TETRATHLON
What a week-end was had at the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships in Offchurch August 11th/13th.
Area 5 (NorthWales/Cheshire) shone as did Flint and Denbigh Branch. A Flint and Denbigh Junior team of determined young ladies ! competed and they were simply brilliant. They were Harriet Goodall, Orla Kissane and Lleucu Haf Newton. The shoot phase is always the most nerve wracking but they held it together and achieved respectable scores. The swim that afternoon went as expected although Harriet was short changed by a metre and robbed of a 9 length swim. The next day was XC day and all the girls had walked the course twice (at least). Many of the fences were straight forward but there were some very testing combinations which required accurate, positive riding. They all rode like demons and went clear but Harriet and LLeucu picked up a few time penalties. Lleucu lost a stirrup at the water and did the next two fences without ! All home safe and everyone was on a high and ready to enjoy the super party on Sat night – especially the parents !
Sunday morning they ran in the rain. Orla was set on getting the top run but was pipped by 8 seconds by the overall winner so ended up with second best run. The team came a creditable 3rd out of 10 teams. Individually, Orla came 10th out of 94 (yes 94 ! ) competitors so well done Orla. Harriet was 39th and Lleucu 43rd. They can be very proud of this achievement.
Leah Lamb had also qualified and was in an Area 5 mixed Intermediate team which came FIRST. Leah was presented with an award for the youngest Intermediate Girl. She came 19th Individually out of 48 girls. She was well up in the placings and going really well XC until she came to the water where she had a stop and a fall. She bravely remounted and completed. All 4 girls were faced with a course, the like of which they had not tackled before.
Well done Girls and of course, their back up teams.
