Unique experience for Columba pupil

Equestrian Stephanie Jasperse, of Columba College, will represent New Zealand at an international...
Equestrian Stephanie Jasperse, of Columba College, will represent New Zealand at an international tetrathlon championship in Ireland this month. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
We know what you are thinking - you have no idea what tetrathlon is, right?

Nor did we and to be fair Stephanie Jasperse is new to the sport as well. The 16-year-old Columba College pupil heard about it through pony club.

"The call came out that New Zealand had been offered the opportunity to take a team over to Ireland for the international tetrathlon,'' Stephanie explained.

"I thought that would be something I'd be interested in and put my name down.''

So, tetrathlon - what is it? Well, it is four-pronged event in which the athletes compete in riding, shooting, swimming and running.

Stephanie has been riding for five years so the riding part would be easy enough. It is a regular cross-country event.

Shooting was completely new to her, though, and involves trying to hit a target the size of an A4 piece of paper 10m away with an air pistol.

Each competitor has to swim as far as they can in 3min and must run 1.5km in 5min 10sec or less. Every second over the time limit incurs one penalty point.

That's tetrathlon. Now you are all sorted for that next pub quiz.

Stephanie leaves for Ireland later this month. She will compete in a warm-up event at the Royal Dublin Horse Show before going on to contest the international tetrathlon.

"This will be the first time I've actually done it,'' Stephanie said.

"It is not a competition that is offered in New Zealand at the moment, so part of the point of sending a team is being able to start to introduce it in New Zealand.''

Stephanie's training regime suffered a setback when she got ill recently.

Understandably her expectations are modest but she is looking forward to the experience.

It will be her first trip overseas.

"I guess the main thing is just getting out there and having a good experience. The competition will be great but I'm really looking forward to meeting other people who are interested in the same thing.''

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