International report
With such great results in last year’s campaign across ‘the pond’ the 2011 international
exchange promised to be a hotly contested affair. This year for the first time the UK put
forward 2 teams in both the boys’ and girls’ competition, (captained by Edward Richards
and Amelia Jobling), and were joined by teams from the USA, Australia, Canada and Ireland.
There were also a Boys’ and a Girls’ mixed nationality Combined World teams.
After first introducing the visitors to the best of the British weather, the sun came out and
the summer of competitions kicked off at Wittering Grange on the 4 th August at the
Regional competition. An early morning shooting phase was followed by the swimming in
Uppingham School’s new pool, and it was here that a strong Irish team set the tone for the
rest of the series with some very impressive individual scores. In the boy’s competition,
Brian O’Sullivan, European medallist in swimming, took an early lead with a score of 2191
after 2 phases, closely followed in second and third positions by Adam Sandercock and
Archie Watson of the UK. In the girl’s event, Steph Courty of the UK took an early lead, with
Ireland following in 2nd and 3rd.
The regional competition riding phase took place on the Saturday over a beautifully
designed course which tested both horse and rider, but it was on Sunday morning that the
international riding took place. After an early morning trot up to ensure that the horses
were fit to compete again, the 52 internationals were presented with unfamiliar horses,
which had been picked at random from a pool by team managers the previous afternoon in
a style similar to Modern Pentathlon. The riding took place over a complicated Jump Cross
course involving 20 obstacles over cross country terrain, challenging competitor’s
navigational skills on a strange mount. The course was to be very influential, with knockdowns costing many people dearly. Thank you very much to those people who allowed their
horses to be available to the internationals and made the event possible.
The running phase completed the weekend, as tired competitors put in impressive
performances over a gruelling course. Most notably was Tim Calder of the UK, who blew the
rest of the field away, covering 3000m in 9min 29 secs.
Final results came in, with Ireland winning both the boy’s and girl’s sections. The UK teams
finished in 2nd and 3rd position in the boys, with Tim finishing in 2nd and James Wilkins in 3rd,
and 2nd and 4th in the girls, with Amelia Jobling in 2nd position.
The weekend was then rounded off with a charming reception for the internationals hosted
by the East of England on the lawns of the house prior to the Irish returning back home and
the remainder preparing for stage 2 of the tour- Newport Wales.
After such an intense weekend of competing, the teams were relishing the opportunity to
enjoy some R and R in the beautiful welsh countryside and to get to know the international
visitors better. Many thanks must go to Liza Watson and her family, who hosted a delicious
meal on the Monday evening in spectacular settings. Thanks also to Area 18 who provided a
great BBQ on the beach, complete with rodeo bull, on the Tuesday after some of the
athletes had spent the day visiting St David’s, and enjoying a spot of “tombstoning” into the
blue lagoon. Despite Neptune’s best efforts with strong winds splitting the party; the equids
and their drivers being diverted via the larger ferry at Holyhead instead of leaving from
Fishguard with the pedestrians; we were able to re-group again in Ireland in time to enjoy
the packed programme that John Flood and the Irish committee had kindly organised for
the tourists.
This officially started on Thursday with a tour round the famous Guinness factory and a spot
of lunch in Dublin in time to enjoy the last of the sales in Tattersalls centre, where the
horses and parents were based, and where the riding phase of the competition occurred.
Friday saw the start of the competition, which ran concurrently to the Irish nationals. The
evening shooting phase was a very different format to that practised in the UK. Competitors
were faced with pentathlon style targets and 2 five minute windows in which to fire their
shots. The environment was also dramatically different from the silence of the ranges in the
UK.
Saturday was the swimming phase, hosted in the very impressive National Aquatic Centre,
and once again Ireland showed their strength in the water. Rhys Browne of Australia joined
the high scorers of Wittering in the boys competition to finish 3rd in the swim, and in the
girl’s event Rebecca Barwise-Munro and Tracey Kidner scored well, in 1st and 3rd places
respectively.
