At Pau, Christopher Bartle was working with Team Jung
It seems that Christopher Bartle’s tenure as the German Team coach may not be over as we all assumed when he applied for the job with Team GB. When I suggest to Christopher Bartle that his decision to move from coaching the German eventing team, to take up the job coaching the Brits, is the end of an era, he demurs:
“I think you are jumping the gun there. I’ve only had one meeting, one interview so far. The Germans have been very kind. I told them that the position that had become available with the British was of interest, it was a once only opportunity, if I let this go, then it wouldn’t come again. I’ve been sixteen years with the German team, we’ve had some great times together but I’m never one to lose the chance to have a new challenge, new opportunities. So in fairness to my friends in Germany, particularly my colleague, Hans Melzer, I felt it is only fair to tell them I am going to put my name on the list.”
“There are at least five names on the list and there is no guarantee that they will want me, or at the end of it all, I’ll want the deal that they propose. I’m not talking about the financial side of it, more my vision of how the system could be changed in Team GB, and what sort of a rôle I would like to play within that.”
“My German friends have very kindly said that they don’t want me to go, which is great, they hope that either the Brits don’t want me or I don’t want the Brits and that I will continue with them.”
What is your vision for Team GB?
“It’s advertised as performance manager – there’s a management aspect, a performance aspect and within that there are four rôles, a leadership rôle, which I am very interested in, a coaching and training rôle which I see as two separate elements, areas I am very interested in, and then there is a management and organizational rôle which I am not so interested in. It depends a bit where the emphasis is for this particular job.”
“In terms of the management of the squad at major championships, I’ve had the opportunity over the years to develop my ideas as to how to do it and I would like to apply those ideas to a different situation. At this point of time, I don’t want to say anything critical about what went before. Clearly Team GB didn’t get the results people hoped for and expected from Team GB. If I can bring a slightly different system, it’s not going to be a whole upsetting of what went before but if I can bring a slightly different way of doing things, and it brings success, then that is going to be my objective.”