Equestrian: Tompkins off early to Sydney

By SUZANNE McFADDEN


Top equestrian rider Heelan Tompkins is packing up her three top horses and moving in with the Australians in a bid to make the Sydney Olympics.

Tompkins, a former world young rider of the year, is on the 11-strong shortlist for New Zealand's three-day eventing team.

On Monday she is moving from Taranaki to Sydney to live and train with the Australian Olympic squad.

"I'm going to be the only foreigner in their camp. The Australians are a lot younger and I have a lot of good friends in the squad," she said. "It's a really big move, but I think it's the right thing to do.

"It won't be easy. We'll be riding the horses twice a day every day."

Tompkins has chosen to impress the Olympic selectors on this side of the globe rather than embark on campaigns at Badminton or Lexington, Kentucky.

"It's too far to go to the other side of the world. Horses can pick up illnesses, and September isn't that far away," she said.

She is hoping the Olympic selectors will come to her and watch her compete in the Australian Olympic trials in April.

Tompkins will take her No 1 horse, Arragato, which finished fifth at the Adelaide four-star event last November, intermediate horse, Waitangi, and her New Year's present, 13-year-old Glengarrick.

Her new horse will serve as back-up to Arragato, but Tompkins is confident that he is just as good.

"I was quick on the uptake when he became available," she said. "He won the international three-day event in Auckland in 1997, and he's going to come out and surprise people who don't know about him.

"If I don't make it to Sydney for the Olympics he's still going to be a nice horse for the World Games in 2002."

While living in Sydney, Tompkins will continue her university studies extramurally in psychology and sports science.