Canada’s Shauna Biddulph wins Oceania Championships

26-year-old Canadian star Shauna Biddulph came back from a marathon trip to Australia last week with her first international winner’s medal after she took gold at the Oceania Championships in Melbourne.

Split over two days, the equestrian event of this Oceania Championships was held first, on the Saturday, with the rest of the disciplines being played out the day after.

Biddulph, a Toxicologist by profession and a keen horse trainer, did not get her campaign for honours onto the best start as she could not get to grips with her ‘Beaker’ and incurred 21 penalty points in the ride. This was to be just a minor set-back as Biddulph returned to competition the next day and put in a series of quality performances.

The next day began with a time of 2:43 in the pool that saw her record a new PB and add 211 points to her tally before moving onto the fencing pistes. A dominant display with the epee, where Biddulph claimed 25 victories from 30 bouts, put her in a great position before the combined.

Demonstrating her international pedigree, Biddulph was much faster than the rest of the field in the run/shoot, trying out a new technique of running not as hard during the 800m loops to keep her heart rate down as she approached the range. It worked a treat as she crossed the line first to win her maiden international trophy.

Read Shauna’s review of the competition

Local girls Juliette Haddow and Jacki wright were silver and bronze medallists respectively.

There were also Junior and Youth draws in Melbourne. Oceania Championships Full results