Equestrian: Officials seek golden recipe

By HELEN TUNNAH

Crunch talks will be held at the Puhinui horse trials tomorrow aimed at getting New Zealand eventers on track to win gold at the Athens Olympic Games.

A series of meetings will be held between key high-performance officials, selectors and coaches, including national coach Mark Todd, to structure a programme towards the 2004 Games.

Eventing chef d'equipe Chris Hodson said the first step will be qualifying for Athens, after the team missed automatic entry by finishing a disappointing fifth at the world championships this year.

"We've scheduled a meeting for Thursday afternoon to look at getting a winning medal at the Olympics, and the first thing we have to do is qualify."

An internationally sanctioned qualified event must have three teams competing, so talks are under way to see if Japan or Korea could join New Zealand and the already-qualified Australia at the national championships at Taupo in May.

Otherwise, New Zealand may have to send a team to the Kentucky horse trials in the United States or persuade the International Equestrian Federation to open the European championships in Ireland next September.

The three-day event at Athens will be held under a new format. In the endurance test, the steeplechase and second track test have been dropped, while the 7km cross-country course has been reduced to 5.5km, but with the same number of fences.

The individual and team contests will be held at the same time, with a nation limited to five instead of six riders and the top 25 contestants riding a second showjumping round to decide individual medals.

Hodson said one new role in the leadup to Athens could be developing a team captain's position, ideally suited to former world and Olympic champion Blyth Tait.

Tait's involvement will be finalised in the New Year, along with that of Todd.

"Mark is the official coach and Blyth is obviously someone whose talents we want to use.

"I think that he would have input into the coaching and also help familiarise the younger riders. We've got a lot of people who have good teams and good potential but who have never been part of a team."

Hodson said tomorrow's meetings would be as comprehensive as possible.

A programme of clinics had been established, and selectors would want to study the makeup of national elite and development squads, while checking individuals' training plans for the coming season.

"We're getting down to as much detailed planning as we can, and sort out what programme each head of department has to put in place to get the best team possible there."

Eventing is also under some financial pressure to lift its results at the games, after failing to finish in the team medals at the world championships this year and also at the Sydney Olympics two years ago.

Equestrian is among Sport and Recreation New Zealand's seven priority sports, and was allocated $434,000 for the year ended June this year.

Hodson said the sport had to do well to retain future funding.

The Puhinui three-day event begins tomorrow with the two-star dressage competition. Dressage for the three-star contest starts on Friday.