Team GB Archives - The Stray Ferret

The Nidderdale Paralympian hoping to give Team GB a lift in ParisHarrogate big screen won’t return for Paralympic coverageHarrogate woman makes Paralympic powerlifting squadIce swimmers bring medals back to Harrogate district

A group of ice swimmers from across the Harrogate district has come back with top results from the world championships.

Millie Bell, 23, won bronze medals in each of her three events at the World Ice Swimming Championships in the French Alps.

She took part in the 250m, 100m and 50m swims in the 18-24 age group, coming third in each.

She said:

“I wasn’t expecting to get anything. The girls in my age group were pretty fast and experienced.

“I had gone back to the hotel room after one of the races and my friend called me to say I had to come back because I was meant to be on the podium!”

Millie said she had been supported in the competition by her employer, Vp plc in Harrogate. She is now back in training for marathon open water swims in the summer.

Meanwhile, Jacqui Hargrave, 51, came sixth and eighth in her events, which she said she was thrilled with.

She told the Stray Ferret:

“It was absolutely amazing. It was a faster pace than I could ever have imagined.

“I went in having never done this before, expecting not to do anything. To come out with that result was more than I could have hoped for.”

Both Millie and Jacqui said the water was not as cold as they had thought it might be, measuring around 3.7C across the four days of competition.

Millie said:

“It definitely helped mentally knowing that I can swim in colder conditions. It was the perfect temperature for me – which is bonkers!”

Their fellow Harrogate district ice swimmers, Jonty Warneken and Emily Smailes, also performed well.

Jonty came fifth overall in the 100m freestyle para competition, winning his age category, and third overall in the 50m freestyle para category.

Emily, meanwhile, joined Jonty, Jacqui and Lara Fawcett in the Frozen Roses 50m relay, coming fourth against competition that included a four-time Olympian.

Team GB set 32 new age group world records during the championships, more than any other country taking part.

Jacqui said the experience of being in the team at the championships had given her a sense of achievement, even if she never returns.

She added:

“I’m going to do the GB trials next year, then we’ll see if I try for the world championships again.

“It’s getting so much more popular that the level to be able to compete is getting higher. I will give it everything I’ve got, but it might be too high for me.

“If it becomes a Winter Olympic sport, the level will be so much higher again.

“Being able to do it once is such an accomplishment. I’ve ticked a box and been able to do something not many people have done.”

Talented sisters praise Harrogate Associated Sixth Form for “warm welcome”

This story is sponsored by St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form.

St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form is based in the heart of Harrogate neighbouring the famous Stray. With excellent bus and rail links, it provides an easily accessible and outstanding education for students already familiar with either school and offers a welcoming environment for new students.

Ahead of the Information Evening which takes place on Thursday January 19, the Stray Ferret spoke to two talented sisters who joined the Associated Sixth Form as newcomers moving to the area from South Africa and who are grateful to the schools for helping them to achieve their dreams.

Hannah Carey studied Dance, Biology and Spanish at A Level and is now training full-time at the prestigious Rambert Dance Company in London.

Previously at school in South Africa, Hannah had the challenge of adapting to not only a new school but a new country. She explained how she found it:

“In the Associated Sixth Form, I did not find myself to be the only dancer in my year group (as I had been at my old school) so I was presented with an array of opportunities.

“As I studied for my A Levels, it of course got harder and harder to manage the commitment demanded by my education and my developing dance career outside of school.

“My dance teachers were incredible and al of the staff in the Associated Sixth Form were really supportive throughout this time, towards me and other athletes in school. Their support enabled me and other students to achieve success in academic subjects and follow our dreams, whether that was to study dance as in my case or to pursue other sports or performance activities to an elite level.

“I can say without a doubt that I would not be where I am now, if it wasn’t for the support and encouragement I received from the Associated Sixth Form.”

Rower Lauren Carey is a student at the prestigious Ivy League Yale University in the US, where she is studying Economics and is a member of Yale Women’s Crew. She also competes annually at the World Championships with U23 Team GB and dreams of reaching the Olympics.

