What an incredibly successful weekend the Irish Squad had in Warwickshire this June Bank holiday! The Junior Irish Pony Club tetrathletes swept the board (see results below).
Tetrathlon consists of four phases, namely, target shooting, running, swimming and cross-country riding. Run under the auspices of The Pony Club, the sport is thrilling and oddly addictive! International competitions are organised every year between UK regions and Ireland at Minimus (under12), Junior (under15) and Senior level.
One of the largest ever Irish Junior squads to travel, 45 competitors were to travel but unfortunately, Tianne Kelly tested positive for Covid on departure day, reducing the squad to 44 and forcing a quick team reshuffle.
John Flood, chairman of Irish Tetrathlon committee, was worried about the 3 years interruption to international competition forced by the pandemic. Efforts were redoubled, training started at national level in early February with regular triathlon sessions in Athy and Stradbally. A National competition on St Patrick’s weekend resulting in the large squad selection. Training then intensified to every weekend and the riding phase training was coached by Jo Brehenny. Full Tetrathlon competitions appeared on the calendar as Spring took hold, and our squad was ready to travel and do battle over the pond!
Getting There – The Journey!
Brexit induced difficulties with the horses’ journey by ferry (masterfully organised by Nikki Henson) and chaos in the airports for competitors and their families (even The Almighty couldn’t sort that one out!) added another dimension to the trip. By Friday morning the ponies were grateful for the roomy stables provided by Moreton Morell College, and the squad made short work of decorating our aisles with Irish bunting and flags galore. We found time for a quick shooting practice before the ever-smiling Barbara Sargent organised a fabulous BBQ for the whole Irish contingent with the help of many parents. After an incredibly long and stressful day of travel, a good night sleep had us all ready for the competition start on Saturday morning.
Competition Day 1 – Saturday
The first phase was the shoot, held in the indoor school at the college. John Flood’s intense training paid off and the Irish competitors held their own in a phase which is usually dominated by the UK regions. While the best shoot went to them with a few on 980 points (out of a possible 1000pts), Ella Lombard and Victoria Roche scored 940 in the Girls section and in the Boys section, the best scores were 960 points with best of the Irish Michael Bowe on 900.
The second phase, on Saturday afternoon, was the swim and this took place in nearby Warwick. Competitors have to swim for 3 minutes and the longer the distance achieved, the more points obtained. Best overall swim went to Tom O’Rourke for Ireland, who swam 10 lengths (of 25m each) and 9 meters for 1222 points. The top 6 overall spots went to Ireland.
In the Girls section, best swim went to Eastern England but Grace Quinn, Molly Hennessy and Victoria Roche shared second place on 9 Lengths and 23m for 1189 points. The afternoon finished with a traditional 50m x 4 relay which Ireland won!
Back to Moreton for a course walk (or 3!) with Team Manager Sean Sargent as the team riding coach, Jo Brehenny, was unavoidably delayed in the Dublin airport chaos, only making the last group walk through cheer determination to be there for the riders she had trained
Then onto The Entertainment competition in the field Marquee! “Kings and Queens”, royalty or pop, was the theme on the Jubilee weekend so Team Ireland went for a spot of traditional music and dance, The walls of Limerick, with fiddle and tin whistle and followed with a Queen song and dance routine and the best Freddie Mercury of the evening! We couldn’t comprehend how Team Ireland didn’t win. Oisin Mercury was the star of the show and the craic mighty! It was later revealed that our bribes to the judges panel were not substantial enough… humph!
Competition Day 2 Sunday
Sunday morning was an early start and dawned with really heavy rain… The Girls were running from 8.30am then riding after 11am and the boys doing the opposite
Jo was doing course walks from 7am, having finally made over after her airport nightmare. The rain started abating mid-morning, leaving the first runners soaked and the going on the XC went from rather firm to good and thankfully it didn’t become slippery as we feared it might
The Girls running phase is 1500 meters, and was won by Ellie Dillon for Ireland in 5 minutes 21 seconds earning her 1057 points. Emma Hickey was a close 2nd in 5.22 and 1054 points.
The Boys running phase was won by Ireland’s Peter Verling in 5 minutes flat, earning him 1030 points and Jamie Hargaden came 2nd with 5.02 and 1024 points.
The cross-country course was a true tetrathlon championship track! A very cleverly designed track of 20 fences of max. 90cm height, over 2750m, with 6 clearly technically challenging fences and a tight time allowed.
Contrarily to eventing, times faults accumulate at a rate of 2 penalties per second over time allowed, a first refusal at a fence costs 60 penalties and taking an L option fence instead of a straight route at a challenging fence costs 70 penalties. The maximum points a rider can earn is 1400 points for a clear round inside the time. As this is the most points which can be earned out of all 4 phases, those are hard earned! This year only 10% achieved the 1400 points and another 13% under 60 penalties. This year, the most challenging and influential fences were an offset 1 horse stride double of brush topped coops at 8A and B, Fence 11a,b,c of corner to skinny to another corner on a bending line under the big tree with a very tight approach at the bottom of the hill, a bounce of rolltops going up the big hill at fence 13a,b, fence 14a,b,c was a test of fitness and accuracy at the top of the big hill, fence 16a,b,c was a proper challenge of a bank to an airy white rail and finishing over a dog leg to a skinny c element. The water at fence 19a,b,c was a bold brush top into the water and a very skinny angled shoulder brush out. The beauty of the course design was that going clear and earning top points was truly challenging but safe to attempt (with the use of brush topped fences and MIMs clips which were forgiving to the brave) and also L options to help get the less experienced around. Very few of the competitors had falls or eliminations/retirements, but very few earned top marks. Very good course design.
