Grant’s Olympic experience has highs and lows

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=167576&sc=99

Grant’s Olympic experience has highs and lows

Preparations did not result in planned personal-best performance in Beijing
for modern pentathlete from P.E.I.

CHARLES REID
The Guardian

Being an international-level athlete often means soaring highs and bottomless lows.

An international stage like the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China, magnifies those chart points.

For modern pentathlete Kara Grant, her second Olympic Games became a mark on her career she wishes were erasable.

“Was I disappointed in my 31st-place finish? Yes. Perhaps more so since I did a great job with my preparation and was confident in a great performance in Beijing,” Grant wrote in a recent e-mail to The Guardian. “I did a lot of reflection in the months leading up to the Olympics and I was ready. For whatever reason this did not translate into the lifetime-best performance I was planning on giving.”

Grant returned to Canada last Friday.

The Stratford native finished 22nd at the Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 2004. That experience and good results in world competition in 2008 (a top-10 finish at the world championships and Canada’s first ever World Cup medal) had her primed to improve in China.

And in front of 20,000 spectators at the shooting venue, she placed 16th and, she said, felt prepared and determined for the fencing competition.

But after winning three straight matches to open the event, Grant said things soured as she drifted from her strategy and finished 24th with a 15-20 win-loss record.

“Unfortunately my eagerness to make touches and win bouts made me a little overeager at times and I had trouble sticking to my game plan. I made a number of unnecessary errors which amounted to giving away matches,” she said. “Considering the great training and results I had in fencing this year, it was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day.”

Next for Grant, a confessed poor swimmer in modern pentathlon terms, the 200-metre freestyle swim loomed and while accepting she’d have the slowest time, she thought a personal best might be floating in the Yingdong Natatorium pool.

“I did not even come close,” said Grant, who finished dead last in 36th place.

By the riding event, Grant’s medal hopes fizzled. But she pressed on, hoping to rise in the standings before the final test in the 3,000-metre run.

There was a chance, too, as the riding match in men’s pentathlon the previous day produced wild changes in the rankings, some athletes moving up 15 places.

But again, that break didn’t come about. Officials removed difficult-to-control horses which evened out the field and meant massive changes weren’t likely.

That and trouble reining in her horse spoiled Grant’s hopes of leaping-frogging competitors.

“While a keen jumper, my steed had an inclination for speed and a disregard for the top rail of the jumps. He was too strong for me and I wasn’t able to control his speed well enough to leave the rails up,” said Grant. “While my five rails were an improvement over his other rounds (eight and nine rails respectively), the damage was done. I was well and truly at the bottom of the field this day.”

Grant finished a respectable 16th in the run, which she called “anti-climactic”, and edged up one place to 31st.

Winning modern pentathlon is about consistency because the margins of victory are thin.

Germany’s Lena Schoneborn, the gold medallist, finished 10th or better in four event of five events and earned 5,792 points.

Great Britain’s silver medal-winner, Heather Fell, totalled just 40 points less and Ukrainian Victoria Tereshuk took bronze, a mere 80 points from silver.

Grant ended the day-long competition 696 points away from the podium.

After the event, Grant, 29, spent a week touring Beijing with her husband Jamie Whynacht and her family while gaining a little perspective.

“I’m pleased to say that my result in Beijing has not affected how I feel about my choice to be involved in pentathlon, nor how I feel about the many excellent results I have had over the course of my 12-year career. Representing Prince Edward Island and Canada at two Olympic Games and numerous international competitions has been the experience of a lifetime,” said Grant.

“Thanks to everyone who has made this incredible journey not only possible, but extremely rewarding.”

Monica Pinette, who finished 27th, was the top Canadian.

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/modern-pentathlon/story/2008/08/22/olympics-modernpent-women.html

Schoneborn hangs on in modern pentathlon

German woman captures gold medal despite poor showing in 3,000-metre run

Medal favourite Lena Schoneborn of Germany overcame a ninth-place finish in the 3,000-metre run to win gold in the women's modern pentathlon Friday at the Beijing Olympics with 5,792 points.

