For Sarah Ennis, last months silver medal at the World Equestrain Championships was a lifetime in the making.
Ireland recently won a silver medal in the team event at the games and the 42-year-old admits she still hasn’t got time to reflect on the win.
“I haven’t really come back down to earth yet. Its funny, I was home on Wednesday then back out competing on Saturday.
“It’s weird when they say I have a silver medal, that’s hard to get into my head because I have always been the one that’s been there, and wishing for it.
“So it is hard when they say, Sarah Ennis, silver medallist, it’s like ‘Oh that is nice. Finally got one’.”
Ennis admits that Ireland went out to the games as underdogs, and to get a medal wasn’t necessarily on the agenda, and they needed a lot of luck to go their way on the way.
Fortunately, it did and here we are with now the the second best eventing team in equestrian.
“We wanted it to be, but you need a lot of luck and everything has to come together, we’ve done a huge amount of preparation and training and we have a cross-country trainer now which we didn’t have before and that has made a massive difference.”
The Irish side knew they stood a chance of finishing in the medal positions going into the last day, but they needed all four riders to post clear rounds without any penalties, something that was a huge ask. Thankfully they managed to prevail on the day.
“For four of us to post clear rounds was amazing and it jumped us up the ladder we couldn’t believe it.
“As I was talking to the media, I think the french guy finished and he posted a few penalties and all I heard was ‘we’re up to silver’.
“It was always doable, we’ve all put in the training, we’ve all posted very good individual results throughout the years but to get it to come together, at that specific time with horses who have a mind of their own, there is a lot of external factors and you need a lot of luck.
“It just came together and everything paid off it was unreal.”
Much like our other 2018 sporting heroes Ennis wasn’t aware of the buzz they had created at home, nor was she expecting such a sizeable crowd to turn out at Dublin airport to welcome them home.
“It was unreal, we were all standing behind the doors going; ‘you go, no you go’ and myself and Sam walked out first.
“I knew there would be a few people, my family mainly, but there was a lot of people and it was lovely, really really nice, lots of cheering.
“Then IÂ saw my son who I hadn’t seen in two weeks so he was delighted. The people were really good to come and support us, it was amazing.”
A mother of one, Ennis beams with pride when she mentions her son, admitting that he is very proud at present and has struggled to leave her side since returning.
However, when asked if he will follow suit and go into equestrian, Ennis gladly tells us he’s into ball sports.
“Very proud, I was told by a friend ‘from the time you came in he never took his eyes off you’.
” Just at the end he was kind of struggling a bit, but he was delighted for me. He never left my side for like two days.
“His friends in school made me this giant card and wrote me these lovely messages so I had to bring the medal in for them. They loved it, they all thought it was great excitement.
“He likes all ball sports, I keep throwing golf clubs and tennis rackets at him, sports he can earn money at (laughs).”
Unfortunately, last month’s event was probably the last for Horseware Stellor Rebound who has struggled with various issues. So the goal now is to get another team of horses ready for the Olympic games in 2020.
“For me, it is to get a horse for Tokyo, this horse that did the world probably just wouldn’t make it to Tokyo as hes struggled, he’s had issues throughout his life and I think possibly hes done his bit.
“It’s just getting next bunch of horses together and getting the mileage on them and getting them over to Tokyo.”
FBD Insurance’s sponsorship of Team Ireland begins immediately and will run throughout the current Olympiad until the end of the 2020 Olympic Games
