Margie McLoone
THERE were plenty of positives to take out of last weekend’s Irish Pony Club Tetrathlon championships with some branches recording their first successes at national level.
Disappointingly however, only one club, Laois, fielded a full squad of four in the senior boys’ team event but plans are being drawn up to hopefully increase that number. This is particularly important as next August the IPC is hosting a full international Tetrathlon with teams being invited from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Last week, some 30 members of British clubs travelled over to Ireland to compete in a home international, that figure being down from two years ago as there is a major Pony Club Tetrathlon this weekend in Melton Mowbray at which two senior girls’ teams are representing the IPC.
By default, the Laois won the national branch title for the first time but the quartet of cousins John and Jamie Carroll, Gordon Shannon and David Brickley could only finish fourth in the team event. Having enjoyed success earlier in the week at the IPC Festival in Mullingar, John Carroll was most unfortunate in Sunday’s ride phase when King Zak slipped up on the flat after the second last fence.
Although the senior track will have to be beefed up considerably for next year’s international, there were only three completely clear rounds on Sunday at Tattersalls with many being caught out by fence five, a narrow offset log which course designer Eugene O’Neill had placed on top of a slope through a gap.
The team competition was won by a mixed squad comprising the Warrington pair Mark Collins (winner of the shoot on 890 points) and Mike Healy, the Golden Vale’s Sean Ryan and Conor Mahon of the Kilkenny branch.
Healy (17) landed the individual championship on 4,473 points and thus brought up a Grand Slam of victories having previously claimed the national Mimimus (under 12) and Junior (under 15) titles. He won the swim in the National Aquatic Centre on Saturday afternoon and, on 1,069 points, was second in the run at Tattersalls on Monday to the Westmeaths’ Jack O’Leary (1,198).
Riding the 12-year-old Grange Bouncer gelding Born To Bounce, Healy posted a clear cross-country round as did Andrew Turley (The Devils Bit), a member of the third-placed East Down team who represented Northern Ireland at the championships, and the Brays’ Leo Micklem (Arrow Flight) who finished second overall on 4,261.
The last-named was on the composite team which filled the runner-up spot along with O’Leary (who was third individually on 4,220), Fionn Campbell of the Ward Union branch and also Wicklow’s Jack Savage who just failed to record the full 1,400 points for the ride phase when picking up two time penalties.
Healy also won the international senior boys’ individual title with Micklem, O’Leary and the Laois’s Jamie Carroll (4,106), who were also on the winning Ireland gold team (17,060) finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The team also included Mark Collins who was just beaten in the shoot by the overall runner-up, Chris Harris (4,401) a member of the second-placed United Kingdom team (16,122).
Thirteen squads contested the senior girls’ national championships where the honours went for the first time to the Limerick branch. Its representatives were twins Aoife and Roisin Duggan McSweeney, Brigitte Murphy and Tara Finucane who completed the four phases on a total of 12,024 points ahead of the Bray Blades (11,714).
INDIVIDUALS
The individual winner on 4,354 points was Sophie Lowe of the South Westmeath branch who secured victory when winning the swim phase on Saturday with a record score of 1,188 for 10 lengths and 22 metres. Lowe, the Louths’ run winner Aoife Fay (4,316) and the Meaths’ Eimear O’Neill (4,206), who finished second and third, were among nine competitors who received the full 1,400 points for the ride phase.
The top two international teams were packed with very competent jockeys as four of the winning United Kingdom 1 squad went clear on their way to notching up 16,812 points as did three of the Ireland silver team who finished second (16,762).
The runners-up included Lowe who won her second individual title of the weekend ahead of Fay. O’Neill could only finished sixth behind the UK 1’s Mollie Hansford (4,252) and Suzie Barwise-Monro (4,234) and UK 2’s Francesca Ryde (4,224).