Pony Club National Championships – Tetrathlon

Wow what a weekend at the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships. An achievement in itself to qualify for this competition, there are as always, highs and lows, which test the competitor’s resilience as we heard at prize giving from the International GB team who had just returned from Australia. Our branch had 7 members competing, Charles and Katie in the Intermediate Boys and Girls and Oona, Emelia, Holly, Hamish and Alex in the Juniors.

For Emelia, a fall during the xc ride phase put her out of rosette contention but her ‘resilience’ and determination for this sport she loves has only spurred her on for a return next year.

Holly finished in 68th place in the Junior Girls with a big smile on her face at prize giving. A few Learner fences and a couple of refusals for this new combination was a fantastic result coupled with a very good shoot run and swim.

Hamish and Alex had a brilliant weekend, socially as well as competing in the four phases. With plenty of branch support from their friends they still managed to achieve 880 (Alex) and 760 (Hamish) in their shoot phase, nearly swim 6 lengths for both of them and a couple of blips on the xc course and a good run for both to finish in 22nd (Hamish) and 24th (Alex) places for Junior Boys.

Katie and Charles both had an amazing weekend. A disappointing shoot was soon forgotten with a brilliant 7 length swim and xc ride with Rocky as a new combination this year. To finish with a sub 7 min run and 24th place in the Intermediate girls, Katie was soon talking about next year and more training required – no stopping this gal !!……..

This was Charles’s first PC Tet Championships at Intermediate level so he was very pleased to get personal best results in the shoot, run and swim. A fantastic clear round the xc course with a score just short of 4000 points, Charles finished in 8th place.

To score over 4000 points in this competition is a tremendous achievement – so our star member this year is Oona who despite finishing in 29th place out of 80 girls – she scored an amazing 4019 points with a brilliant shoot, swim and run and a very fast xc round – one of 16 girls to get a 1400 ride score.

Our branch had a mixed Junior Team consisting Oona, Holly, Alex and Hamish who came 3rd and Katie and Charles joined James Maundrell (West Warwickshire) and Ellie Bill (South Shropshire) to form the Area 7 Mixed Team and they came 4th.

Well done everybody for a very successful weekend. Our thanks must go to our trainer – Sarah Markworth and to Jim Quinlan who has consistently been at our side for the past 15 years as our shoot instructor. Thank you to Rachel Montgomery, our Tet Area Manager, who consolidated all the times for us over the three days and the Tet Committee for putting on such a fabulous event (especially the scoring team – so efficient and prompt with the results) See you next year ………..