Out of the 38 boys who set out on the cross-country course, only 6 went clear inside the time, earning them the top score of 1400 points. Three of them were for Ireland with Peter Verling, Daniel Sargent and Sonny McCartan. A handful went clear but had time faults, it was the case for Emmet Wash, Max O’Reilly and Zach Palmer for Ireland.
There were 90 girls in the Junior section, 7 went clear inside the time, 4 of them for Ireland! They were Sinead Greene, Lucy Martin, Ellie Dillon and Grace Quinn. 8 Irish girls were on 60 or less penalties for either time faults or a stop but no time penalties; Anna Murphy, Louisa Hussey, Molly Hennessy, Caroline Roche, Isabelle Walsh, Yvonne Daly, Katie Dillon and Ella Lombard.
Overall, the Irish riders did fantastically well; if not clear, only a few penalties were earned and that is what made their performance stand out overall.
While the scorers were working on the results, it was all hands to the deck for team Ireland, looking after the horses to ensure their safe travel home on the lorries, cleaning, packing, loading, mucking out, sweeping (first prize to Ruby Walsh, who knew he could beat us all at fastest sweep of a 50 m corridor?? Leave us mere mortal something Ruby?!).
The Prize giving took place under the Marquee with great fanfare and excitement, John Flood donned his prize giving outfit, gave demos on how to tie stocks properly, which gender was to wear their hat, which to carry it under arm and Ruby Walsh gave away the rosettes won, with little help from the Queen (but she got in on every photo!). Full results are below in all their glory!
Epilogue
Once the ponies were safely loaded and away, those who remained may well have celebrated but this will be neither confirmed nor denied and you will not see any written report of this phase… This is because the most important, valuable and enduring aspect of this weekend, for competitors and families, for coaches and volunteers alike, is what should be read between the lines: Passion, for the sport and the horses, fun, helpfulness, camaraderie, excitement, exhaustion, laughter, fashion sense (John only), best memories! These tremendous results will stand for one full year but the friendships made, for much, much longer.
Any Pony Club member thinking,” hmmm, I’d like to do that!”, just go for it! Get as much cross[1]country experience over the summer with Pony Club eventing and Hunter Trials, go to our own tetrathlon championships in August and use the winter months to improve your swim and run. The tetrathlon committee facilitates shooting training during the final selection process in the Spring. Come and join our tetrathlon family
International Junior Regional Tetrathlon Results 2022
Irish top 10 individual results
Girls section
1st Grace Quinn
2nd Ella Lombard
3rd Emma Hickey
4th Ellie Dillon
5th Caroline Roche
8th Molly Hennessy
Boys section
2nd Peter Verling
4th Sonny Mc Cartan
7th John Aspel-James
9th Michael Bowe
10th Max O’Reilly
International Tetrathlon Team Winners:
Team Ireland Boys section
John Aspel-James, Peter Verling, Jamie Hargaden, Peter Galligan and Sonny McCartan
Team Ireland Girls section
Grace Quinn, Ella Lombard, Emma Hickey, Molly Hennessy-Murphy and Lucy Martin
International Regional Tetrathlon Team Competition:
Junior Girls section
1st Team Irish Gillard on 17328 pts (Ellie Dillon, Amelie Henson, Molly Hennessy, Emma Hickey and Caroline Roche)
2nd team Irish Watson on 17025 pts (Ella Lombard, Grace Quinn, Sahara Smith, Lucy Martin and Sinead Greene)
3rd Team Irish Freeman on 16626 pts (Isabelle Walsh, Katie Dillon, Victoria Roche, Yvonne Daly and Sophie Dooley)
4th team Irish Firr on 16520 pts (Anna O’ Callahan, Hazel Gleeson, Anna Murphy, Grace Forde and Cora Finn)
11th Team Irish Bell on 15350 pts (Margaret Verling, Lucy O’Rourke, Louise Hussey, Lucy Minihan and Ali Fitzpatrick)
Junior Boys section:
1st Irish Gold on 16780 pts (John Aspel-James, Peter Verling, Jamie Hargaden, Sonny McCartan and Peter Galligan)
2nd Irish Green on 16243 pts (Michael Bowe, Tom O’Rourke, Max O’Reilly, Alexander Maher and Zach Palmer)
4th Irish White on 15037 pts (Sean Cooke, Darragh Walsh, Teddy Turner, Harry Lowe and Daniel Sargent
This Article was written by Gaelle Daly Press Officer For the Irish Pony Club Tetrathlon Team. All Pictures were provided for this piece courtesy of Irish Pony Club Tetrathlon Squad Parents.