Olympic Test
Olympic "Test Event" in Hong KongAn Australian delegation including AOC representatives Russ Withers (Assistant Chef de Mission) and Craig Phillips (AOC Secretary General) is going to Hong Kong to observe and familiarise themselves with facilities and systems and to support the two Australian riders who will compete in a 2-star CIC held 11 - 13 August. Apart from the "usual" support personnel for an Eventing Team, our Dressage and Jumping Chefs d'Equipe Debbie MacNicol and Stephen Lamb will also attend, as will I. There will be an official debriefing by the organisers on 14 August. This is an important part of our preparations for next year's Olympic Games. Having seen and experienced the Test Event situation helps enormously in planning activities. Many National Federations (NFs) will have observers there. Particular interest will be in how the warm and humid conditions will impact on horses and riders and the competition in general. Even though there has been a call to "share" the insights gained, most people expect NFs to want to gain the edge on others by keeping some of the more unique and useful information to themselves. The FEI is likely to issue recommendations on how best to deal with heat and humidity. Test events are held firstly to give organisers a chance to "test" as many Games systems (personnel, venues, communications, scoring and results systems, etc.) as possible and to fix any perceived shortcoming before the actual Games. On the other hand, NFs have the opportunity to experience all of this and make suggestions and requests for improvement. National Squad ClinicsPreparations for the Olympic Games are now in full swing. Funding from the Australian Sports Commission provided through the EFA High Performance Program gives all of our Olympic sports the opportunity to hold high-level coaching clinics. Since the last e-news, there have been a number of Jumping Squad clinics with "Technical Director" Gilbert Böckmann, the last one of which in conjunction with the magnificent Elysian Fields Show Jumping Classic near the Gold Coast. At this event, Gilbert also took part as a member of the "European Team" in an unofficial international competition, ridden mostly on borrowed horses. After a successful Dressage Squad clinic at Glenorie in June, National Dressage Coach Ralf Isselhorst will return in September for another clinic. Dressage trainer Harry Boldt recently worked with Eventing National Squad members in conjunction with a NSW Institute of Sport clinic. Harry is also scheduled to travel to Great Britain with National Eventing Coach Wayne Roycroft to conduct a clinic with our GBR-based riders at Burghley in late August. Once again this has been possible with the support of additional funding through Australian Sports Commission's Beijing Athlete Program (BAP). On the international front, we should mention that Phillip Dutton, who changed AUS to USA earlier this year, won Team Gold and Individual Silver at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro last week. As far as FEI World Rankings are concerned, however, GBR-based Western Australian Clayton Fredericks is still in the lead, with wife Lucinda occupying 25th place. Andrew Hoy (4), Stuart Tinney (8), Chris Burton (13) Emily Anker (17), Wendy Schaeffer (18) and Shane Rose (22) make up the group of eight Australian representatives in the top 25. Olympic Nomination Policy and CriteriaThese documents will hopefully come back from the Australian Olympic Committee this week with some final comments and will then be published. Both Dressage and Jumping will have "head-to-head" competitions in June in Europe, after which the final team selection will be made for the 2008 Olympic Games. Farewell CinderellaMost of you will be aware of this sad ending to a tale that promised so much. We have published a tribute to Cinderella. Other EventsFEI World Para-Dressage ChampionshipsA number of Australian riders took part in the 2007 World Championships held at Hartpury in flood-devastated Gloucester. Our congratulations to the Aussie Team and particularly to Nicole Kullen for a Silver and a Bronze medal. FEI World Pony Driving ChampionshipsJessica Meredith represented Australia in the Pairs event and ended up in a creditable 16th place after difficulties during the Marathon. Jessica had been in 4th place after Dressage. Well done, Jessica! Burghley Horse TrialsAround six Australian combinations are expected to participate in this 4-Star event. You can watch the Cross-Country and Jumping live via the internet on Burghley TV. Upcoming Events in AustraliaYou can find details of many events of the event calendar of the EFA National Web or any of the EFA State Branch webs. Here is a listing downloaded from the National Web for July:
New National Office StaffAs you know, Niki Chapman has been "phasing out" of her role in the National Office, after four years in the job. We thank her for her contribution and dedication and are sure she will stay in touch. Niki is now helping her replacement Michelle Battams to "get up to speed". Michelle has a veterinary nursing background and rides. We welcome Michelle! Publicity/Marketing Officer"Can you spot a great news story from a hundred paces? Track down the juiciest real life stories and write dazzling, laugh-out-loud copy? This is something I picked up and adapted from another advertisement and thought it might get your attention. In an effort to raise the sport's and the EFA's profile, we are now looking for a person to assist us with media, publicity/marketing and sponsorship activities. The position may grow from initially part-time to a full-time role depending the person's skills and ability to "add value" to the Federation. You can download a position description. Equestrian on TVI am glad to say that Fox Sports is screening a number of Jumping programs this month. In any case, please don't miss the very interesting FEI Equesterian World on BBC World. More ... Atari Game "My Horse and Me"I won't worry too much about the English but "My Horse and Me" is a multi-platform interactive video game developed by Atari in cooperation with the FEI. Apparently, it's great and should attract a large audience. We will be sending you another e-mail with more details in late August. The game will be launched in October. National By-Laws and PoliciesI recently attended a meeting with our principal partner, the Australian Sports Commission, together with the CEOs of a number of other National Sporting Organisations. The purpose of the meting was to update us on efforts by the ASC to increase resources on their web site that will assist sports in a number of areas, particularly in Member Protection and services to members. One of the presenters made the interesting point that there was, unfortunately, very little awareness at membership and club level (and sometimes at State level) of how National Policies had application right through the sport. This was particularly so for Member Protection and Ant-Doping policies, which bind all participants in a sport. You can find all national EFA policies on our web. “Corporate Knowledge” and Succession PlanningAt the same meeting, the ASC also pointed out that many sports had frequent changes in the membership of committees and boards, particularly at State and Club level and sometimes involving almost all office bearers. This had severe consequences especially when there were no systems in place to ensure that “corporate knowledge” was retained by the organisation and passed on to new Committee members. The new web services that are being developed will include tools and recommendations for sporting organisations that should help them establish systems. The current club network was already very successful at helping clubs introduce good management practices and State Departments of Sport provided similar services. I should note here that we have begun “rolling out” our offer to affiliated “EFA Premium Clubs” of a virtually free web site that includes a club membership management system. We have always been encouraging the keeping of records of meetings and decisions and the production of policies, guidelines and manuals that can be used to “induct” new committee or board members and help them understand their work. Supporters and SponsorsI cannot close without thanking our funding agencies, sponsors and supporters. In particular, we would like to mention
For more news and other information, please visit www.equestrian.org.au or your State Branch web (www.[state].equestrian.org.au). Make it a good day! Franz Venhaus PS: Please let us know if you received this e-mail more than once. We have updated the distribution list but there may have been some limited duplication because of non-matching records (name and e-mail address) | ||||||||||||||||||
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