Joining the Sixth Form for Year 13 only, the invaluable pastoral support the Associated Sixth Form offers to newcomers was essential to Lauren. She studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A Level in the Associated Sixth Form and we asked her about the welcome she received:

“Diving headfirst into my final year of A Levels was always going to be tricky and I had the added concern of making new friends when friendship groups had already been formed. The friendly ethos of the Association and the staff and students made this much easier. I met some amazing people who had a real impact on me.

“Furthermore, academically the institution is brilliant. I struggled a little because I was transferring my South African education to a British one, but I was met with an overwhelming offering of help.”

The Sixth Form is well known for excellent results in academic subjects but actively encourages students to get involved with the extended curriculum. Lauren recalled how she experienced the support of the Sixth Form with her commitment to sport:

“St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form was a really understanding institution when it came to my sports. Whether it was allowing me to leave class 10 minutes early so that I could sprint to the train to get training on time, or the agreement that I could use my free periods to run to the gym to lift some weights.

The shared Christian ethos of both St Aidan’s Church of England High School and St John Fisher Catholic High School continues to thrive in the Associated Sixth Form and this is reflected in the personal qualities of the students who attend the schools, as Lauren explains:

“The Associated Sixth Form taught me to be hard working, kind and determined. The teachers inspired me and pushed me towards my dreams, something I am forever grateful for.”

St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form Information Evening takes place on Thursday 19 January 2023. For further details and to book your place today, click or tap here.

The event provides the opportunity for parents/carers of Year 11 students currently attending either of the schools and new students and their parents/carers to meet subject teachers, current Sixth Form students and key staff. There will also be a presentation at which you can find out more about the excellent academic standards and pastoral support available.

Harrogate gymnast to compete in final for Team GB tomorrow

A young gymnast who trains in Harrogate will represent Team GB in the final of an international competition tomorrow.

Emily Lock, 15, will compete in the under 16s female category of the double mini trampoline at the Scalabis Cup in Portugal.

One of a team of three, she hopes to see off competition from seven other teams across two stages in the final, having already won a team gold this week. She said:

“I’m a bit nervous but mostly excited about the final.

“In my first class, I landed on the side pad so it wasn’t my best, but the warm-up didn’t go great which wasn’t the best preparation and I went into the class not feeling confident.

“I’ve been watching the videos back so I know what I need to do to get it right tomorrow.”

It hasn’t been a smooth journey to the competition for Emily.

Earlier this year, she landed awkwardly in training at Harrogate Gymnastics Club and sprained her ankle, forcing her to take five weeks off.

She missed important competitions and was concerned she wouldn’t be ready to travel to Portugal, but with a lot of hard work and support from coach Amy Clemitson, she made it.

Emily Lock, left, with the Team GB squad

Chloe Carey, owner of Harrogate Gymnastics, said:

“Emily worked really hard and was determined to get there. It’s exciting when our gymnasts get chosen for competitions and we’re proud of them for the work they put in.

“They commit anything from three to five times a week after school and having to fit homework in around it too.

“These kids are brilliant – they put in the hours, they work hard and listen to all the feedback so they can improve.”

Aspiring young gymnasts from the club do most of their training in Harrogate.

If they are selected for Team GB, they travel to Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire a few times a year to meet their teammates and work with the coaches.

For Emily, who attends Tadcaster Grammar School, training has to be balanced against revisions for her GCSEs, which she will complete next year.

“It gets hard in competition season because you have to train hard. I have to fit in revision because I’ve got tests coming up.

“But I really enjoy competing so I want to keep doing it.”

The final of Emily’s competition will be available to watch live on YouTube tomorrow from 3pm.

Chris Bartle: the Markington man who led Team GB to Olympic gold

Think of an England sports coach living in the Harrogate district who enjoyed a remarkable summer, and chances are Gareth Southgate comes to mind.

But there is another option — and this one didn’t have to settle for second best.

Chris Bartle was high performance coach of the Great Britain equestrian team that won its first Olympic team gold medal for 49 years in Tokyo.

Despite living just a dozen miles apart, the two men have never crossed paths. Chris says:

“I’d love to meet him. Some of the things he’s quoted as saying are similar to my mantra. We seem to have very similar philosophies.”