The 2007 world silver medallist stood first entering the 3,000 — the final event — after a 10th-place performance in swimming and fourth-place standing in equestrian show jumping.

Earlier in the day, Schoneborn was 20th in the 10-metre air pistol before making up ground as the top finisher in fencing.

Heather Fell of Britain rode top-five finishes in swimming (third) and running (fifth) to capture the silver medal with 5,752 points, while Victoria Tereshuk of Ukraine was third (5,672).

Monica Pinette of Langley, B.C., kicked off Friday's competition with a second-place effort in shooting but dropped to 27th overall in the field of 36 with 5,192 points.

The 31-year-old narrowly missed a first-place finish in shooting, firing a score of 187 compared to the 188 by Switzerland's Belinda Schreiber.

Pinette fell in the standings after placing 33rd in fencing and 34th in swimming. She was also 14th in show jumping and 27th in running.

Kara Grant

Teammate Kara Grant of Charlottetown, P.E.I., placed 31st overall. The 29-year-old finished 16th in the shooting event, 25th in fencing, 36th in the 200-metre freestyle swim, 25th in show-jumping and 31st in the 3,000 run.

World No. 1 Amelie Caze of France was ninth overall. She finished second in the swim, fifth in the fencing, 22nd in shooting, 16th in show jumping and ninth in running.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2008/06/02/pentathalon-olympics.html

P.E.I. athlete heads to Olympics

A Prince Edward Island pentathlon athlete will be going to the Olympic Games for the second time.

Kara Grant, from Stratford, will travel to Seoul, South Korea on Aug. 8 for eight days of training. She will then travel to Beijing to compete in the modern pentathlon on Aug. 21.

During a recent competition in Madrid, Grant, 28, received one of the best scores of her career in fencing, which is one of the components of modern pentathlon.

In 2004, Grant competed in the Olympic Games in Athens, where she placed 22nd.

Grant first became involved in pentathlon after years of equestrian training. In 1996, she won the Canadian Junior National Pentathlon title. Since then Grant has won five Senior National Championships.

In 2006 Grant had her best result at the World Championships, where she finished 9th. She said her goal is to achieve gold at the upcoming Olympic Games.

In modern pentathlon, athletes compete in five different events — fencing, shooting, swimming, riding and cross-country running.

Islander returning to Olympic Games
Kara Grant makes Canadian modern pentathlon team for Beijing

MARK MASTERS
The Guardian

Kara Grant is going back to the Olympic Games.

The Stratford native will be officially named to the Canadian modern pentathlon team later this month.

Grant earned a spot on the national team following her performance at the world championships in Hungary on the weekend.

She will join Monica Pinette of Langley, B.C., as the Canadian women on the team which will compete in Beijing this summer.

“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to compete once again at the Olympic Games and challenge myself against the best athletes in the world at the premier sporting event of the world," Grant told The Guardian in an e-mail on Monday.

“I plan to use my experiences in Athens at the Olympic Games and over the last 12 years as a pentathlon competitor to prepare for the performance of a lifetime in Beijing."

Modern pentathlon combines the skills of shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian and running.

Joshua Riker-Fox is the Canadian male to be selected for the Beijing Games.

“Pinette, Riker-Fox and Grant have qualified for Beijing,” said Angela Ives, president of the Canadian Modern Pentathlon Association.

“This is the largest field of pentathletes that Canada has qualified since Barcelona in 1992.”

At the world championship, Grant placed 26th with 3,752 points after four events while Pinette was 11th, the best result for Canada since Lyne Chornobrywy won the world individual women in 1983.

Neither Canadian advanced past the semifinal heat.

The Canadian modern pentathlon team for Beijing will be officially named later in June. Pinette and Grant are the only Canadian females who have met the Olympic standards.

