Jack Wilmot, 11-year-old pupil at Saint Felix, Southwold, is the new National Champion in the 70cm Eventers Challenge after a near-perfect ride in the National Schools Equestrian Associations Eventers Challenge Championships this weekend at Hickstead.
The Eventers Challenge is a class made up of both show jumps and portable cross country fences. The aim of the class is to jump clear and to be as close to an unknown optimum time set by the course builder, based on so many metres per minute. Competing against individuals from schools across the UK, Jack riding Tiger Lily came within 0.2 seconds of the optimum time to win the class.
Additional successes for Saint Felix in both individual and team classes made it the school’s most successful championships ever. Maria Donovan also competed as an individual in the 70cm class and placed a commendable 10th of 21 competitors, while in the team 70cm event, a full set of clear rounds secured 2nd place out of 20 teams for Saint Felix. Nathaniel Hurst also competed in the 1m Individual Eventers final, finishing 4th.
Along side the Eventers Challenge finals, the NSEA also ran qualifying classes in Jumping with Style and Show Jumping for the National Championships to be held at Addington in October, and for the Championship Plate at Keysoe in December.
Saint Felix competed in the 70cm Jumping with Style Qualifier, and the team made up of Jack Wilmot, Lulu Everett and Georgia Pleasants finished third overall. Both Georgia and Jack went on to compete in the 80cm class along with Maria Donovan and Nathaniel Hurst where they placed 4th, securing both teams a place at the NSEA Championship Plate in December. Nathaniel also competed in the 1m show-jumping class and finished 15th out of 69 competitors.