The hash house is located near the visitor center of the Karula National Park in a village Ähijärve, in Võru county in South Estonia. To limit the impact of the event on the environment, the State Nature Conservation Center has imposed a maximum number of participants – 700. The second bulletin of the 8WRC will be published in November 2007.
A photo gallery of the WRC terrain: http://8wrc2008.rogain.ee/img/album1/
TAOK 30.10.2007
Dear rogaining friends,
The 8th TAOK rogaine is over, hitting the new record of participants. According to our counting, there were 1157 participants in 437 teams, including 38 teams from Latvia, 10 teams from Finland, 1 team from Russia and 1 team from Australia.
TAOK rogaine has grown to the size where it is increasingly difficult to find a sufficiently large competition center. In previous years we have used event centers with available infrastructure. This year, on this terrain, that option was not available and we had to set up an event center in open air in the territory of an abandoned pioneer camp. We hope that the surroundings and lacking facilities did not disappoint you.
As we could see, Murphy’s laws still hold. Unfortunately, we did not manage to get in contact with hunters before the event and this was where the shot came. Nevertheless, all rogainers returned from the terrain safely. We apologize in front of those who met hunters and felt insecure.
The weather showed its both sides. Many of you got probably very wet after the heavy shower on the third hour, but luckily, it was quite short and the rest of the day showed the best side of Estonian autumn.
So, we hope that in overall terms you enjoyed the terrain and the event and took home good memories.
We would like to thank you for coming and hope to see you again next year at the World Rogaining Championships, 13-14 September 2008.
TAOK 09.10.2007
Additional information on the competition! Please read it!
TAOK 03.10.2007
Registration is closed!
TAOK 01.10.2007 7.45 AM
Information on terrain and map
Passability of the forest varies from very good to bad. While for the most part
the passability is good, there are also thickets and old clearings with reduced
passability. In some parts of the terrain stinging nettles are growing on the
ditch-sides, road-sides as well as on some open areas and in marshy forest.
The water level is relatively low in spite of some recent rain. Several ditches
are dry. At the same time, some streams are difficult to cross (you may get wet
feet) due to beaver activity.
As the terrain is relatively close to Tallinn, the terrain includes areas with
habitation, but forest areas dominate. In some parts of the terrain (Neeme, Ihasalu,
Manniva), there is real estate development going on. All areas of habitation
(indicated on the map with moss green) are strictly out-of-bounds! Please consider
also that in several homesteads there are dogs running freely, so we recommend
that you plan your routes so as to pass all homesteads from a distance, in order
not to get bitten.
Out-of-bounds are also golf courses and some fields, which are surrounded by
an electric fence. These areas are indicated on the map with red stripes. In
the area of golf courses you can walk/run on the roads, but it is strictly forbidden
to go to the golf green. The golf courses are in most parts also surrounded by
a fence.
There are 2 water stations on the terrain. These are located on crossroads, not
in control points.
Dangers: Local roads crossing the terrain (some cars may drive on a high speed,
be careful when crossing roads or running on the road-side); steep banks of Jägala
river; electric fences; dogs! In some areas, forest-cutting activities are going
on.
The map will be printed on a waterproof and tearproof material. Nevertheless,
in case of rain, please avoid intensive folding or rubbing of the map as this
may damage the printed layer. It is possible to write (draw your course) on the
map using a regular pencil or a permanent ink pen. The map is not in a plastic
bag. If you want to protect your map additionally, please bring your own map
cover. The size of the map is about 33 x 41 cm. This means the map is not in
a standard size of A3.
Control descriptions are printed on the map. Descriptions of map symbols are
available at the event center, printed on a separate sheet.
TAOK 27.09.2007
Course vetter's opinion:
The general course outline has used well the existing different types of terrain
on the map and does not require spending too much time in the less interesting
parts of the terrain. It is not too easy to decide which controls and in which
order to take. In some areas, some controls do form a logical sequence, however,
to move from these controls to another cluster of controls one would have to
find a suitable compromise between the distance and the value of points.
Runnability of the forest is generally good, but is sometimes reduced by smaller
or larger marshy areas. Trying to estimate the speed of the top teams, I think
that no team will clean up the map by taking all controls, but the best team
will come quite close to the maximum.
In the area of some controls, there are smaller unmapped objects which are similar
to the control feature (e.g. boulders, depressions, knolls). In these areas the
control is located on the biggest and the most obvious feature and is placed
precisely where indicated on the map.
There are some streams which are quite wide as a result of beavers’ activity
(indicated on the map by a bold blue line without black sidelines). These streams
are in some parts crossable (e.g. by using fallen trees), but care should be
taken and one could expect getting wet feet. Even Jägala river near the event
center is crossable, but the water level may be close to your knees, and already
a bit further away from the event center over your head. Jõelähtme river is crossable
more easily.
Be careful on sealed roads!
Vetter: Tõnis Erm
The number of registered participants already exceeds 1000. In this
situation, considering the limited space in the event center, the organizers
were forced to set a maximum number of participants - 1200.
This implies that the registration may end before the originally announced
deadline of 1 October, if the number of registered participants reaches
1200.
TAOK organising team 25.09.2007
Photos from the terrain:
29.03.2007
Dear rogaining friends!
Instructions of 8th TAOK rogaine have been published.
We would like to draw your attention to some changes/clarifications compared
to the last year. This year instructions spell out more clearly, what are
the conditions and possibilities of making any changes in the team composition
after the final deadline of registration (e.g. replacing a team member or
re-registration due to a team member falling sick).
Instructions also point out that the use of computers is prohibited, although
this should be almost self-evident.
We hope that the terrain will offer positive emotions. There will be quite a lot of open pine forest, a number of control sites nearby sea, but also areas which provide navigational challenge.
The event will be held on Saturday 6 October 2007. The terrain will include Ihasalu and Kaberneeme peninsulas (north coast of Estonia), Kodasoo hills and valley of the Jägala river. The event centre will be in Jägala-Joa, about 30 km from Tallinn, nearby Jägala waterfall.
26.03.2007
TAOK has the pleasure to inform that according to the decision of the International Rogaining Federation, 8th World Rogaining Championships will be held in Estonia 13-14 September 2008.
24.01.2007
Dear rogaining friends!
TA Orienteering Club thanks all participants of our seventh rogaine. We are in particular glad that the number of international participants from Latvia and Finland has increased, giving our rogaine – which appears to be one of the largest in the world – an increasing international flavour.
Smooth running of such a big event depends largely on the co-operation of participants. Year-by-year the course judges have encountered less problems, indicating that participants obey to the fair play rules.
When selecting terrains for our rogaines, the club has preferred those terrains which offer positive emotions and have relatively good runnability. But as Estonia is a small country, to find 100 square kilometers of open pine forest is nearly impossible. This year’s rogaine was one of the few exceptions. We hope you enjoyed this terrain.
The course has been planned so that teams aiming for victory should have a temptation to visit all checkpoints, but realisation of such a plan should be nearly impossible. This year the winning team came very close to maximum points, somewhat unexpectedly for the course setter, who did not assume that the water level would stay so low until October.
The next TAOK rogaine will be held on Saturday 6 October 2007. The terrain will include Ihasalu and Kaberneeme peninsulas (north coast of Estonia), Kodasoo hills and valley of the Jägala river. The event centre will be in Jägala-Joa, only 30 km from Tallinn, nearby Jägala waterfall. See you next year!
TAOK
31.10.2006
