April 13, 2008
Great results for Kara Grant at Madrid World Cup!
Greetings from Spain!
I had a great day of competition yesterday at the pentathlon World Cup in Madrid. I had a slow start in shooting and a disapointing score of 175, my lowest of the year, however, I followed this up with one of the best fencing performances of my life. It was very gratifying to win the fence at this event as it was very strong.
I had swum poorly in the semi-final and had hoped that with the extra incentive provided by my great fencing, I would have a better result in the final. This was not the case and despite the excellent training I'd been doing at home I swam my slowest time of the year. This dropped me to 28th after swmming.
I refused to be discouraged as the scores were all close and riding and running are two of my best events. I drew a wonderful horse and had one of the very few clean rounds. The riding changed everything and I moved up to 12th with a big group of athletes around me. The run was very exciting with lots of changes throughout the race. I had an excellent run and moved up to 9th place.
This result moves me into a very secure position on the ranking list for Olympic qualification. It's a great feeling to know that all the years of training is coming together at the perfect time.
Beijing, here I come!!
Thanks again to all my loyal supporters. Kara
March 14, 2008
Mexico Competition #2
I had a good 10 days in Mexico City including my bronze medal performance at the world Cup and my more recent 5th place in an Open North American Championship yesterday. I had a strong start to the day once again with a winning shooting score of 180. The fencing was good, but not great and although I scored 936 points it was a much weaker field than the world cup and this score was only good for 8th place in fencing as the top people won most of their bouts.
I was 4 after fencing and 11th after swimming. I rode a very nice clear round, but the course was not that challenging for the top athletes and most of these athletes also had excellent rides, which meant with a clear ride I moved up only 2 placings to 9th position.
I ran well and moved up to 5th but was unable to crack the top 4 this time around. This was a little disappointing as I had hoped for a top 3, however, my performances were solid and I can improve upon these results for my next World Cup in Madrid, Spain April 10-13.
Thanks for all the great notes of congratulations and encouragement after my bronze medal win at the World Cup! It was a very exciting moment for me and it was wonderful to be able to share it with all my friends, family and supporters.
March 10, 2008
Kara wins bronze at Mexico World Cup
I had the day of my life yesterday.
It's been a long time coming with a lot of soul searching over the past couple of weeks to try and get myself in the right frame of mind to have a great competition. I won the shooting event with a personal best score 187. I was fifth in fencing with 976 and second after two events. The swimming went very well for me although I did drop to 9th overall.
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2008 Mexico City World Cup
Left to right: Margaux Isaksen USA (2nd),
Marta Dziadura POL (1st), Kara Grant CAN (3rd)
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The riding was a little scary as the quality of the horses wasn't great and the horse I drew pulled up lame and I had to take a reserve horse. This could have gone very poorly but I lucked out and got a slightly complicated horse that suited me perfectly and had only one rail down.
I started the run in 5th place and ran up to 3rd within 800m. Then it got a little tough as there was a gap to first and second and a fast girl 20 seconds behind me so I had to run hard from the beginning with no one to chase or to run with. I managed to keep the gap large until the last 500m when I started to fade. Fortunately I had a nice lead so it was no problem. Although this was the smartest way to run, it was also the toughest as starting fast and hanging at altitude is a whole different world. Needless to say it was worth the effort as I now have my first World Cup medal!!
Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me and believed in me!!
News from 2008
