Category Archives: Tri/Tetrathlon

AREA 5 EXCELS at the Pony Club National Triathlon Championships 2023

The National Winter Triathlon Championships were held on March 26th in Stoke Mandeville Leisure Centre. There are 19 Areas in the UK and every Area enters their best team of 4 in each of the 3 classes – Open, Junior and Minimus.  The lowest score is dropped for the final score for each team.  There were approximately 250 competitors.

All competitors will have qualified from their Area competitions so it was the cream of the country competing and the scores at the top were very close.  We travelled down the night before and had an Area 5 get together before the competition the next day.

There was a problem with the target mechanism for the Open so they had to shoot static which added to the stress!

The teams selected for Area 5 were :-

OPEN

Lana Booth CHS 2794
Oliver Loud Wynnstay 2793
Archie Peffers WyLL 2783
Abigail Mulcaster CHS  2613
  • Oliver Loud came 8th Individually with the top shoot of 940.
  • Archie Peffers came 9th with a huge swim of 11 L 5m.
  • This Open team came a creditable 5th/12

JUNIOR

Sophie Mulcaster CHS 3091
Oberon Kearney  CHS 3054
Orla Kissane FnD 2965
Bethan Stephens B & Dee 2893
  • This Junior team came an amazing 3rd/14
  • Individually, Sophie Mulcaster came 4th in Junior Girls and Oberon 4th Junior Boys.
  • Orla Kissane ran a 4.56 – the fastest run in the Junior class and faster than any Open girl too.

MINIMUS

Zara McNamara E.Ch 3079
Harvey Brown CHS 2997
Archie Evans B&Dee 2995
Lily Williams B&Dee 2923
  • This Mini team came a brilliant 2nd/19.
  • Individually, Zara won the class with a 920 shoot and a speedy 3.31 for a 1000m run.
  • Harvey was 3rd Mini Boy with an even speedier 3.13 time—top run in the class.
  • Archie was 4th Mini Boy.

There were 11 other individual competitors representing Area 5. Of these, Leah Lamb (FnD) deserves a special mention as she was the youngest Open girl and had the highest overall score (2799) of the Welsh Girls.

A good time was had by all.

Tet Champs 2022 Event Report

Well well! Tet Champs has once again delivered on being both the extravaganza and centre piece of the Tet calendar. The competition, camaraderie, kinship, inter- branch relations and hot hot weather were all available in bucket loads and will go down as a champs to remember.

With the exception of a few, most Area 5 tetrathletes were on their second Tet Champs and to some extent everyone knew the game. OffChurch would be a full up and testing course and the standard of the shoot, swim and group run heats would be tough. Oh and the eagerly anticipated partying.

Tet is a team sport, and although we cherish the individual performances, the winning senior boy and girl in their speech echoed the sentiment that we should be encouraging as many as possible to come and try our sport. Cheshire Hunt South fielded a junior Girls team – the Divas – Abby, Sophie, Polly and Harriet. The WWW’s were hugely successful in fielding a boys team of Olly Loud, Henry Bates and Jake Stockton, well done to The Wynnstay, a team of boys is an achievement in itself.
Area 5 were then able to make 3 mixed area teams; The Scarlet’s- Leah Lamb, Bethy Stephens, Harry Taylor, and Thomas Johnson; The Green’s Bea Taylor, Orla Kissane & Scarlett Gilruth; and The White’s Annabel James, Carys Dillon, Freddie James.

In the Intermediate Girls, Bea Taylor from CHS got the ball rolling with a shoot to keep her in contention, but at 880 left some ground to make up, which she promptly did with a fantastic 9.19 swim, putting her in pole overnight and Freddie James put in a respectable 900 shoot, and Carys Dillion from Tanatside competing for the first time at Champs shot well with a 760.
In the Junior classes, top marks to Olly Loud from WWW’s with a perfect 1000, but scores that were more mortal and reflected the pressure of the occasion- Sophie and Thomas held on to a respectable 900, Bethy 860, Leah an 840, Abby 820. However, Polly returned an 840 which we think is a PB in competition for Polly and Harriet a 760, again an improvement on 2021 well done, Harry, leaving himself some work to do with a 780.

The Friday heat was building rapidly, and we suddenly found ourselves clamouring to get to the air conditioned Leisure centre for the swim, The viewing gallery in the pool was, for once a welcome cool break from outdoor heat. The Swim phase was every bit as exciting as it promised to be and gave the competitors a chance to put all their training to the test. Safe to say that everyone came back happy from the Swim, with PB’s a plenty- well done to Thomas, Harry, Polly, Harriet, Olly & Bethy, all swimming a PB, to Leah who PB’d making the touch on 9 and to Abby who broke the 9 length and pushed on a bit more.

The late Friday afternoon sun was then a fantastic chance to cool down in the river, so everyone trooped off down the hill and jumped in- it was great meeting and spending time with Scottish and Northern Irish tetrathletes on the river bank.

To the Riding then, and Saturday was another scorcher, so HQ planned ahead and tried to go an hour early at 8am, but suffered a pre start hiccup and eventually got going at 8.30. The Open and Intermediate classes rode first and avoided the worst of the heat- Bea Taylor putting to bed the water complex demons of last year, rode a text book clear round to maintain her lead.
The junior boys followed the Intermediates and max 1400 ride scores went to Olly, Thomas, Harry, & Jake, well done. It was well into the afternoon and the height of the sun when the Junior girls rode; Well done Scarlett Gilruth, Leah Lamb and Bethy Stephens all with a perfect 1400, sadly Orla accidentally missed a fence toward the end of the course, which can be hard to take, I know, I recall all too well with first hand experience from my days in tet (!😂) but hopefully she will come back stronger for it next time. Then it was the turn of the CHS Divas; someone had clearly prepped the course commentator who relished in their name as one followed another. Huge well done to Abby on her new ride and Sophie stepping up and both scored a full 1400 together with Harriet on the ever reliable Slaney. Polly was also on a new ride for 2022 and rode a challenging & brave round on a bold pony.