They were the first Canadian women to compete in the Olympic Games in modern pentathlon when they participated in 2004 at Athens.

Pinette placed 13th and Grant finished 22nd.

At the Beijing Olympics, a total of 72 athletes (36 women and 36 men) will compete in modern pentathlon.

(www.pentathloncanada.ca)

www.karagrant.net

Grant’s sights set on Beijing

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=118866&sc=99

Grant’s sights set on Beijing
Modern pentathlete is working hard to achieve her goal

MIKE CARSON
The Guardian

SUMMERSIDE — Stratford P.E.I.’s Kara Grant is well on her way to representing Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games this summer in modern pentathlon.

“I’m working really hard,” Grant said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re in the home stretch. I have two more months left before the qualification period ends and I have several important events.”

Grant won a bronze medal in the World Cup competition 10 days ago. It was her first World Cup medal and a very significant factor in her Olympic qualification.

“That’s really good news for me and I’m in a very secure position for Olympic qualification,” she said. “It won’t be finalized until the end of May, after the world championships, which are taking place in Budapest. But I’m in a very secure position now and I have the confidence after this (bronze medal) result to go out there and get another result like that or even better.”

As a modern pentathlete, Grant competes in five disciplines — shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping and running.

Competing in one Olympic event requires hours of training and sacrifice, but the Stratford native is involved in five separate competitions.

“I train about 35 hours a week right now and I average about four training sessions a day,” she said. “It could be anywhere from a shoot in the morning, followed by and hour-and-a-half swim, a break and then a riding lesson after lunch and a running session in the evening or sometimes a fencing session. I have a few other things I do such as strength training and things like that. It really keeps me busy and out of trouble.

Grant got involved in the competition through the Charlottetown Pony Club, which she said no longer exists.

“Hopefully, it will come back,” she said. “I did a lot of riding as I was growing up here on the Island and that was the real inspiration to me. I got involved in the tetrathlon, which is four sports. Then I heard about pentathlon and took up fencing.”

The competition opened a lot of doors for Grant and she took advantage of them.

“I realized that if I wanted to pursue that there would be an opportunity to perhaps compete nationally and internationally,” she said. “Then I realized perhaps I could compete in the Pan American Games and maybe the Olympics.”

She said her arrival at the Olympic level didn’t come overnight. It came through a series of steps along the way.

“I think that’s the thing people have to remember with striving for big goals,” she said. “It’s certainly possible. There are lots of steps along the way, and if you’re willing to make a plan and work hard, there are all kinds of opportunities available out there for people to do all kinds of things, whether that be high-performance sports or some other activity that really inspires them.”

Grant is not a newcomer to national and international competition and isn’t certain how many times she has competed.

“I don’t know (how many) to be honest,” she said. “I’ve been competing for 10 years. I’ve probably averaged between seven and 12 competitions a year. Probably in the range of between 80 and 100.”

A lot has been made of the poor air quality that exists in Beijing, but Grant doesn’t see that as a hindrance to her performance.

“It’s not really a big concern of mine at this point,” she said. “Of the five events, three of them will be indoors. The running is the only one that will be affected. We only run a three-kilometre (event) and we only compete once and three kilometres hopefully will be over in 10 minutes.”

Kara Grant's Website http://www.karagrant.net/

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2008/03/10/grant-medal.html

Grant wins bronze at World Cup pentathlon

Kara Grant of Prince Edward Island will be bringing home her first bronze medal in World Cup pentathlon after a weekend event in Mexico.

Grant finished behind gold medal winner Marta Dziadura of Poland and Margauz Isaksen of the U.S.

Grant was in fifth place before the final event, the 3,000-metre run, but pulled within third 800 metres into the race.

"Then it got a little tough, as there was a gap to first and second, but a fast girl [was] 20 seconds behind me, so I had to run hard from the beginning with no one to chase or to run with," Grant wrote in an e-mail.

"I managed to keep the gap large until the last 500 m when I started to fade. Fortunately I had a nice lead."