Like Gareth, Chris is regarded as one of sport’s nice guys. But unlike the Swinsty man, whose life is consumed by England duties, Chris spends most of his time in the Harrogate district at the Yorkshire Riding Centre in Markington, which he runs with his wife and sister.

He says he spends about two-thirds of his life at Markington and one third on GB coaching duties.

When he’s at Markington, he still teaches everyone from talented juniors to Olympic stars at Markington.

The family riding centre in Markington.

Olympic riders in Markington

Chris’ Belgian mother opened the riding centre at Markington in 1963, 11 years after his parents moved to the village, which is between Ripon and Harrogate.

The family still lives on site and Chris takes a hands-on approach, teaching everyone from talented juniors to Olympic stars and generally mucking. When we visited he’d just been on a cherry picker helping mend a roof — something we doubt Gareth does at Wembley.

With its four training arenas, livery, cross-country fields and on-site accommodation, the centre caters for riders of all standards.

Everyone from bygone stars like Harvey Smith and the Whitakers to current Olympic riders from Sweden, Brazil and Germany have trained at Markington. Chris says:

“I look at the print out of riders at the Olympics and it’s amazing how many have connections with the Yorkshire Riding Centre.”

The centre also has an elegant wedding venue, built by the Wilberforce family of anti-slavery fame. The Wilberforces still own nearby Markington Hall.

The wedding venue

Chris studied economics at Bristol University and jokes he has spent his entire life with horses to avoid a proper job.

He started as a jockey but was too tall so he switched to eventing and then dressage, at which he finished sixth at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He has been to all nine Olympics since.

His coaching CV is phenomenal. He was national coach to the German Olympic three-day event team that won team gold at the Beijing and London Olympics in 2008 and 2012. The Germans also won gold at Athens in 2004 but were stripped of their medals when a horse failed a doping test.

Olympic glory

Chris, who had trained the British eventing team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, was appointed GB high performance coach in 2016 in the hope of emulating Germany’s success.

He masterminded the team’s preparation for Tokyo, which included staying outside the athletes’ village to minimise the covid risk. He says it was like staying in a five-star prison, and despite their caution there was a constant fear of covid jeopardising everything.

The British team gave an utterly dominant performance to take team gold for the first time since 1972. But his abiding memory is rather sad.

“It was the athletes on the podium wearing masks and you can’t see them grinning and how happy they are.”

Chris says he is equally proud of the gold medals he helped Germany win, but adds:

“Team GB was different to doing it with another nation. For that reason and how long it had taken for GB to get gold, that’s a standout moment. It was a super highlight.”

Britain’s Tom McEwen also won individual silver in the eventing but, like any coach, Chris wasn’t totally happy.

“It could have gone better. I felt there was another medal to be had in the individual eventing. I slightly blame myself for that because Laura Collett slightly over-egged it in preparation. She tried to get better and better and in that heat and humidity the horse didn’t sparkle in the dressage phase as much as it usually does.”

One of the training areas at Markington.

California dreaming

Chris is 69 now but looks remarkably fit and isn’t planning to put himself out to grass anytime soon. He hopes to continue in his current GB role until 2028 when the Olympics will return to Los Angeles, 44 years after he competed there. It would cap one of the longest and most remarkable careers in sport. He says:

“Los Angeles is an attainable goal and it would complete the circle.”

His 14-year-old daughter Poppy, a very talented rider, will be 21 then, which must be at the back of his mind but he’s careful not to put any pressure on her.

Whatever happens in his career, Markington will remain home.

“We are very fortunate where we are. The whole of this area is just an amazing place to live — although some of my colleagues tend to think this is the frozen north!”

‘She’s just my daughter!’: Rachel Daly’s dad’s pride at Olympics star

Rachel Daly’s dad Martyn has expressed his pride at watching his daughter play for the Team GB football team that beat Chile in the opening match of the Olympic Games on Wednesday.

From the early days of putting up goalposts in the garden, Martyn Daly told the Stray Ferret he “never thought in a million years” he would be watching her play in the Olympics, which he called “something special”.

