MID Devon Pony Club Senior Girls Tetrathlon Team had a fantastic time in Ireland over the Bank Holiday weekend, when they competed in the Irish National Championships. They and their supporters received wonderful hospitality from their hosts. The team of Laura and Sarah Gomersall and Jess Trerise had been invited to compete as they had won the UK Nationals last year. The competition started on Saturday with the shooting: this was always going to be the most difficult phase as the Irish have to shoot with rifles, rather than the pistols that the girls are used to. They were given some excellent training at ten thirty the previous evening, but still finished with scores somewhat lower than they hoped. This disappointment was soon put behind them when they got in the pool, where Sarah had the best swim of the class, Laura second best and Jess sixth best. These scores hauled the team up to fourth place. The hosts had promised to provide horses for the Mid Devon girls, and although Jess had met hers on Saturday evening, as Sunday dawned the twins had no idea what they were riding. With ten minutes to go before the start of the X-C phase they were told that they would have ?A fair dinger of a pony? to ride, and sure enough a very feisty grey 14.2 pony soon arrived. Sarah went first and went clear after a very exciting round. The pony was probably a little tired when Laura rode it, as it just ducked out at a ?skinny? towards the end of the course. Jess rode clear right round to the slip rail, where she had been warned that she might have trouble getting back on her horse, and sure enough she did! When she finally got into the saddle the horse set off before she had reins and stirrups organized and unfortunately swerved passed the next jump and headed for home. The course was slightly smaller than the courses found in England, but provided many more technical problems. The ride scores dropped the team a place or two, but in the final phase, the girls all ran like stars finishing with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best times. Jess was the fastest with a stunning time of 5 mins 12 secs, beating the twins for the first time in her career; Sarah ran 5.18 and Laura 5.21 for the 1500 metres. This great team effort meant the Mid Devon Girls finished in a brilliant third place, with Sarah 6th individual.