Grant won the shooting event with personal best score of 187.

Kara Grant's Website http://www.karagrant.net/

Island Olympian sets sights on Beijing

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=105719&sc=99

06/02/08

Island Olympian sets sights on Beijing
Kara Grant preparing for next step

JACLYN KILLINS
The Guardian

Stratford’s Kara Grant is in heavy training for the World Cup of Modern Pentathlon in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 19.
The event is another step in the P.E.I. Olympian’s journey to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
The P.E.I. native, who competed in the 2004 Olympics, trains mostly in Fredericton, N.B., and has about 10 different coaches.
“With five sports I have a lot of people helping me.”
Other than training for the five events — riding, running, swimming, shooting and fencing — Grant does core strengthening, stretching and Pilates, “to make sure I’m strong and fit,” she said.
After an intense lead-up to competitions, Grant says she finds time to relax.
During competitions there is free time and she can socialize with the other competitors she has come to know in the circuit.
Relaxing is something the busy athlete enjoys when she visits the Island, as well. Whether it’s visiting her grandparents, walking her dog, walking on the beach, kayaking, or just laying on the couch at her parents’ house, P.E.I. is a retreat for her.
“I try to be able to have some downtime when I’m here,” she said.
With five very different events making up the modern pentathlon there is always a leg of the competition that poses a challenge.
For Grant it’s swimming.
Grant knows she’s never going to be an amazing swimmer but she strives to improve within her limitations.
“Swimming is one of those events where there definitely is some natural ability and feel.
“I’m fortunate that I’m pretty good at the other events.”
Having grown up riding horses, her favourite event is riding. It can also be frustrating because competitors draw for their horse and two riders ride each horse and if an athlete gets a mount after a less experienced rider the horse may not perform as well.
“There’s just a little bit of the unexpected in that,” she said.
Grant is part of Aliant Canada Contenders: Beijing Edition, a sponsorship program that follows athletes in their quest to the Games.
People can keep track of Grant’s progress in the interactive coverage of her training and competing online.
This program was announced at the Aliant Swing to Beijing Kara Grant tournament at Brudenell Golf Course in July 2007.
Grant’s budget is high but she is fortunate her sponsors have relieved her of this worry.
“It’s nice to know that that’s taken care of.”
Grant always knows the Island is cheering for her, she said.
“I appreciate all of the support over my pentathlon career. For me it’s been really important knowing my family and community is behind me.”
Big goals are attainable, Grant wants everyone to know.
“Islanders can achieve great things.”

No Swiss miss for P.E.I. modern pentathlete - Kara Grant captures the Swiss Open competition

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=75628&sc=99

30/10/07

No Swiss miss for P.E.I. modern pentathlete
Kara Grant captures the Swiss Open competition

The Guardian

A last-minute decision to attend a weekend meet in Switzerland has paid off for Kara Grant.

The Stratford native had her best five-event competition of the year to win the Swiss Open modern pentathlon competition in Frauenfeld.

“I shot 183, fenced 1.080 (17 victories, five defeats), swam 2:41, which is amazing considering the amount of time off I had and the minimal intensity and volume in the pool since starting back,” said Grant in an e-mail to The Guardian.

“I rode clear with only a few time penalties and ran 11:01 on a grass course with turns and slightly uneven footing.”

Grant said the run was amazing at this time of the year.

“We actually did a pack start in the run and I knew I had to beat one girl by 15 seconds in order to win the competition.”

The Islander ran with her closest competitor for the first two kilometres before her opponent pulled away about 10 metres.

“Then at the two-kilometre mark I decided it was all or nothing despite being quite tired, and I dropped the hammer and passed her,” said Grant.

“I tried not to look back when my body starting to scream for oxygen with 500m left, 300m of this being slightly uphill. It was a pure guts run by the last 200m and although I finished ahead we didn’t know until the points were tallied if it had been enough.”

Grant would win the event by 12 points.