Teenager Amber Thomson continued to represent T&T with success, with her latest achievement recorded at the Winter Equestrian Festival held at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida, last month, where she was awarded several prestigious ribbons.

Mounted on 16-year-old Argentine  thoroughbred, Vertigo, who is the same age as her, Thomson collected ribbons in almost every appearance at the arena, where they jumped the course with obstacles up to 1.2m high.

Thompson and Vertigo secured an eighth place finish in the opening speed class, but followed up well with a fourth place finish in the Classic Show jumping class, the next day when they jumped two clear rounds, but were beaten by time in the jump off.

In the “Clear Round gets a Ribbon” leg of the competition, held several days later, Thompson rode two clear rounds, following which she was awarded the celebrated ribbons.

On the following Saturday, in another Classic Show jumping class, Thompson and Vertigo conceded four faults in the jump off, but cleared the first the first round.

The, in the Children’s Modified jumper class, both rider and horse performed two outstanding clear rounds. The time in the jump off was 38.307 seconds, placing the pair third in a class of 40 entrants. The winner's clocked 37.674 seconds.

In the final week of the Winter Equestrian Festival, Thompson claimed another ribbon for riding a clear round. She and Vertigo went further to place second in yet another Classic Show jumping class with clear rounds in the first and jump off rounds and in a very good time on this occasion.

They were beaten by half a second by one of the last riders. On the last day of the competition, on March 29, the twosome placed fifth in the final Classic Show jumping class.

Once again the first round was a clear, but Thompson had a rail down in the jump off which unfortunately amounted to four faults.

Canadian equestrian and eight-time Olympiad, Ian Millar, congratulated Thompson on being awarded ribbons almost each time in the Classic Show jumping class.

Thompson has temporarily returned to T&T. She and 14-year-old Jordanne Brown will represent this country at the Caribbean Equestrian Association’s (CEA) Junior Jumping competition to be held in the Cayman Islands on both days next weekend.

Earlier in February, whereby part of the competition was held in Barbados, T&T placed first, represented by Hadley Rahael and Jordanne Brown. After competing in the Cayman Islands, Thompson will return to the Millar Brooke Farm in Canada where she will continue to ride and compete.

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{jcomments off}Soon after competing at the Hong Kong Sevens qualifiers last month, and graced with a full strength team, Guyana’s rugby team arrived in T&T confident and ready to move into its second successive Nacra Championship final, with an easy win over the host team in sight.

But, despite a valiant effort in the end, Guyana fell short by three points (needing a win to advance), while T&T celebrated among many things, a revenge win as well as a spot in the Nacra Championship final against North Zone winner, Mexico. The match ended 22-20 in T&T’s favour, but perhaps a bit too close for comfort considering the host team held a 12-0 lead at the half.

T&T will now prepare to challenge for a third Nacra Championship title (previous winner in 2001 and 2008) against final debutant, Mexico, on April 25 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

“Guyana would have been clear favourites as the defending champs,” said T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) president and avid rugby supporter, Brian Lewis, who missed the match and returned home from a work related trip in Miami, Florida. Lewis, however, kept pace of the match via social media, celebrated the important win, albeit by himself. “Winning a close, tough game versus our archrivals Guyana is great.”

The Guyana “Green Machine” won the three-team South Zone title last year after hosting and defeating T&T’s “Calypso Warriors” 15-8 in Providence.

There was an air of anticipation from both camps heading into the match. Based on comments from its local rugby union president, the Guyanese expected nothing less than a win.

T&T, on the other hand, prepared for battle with intense training sessions in the weeks prior, and given its 34-5 win over Barbados in the first round-robin match, and with an almost fully-fit team (excluding Jonathan O’Connor) there was little reason to believe that the “Calypso Warriors” couldn’t dethrone Guyana.

“The win showed the T&T team is maturing into a determine fighting unit. Guyana is not an easy outfit to beat when they have their best team available, and Guyana came with their best players,” Lewis said, adding that “it is now up to the T&T players and coaches to get back to the drawing board and improve. The final will be another hard battle.”

Meanwhile, T&T Rugby Football Union president, Leslie Figaro, who was at Fatima College Ground on Saturday, said, “(It was a) well spirited game by T&T. We held our nerve... The win is huge for me and our national programme given that Guyana has beaten T&T over the past few years. We have redefined our national programme and now (we’re) seeing the results.”

Figaro praised the team for its dedication to improvement. “Playing in front of your home crowd is always pressure. I commend the dedication and focus of the team’s training. (After more training) we are coming all out for Mexico.”

“(Against Guyana) our defence at times was excellent. Guyana has always been a true opponent.”

Looking forward to upcoming events, Figaro shared his confidence in each T&T rugby team saying, “We are going full out for the Caribbean Championship. The U-19 national team battle for King of the Caribbean in July in Miami, and both men and women’s national teams, the sevens team (are all getting better), the Olympic qualifiers in June. Rugby is here to stay.”

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