THE Mid Devon Pony Club senior girls? team won the area tetrathlon, at Yeovil over the weekend in emphatic style, qualifying for the national championships.

Teams from three areas were competing for the right to go to the championships and the Mid Devon girls, Laura and Sarah Gomersall, Georgina Geikie and Jess Trerise, scored over a thousand points more than any other team.

The girls started well, with all four having good shoots, Laura sharing best with Heather Fell. Their good form continued in the pool with Sarah and Jess both posting pbs, leaving the team well placed at the end of the first day.

The cross-country course was daunting but the rain had relented and conditions were ideal as the girls warmed up their horses. An unfortunate delay just before they were due to start increased tension, but Laura calmed everyone?s nerves with a perfect clear round. Sarah followed her with just one unlucky stop and Jess put in a bold ride to keep the team at the top of the leader board.

All four girls, have recently benefited from cross country training with Clarissa Bleekman which gave them the confidence to tackle the demanding course at Aldon

In the running phase, the girls produced four brilliant runs, having four of the five fastest times of the day, Jess?s being a pb.

Individually, Laura was second and Sarah third, both scoring more than 4,000 points. Heather Fell of the Spooners PC came first, Tamsynn Barrington (Tetcott and S Tetcott) fourth and these two with Kirsty Evans (SDM) and Kim Bland (Eggesford) also qualified for the championships so they will all be meeting up again at Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire in three weeks? time.