SARK’S Carl Hester arrived in Athens yesterday ready to compete in the greatest show on Earth. The small island may not be an obvious breeding ground of Olympic competitors, but although Hester has competed at the highest level for years, he has not forgotten his roots.
‘My dad, Jess, has built a house for me, out on the headland. Sark is one of those places that you don’t appreciate until you are away and realise what you are missing,’ he said.
‘I’m not able to live there all the time but it is great when I am able to make a trip over. I’ll hopefully do another Olympics and then the plan could be to come back permanently.’
The peace and solitude of Sark will contrast starkly with the noise and bustle of Athens.
On Friday evening the curtain rises on the 2004 Games.
More than 10,000 competitors will be straining every nerve and sinew for that elusive gold medal, the pinnacle of any career.
Speaking exclusively to the Guernsey Press just before he flew to Greece, Hester was realistic about his chances and grateful for the interest and support from his home Bailiwick.
‘I’ve always enjoyed going back. It’s like nowhere else.’
In the Markopoulo Stadium, Hester, 37, will be riding Escapado, an 11-year-old, 16.2hh, dark bay gelding owned by Roly Luard.
He said of his mount: ‘He’s adorable and loveable, but has a complicated brain. He doesn’t worry about little things - he’s got bigger fish to fry.’
Unluckily, Hester and Escapado’s training schedule was severely disrupted when he damaged a pedal bone, the one inside the hoof, which can lead to serious lameness.
‘We are not sure what he did; we think he must have stepped onto a stone getting off a lorry,’ said Hester.
‘It was six weeks before we could get him to trot again. That’s a heck of a lot of fitness lost.’
It is not the first time Escapado has been in the wars.
‘He has a massive, old scar on his shoulder - no one knows what happened - he must have had a huge trauma.’
However, the pair flew out on the back of a tough and reasonably successful past month.
In Germany, they performed in front of more than 10,000 spectators.
‘It was a huge show in Aachen; it tends to be the one where you see who’s likely to do well at the Games.’
Then Hester and Escapado won at Hickstead, ‘with a really good score’, said Hester, of 72.5%.
Shortly after that came another win, in the Hartpury Premier League grand prix. It was a ‘home win’ for Hester - he is a lecturer at Hartpury College, just down the road. The pair left with four class wins.
‘I just wanted to have a relaxing ride, which I did, and I know in the back of my mind that he’s back to where he was at the beginning of the year.’
Now, after an easy last week of preparation, the Olympics await. Athens is Hester’s third Games: he competed at Barcelona 1992 on Giorgione, placing 17th as the team finished seventh, and at Sydney 2000 on Argentille Gullitt, when the team was eighth.
He and the team will be staying at the Olympic Village, some 45 miles away from the Markopoulo Stadium in which the dressage competition will be staged.
‘The British team has rented a house nearer the arena so that when we are competing, we can stay nearer the venue.
Article posted on 11th August, 2004 - 12.00am
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