With the ride done and literally dusted, it was all eyes on the party; Cops, Tom-Cats, Construction workers, and Cheer leaders in true collective ‘Village People’ style partied their way through the evening, though some partied perhaps more than others!! There may have been a hint of a parent or two joining in but I couldn’t possibly comment any further on that.

Going in to the run phase it was all to run for: Olly was leading the Junior Boys, Thomas in joint second, Bea leading the Inter girls, and The CHS Divas lying second, chasing 26 seconds on class leaders the Wylie Valley, but also being hotly pursued by The Beaufort girls on their heels, only 10 seconds behind.
Tet Running at Champs is in seeded heats, and the event was fantastically exciting as the route permitted viewing throughout giving plenty of opportunity for ‘encouragement’ along the way! Again, there was some really strong runs, well done Olly with a stonking 5.08, to Orla with a 5.38, and Sophie with a heat-leading 5.46. The Inters and Open ran later and the heat dial was once again notching up by the minute. Friendly Tet Family waited for the runners to cross the finish and greeted them with buckets of cold water! Well done Fred- amongst a really strong heat, to Annabel, and to Bea- all battling the competition & conditions, and with Bea hanging on to her lead to take the win – huge well done Bea, we’re all mega proud of you! In the Juniors, Olly won the Boys class with a hugely impressive and unassailable 4475 points, and Thomas Johnson 5th on 4342 points.
In Junior girls, Sophie was individual 5th on 4396 points, but the CHS Divas cemented their 2nd place by extending their lead over The Beaufort, but couldn’t match the speed and power of the girls of the Wylie Valley (Their coach is an Olympian!) nevertheless, team 2nd is a huge achievement- one that was matched by the Wynnstay in the boys class- well done all round. The Mixed Area Team Scarlet of Leah, Bethy, Thomas and Harry came 4th. There were additional rosettes for 1400 scores and completion medals for everyone who finished- which given all the challenges was no mean feat.

There was also the reformatted Grassroots class to bring on our next generation of Tetrathletes; no one from CHS this time, but Archie Evans of the Tanatside, Lleucu and Macsen from the Fn’D and Imogen Gilruth from WWWynns were all competing for first time. Well done to Lleucu placed 9th and to Archie who finished an amazing 4th! Ones to watch for the future.

So, we finish the champs with a fantastic set of results for CHS and Area 5, both with individual and team performances, creating a really strong base to build from and hopefully bringing some of the Tet enthusiasm back to the pony clubs to inspire more members to join in and give it a go.

The Tet season isn’t quite over yet, though perhaps time for a short pause for an actual summer holiday(!)- before the Winter Tri’s commence there will still be time for Tetrathlons arranged by The Albrighton, the Flint n’Denbigh and Cheshire Hunt South in September and October.

Overall Tetrathlon in Area 5 is closing this year in a great place. Well done to everyone, parents, helpers and members- on all your efforts to make tetrathlon what it is and for all the effort that goes into the sport.

Area 5 and 18 Tetrathlon Qualifier results – 2022

Well done everyone who competed at the weekend. It was lovely to see so many of you and especially to be joined by the Area 18 people.

I’ve attached the results but I’m sure most of you have already seen them on the www.ponyclubresults.co.uk site. The Triathlon Teams results had to be taken off that site as it can only show one team competition.

I’ve also attached the cross country fence summary as it might interest you to see where there were problems. If a rider was eliminated on course the results show 50 penalties for each fence after their elimination. If anyone wants to know how they did after that point just ask and I can look it up.

Cheers, Penny W

Tri Results – Mold – Sunday 13th March 2022

The following qualified for the Tri Champs (I’ll try to add this to the online system soon)

Senior Boys: Archie Peffers (Waen y Llyn) and Freddie James (East Cheshire)

Senior Girls:  Verity Clements (Ryburn Valley), Annabel James (East Cheshire) and Imogen Kissane (Flint and Denbigh)

Junior Boys: Lochlan White (East Cheshire) and Henry Bates (Sir WWW)

Junior Girls: Orla Kissane and Constance Wight (both Flint and Denbigh)

Mini Boys: Will Beckinsale (North Shropshire), Joe Melchers (Wheelton), Hyden Lunt (Cheshire Hunt South) and Jesper Hanks (East Cheshire)

Mini Girls: Helen Jones (Flint and Denbigh) and Antonia Davenport (Cheshire Hunt North)

Well done everyone and remember that the closing day to enter the Tri Champs is tomorrow!

Area 5 Mold Triathlon January 2022 results

Well done everyone for competing on Sunday and co-operating with the extra restrictions, and an extra big thank you to the volunteers who helped the committee on the day so that the event was able to run.

I’ve attached the results and hope that everyone was able to see them during the event on Pony Club Results. The rosettes and medals are on their way to the team leaders except that we ran out of swim medals so some of these will follow later.

Our next event is at Mold on Sunday 13 March and is the qualifier for the Winter Tri Champs which are on Sunday 27 March at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre Trent Rd, Grantham NG31 7XQ. The top two in each class at Mini, Junior and Open will qualify.

See you then, Penny W