Football runs in the family and Mr Daly played as a striker for Harrogate Town and Knaresborough Town in the 1980s and 1990s.

He remembers taking his daughter to train at the age of eight, when she started playing for the Killinghall Nomads boys team, before there was the option for girls to play together.

Ms Daly has ascended to become one of the top players in the women’s game, the star forward for Houston Dash in the US, with World Cup appearances for England and now the Olympics.

He said:

“It’s a far cry from the marshes at Wetherby that flooded all the time!”

The die-hard Leeds United fan wakes up at 2am for every Houston game to watch his daughter play via an online stream. He says football is “all she’s ever been bothered about doing”.

Team GB’s women’s footballers. Rachel Daly is on the back row, far right.

When the Stray Ferret spoke to Ms Daly earlier this year, she stressed the importance of pay equality with men.

Her dad praised her for setting a good example to girls and women wanting to make their mark in the game.

She is Harrogate through and through, attending Saltergate junior school and Rossett High School. Her dad says she always “appreciates where she came from.”

When she’s back for a visit, she’ll even sometimes play five-a-side with her brother at Rossett where she “runs rings around” the men.

This summer’s Olympics in Tokyo has been dogged by controversy with the matches played in front of empty stadiums and the squad are keeping together in their own bubble.

Mr Daly hopes she can make the squad for the next games in Paris in three years’ time.

He added:

“You can learn a lot mingling with a 100m runner or a canoeist. They’ll miss out on that, which is a shame.”

Team GB stand a good chance of winning a medal in football and take on hosts Japan at 11.30am (UK time) today. Ms Daly’s family will be cheering them on back home in Harrogate.

Mr Daly said:

“She’ll never realise what she’s done in the game until it’s over.

“Every pro has a cockiness about them but she’s down to earth too, she’s just my daughter.”

Local cycling superstar Lizzie Deignan selected for Olympics

Cyclist Lizzie Deignan, who has homes in Harrogate and Otley, has been picked to represent Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

Ms Deignan, 32, who won a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics and was the world road race champion in 2015, was named in British Cycling’s 26-person Olympic team this week.

She will represent her country in the road race at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which are due to take place from July 23 to August 8.

Ms Deignan, nee Armitstead, becomes the third Harrogate district person selected for the Olympics, along with Ripon diver Jack Laugher and US-based Harrogate footballer Rachel Daly.

She told her 95,000 Instagram followers:

“It’s official. I have been selected to represent Great Britain in Tokyo at my third Olympic Games. If Phil West didn’t come to my school when I was 15 to look for kids with talent my life would have been so different, I didn’t even own a bike, it’s still a bit surreal. Tokyo here we come.”

Harrogate teen wins bronze at Para Powerlifting World Cup

A 19-year-old from Harrogate has won a bronze medal for Team GB at the Para Powerlifting World Cup.

Charlotte McGuiness was third in the women’s up to 50kg category with a bench press of 74kg.

The sports and exercise student’s performance has increased her chances of competing in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

Charlotte, who studies at Leeds Trinity University, said her passion for the sport began while studying at St Aidan’s Church of England High School in Harrogate.

The event took place at the Wythenshawe Forum in Manchester without spectators and with covid measures in place over the weekend.

There were five competitors in the event. Besides Charlotte, there were lifters from Britain, Spain, Ukraine and Japan.

Charlotte on the podium after receiving her bronze medal.

Charlotte trains four times a week, focusing on university work in the mornings. Due to lockdown she has had to setup a gym in her Harrogate home but continues to her sights high.

Charlotte now has her sights set on the World Powerlifting Championships in November.

She said:

“I was shocked when I won my medal, I only started two years ago and I’ve gone so far. It’s motivated me to keep going. The Paris Olympics are in three years time and that would be a dream,”

Sarah Todd, sports development manager at Leeds Trinity University, said:

“I could not be prouder of Charlotte, to achieve a bronze medal at the World Cup at 19-years-old is incredible.

“She works so hard and is such a determined and focused young woman in her sport and her studies, so it is fantastic to see the hard work pay off with a medal.”

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St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form Information Evening takes place on Thursday 19 January 2023. For further details and to book your place today, click or tap here.

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