The run and ride stages took place on the Sunday at the renowned Tattersalls Ireland. Some
strong running from Tim Calder and Edward Richards (1st and 2nd) pulled the boy’s team
closer to the Irish leaders, and Amelia Jobling continued her strong form in the girl’s
running. With the ride to go, over a testing course with a tight time the scores were close.
The UK boy’s team put in some great rounds inside the time, but in the end were narrowly
defeated by the Irish by a margin of just 1 point. To put this into perspective, this amounted
to 1/3 of a second in the run, 1/3 metre in the pool, and just 0.008% of the total team score!
Tim Calder secured a 2nd runner up spot in 2 competitions. The girl’s Red team, consisting of
Amelia, Rebecca B-M, Steph Courty and Kirsty Liddon had more success and rode to team
victory, complimented by a 1, 2 from Steph and Amelia.
Following a delayed prize giving, which didn’t start until gone 9pm on Sunday night, and the
farewell banquet which went on late into the night, the early morning ferry crossing back to
England hit the athletes and parents hard, but fortunately there was time to recuperate for
a few days before Hartpury, although in many cases this was not enough time to get home
again to rest.
Hartpury kicked off on the Friday with the usual shoot and swimming stages. Ireland proudly
showed off their new team members, having added established Pentathletes Eanna Bailey
and Arthur Lanigan O'Keefe, and taking all 3 top places in the swim, but that still left the
Uk’s Archie Watson and Adam Sandercock in 2nd and 3rd after 2 phases. In the girls’ event
Brits Tracey and Rebecca B-M added to skilful shoots to hold the top 2 places after 2 phases.
For the international competitors there was also the riding phase in the main indoor arena
in the evening in front of a large crowd. Again the athletes rode unfamiliar horses with 20
minutes to warm-up and a restriction on the number of practice jumps available. Thanks
must go again to those who volunteered their horses for event.
With another tight time and very flat cups, there were very few clear rounds and
consequently considerable movement once again on the leader board in both directions.
The run on Sunday morning saw some great efforts from very tired athletes from all sides,
but unfortunately the British teams were just unable to match the Irish in either category so
finished once again in 2nd place. Individually Archie Watson finished in 4th and Edward in 5th,
Amelia completed her trio of 2nd places, and Rebecca, Steph and Tracey were 4th, 5th and 6th
respectively.
The trip would not have been possible without a great deal of help and support from a
number of different people. Firstly I would like to thank the organisers of the 3 competitions
and the many officials involved, namely- East of England, the Irish Pony club- in particular
John Flood and the irish Tetrathlon committee, and the many people behind the UK
Nationals at Hartpury. Thanks also to James Helyer and Sally Lawton for all of the
administrative work behind the scenes, and their Irish counterparts Anna Freine, Mary
Fitzpatrick. Next I would like to thank the people who lent horses at both the regional and
national competition, it really was very generous. A huge thank you to must go to the
visiting teams and their accompanying coaches- it was so good to see so many and I only
hope that they enjoyed the experience as much as we did.
Thank you also to James and Gill Allenby, who gave up more than just 3 weeks of their lives
and without whom the experience would have been so much less. Their tireless efforts to
ensure that not only did the teams perform to the best of their abilities, but that we enjoyed
every last second of the time together was a huge success.
Greatest thanks must go to our parents though, as no. 1 sponsors of the trip, as taxi drivers,
as coaches, mentors and support staff in one; they were the ones who really made the trip
possible.
My personal thanks to everyone involved with the trip. It really was an unbelievable 3 weeks
with some incredible people. We shared some amazing experiences together and the
memories will last a lifetime.
Edward Richards (UK Boys Captain)
SquadBoys:- Edward Richards, Tim Calder, Adam Sandercock, James Wilkins, Archie Watson, Rory
Gilling, Hugo Pearson-Wood, Rob Collyer.
Girls:- Amelia Jobling, Kirsty Liddon, Steph Courty, Tracey Kidner, Rebecca Barwise-Munro,
Poppy Le Marechal, Jo Mason, Becky Mason.