AFTER waiting three years, Ira Collier finally represented his country at the World Butchers' Challenge.
The 26-year-old butcher, who works at Dales Traditional Butchers in Kirkby Lonsdale, came fourth in the Young Butchers category.
He was given two and a half hours to turn a shoulder of lamb, a minnow of pork, a rump of beef and two chickens into 'anything cookable' such as sausages and burgers.
The judging was not only on the quality of the cuts but also on how the butchers conducted themselves.
Ira said that he would have been marked down if he ran or showed that he was stressed so had to remain calm despite the pressure of the event.
The World Butchers' Challenge 2022 competition was held in Sacramento, California at the Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. Ira said he had 'never seen anything like it.'
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Ira Collier got into the Team GB squad after winning a national competition back in 2019. However, because of the pandemic, he was not able to show his skills on the world stage until this year.
"I have been training for the last to three years," he said. "I ended up fourth out of fourteen competitors. I was point nine of a point away from placing top three - it was very, very tight. I should be able to compete again in 2024. I know what to improve on so next time I can do it again it puts me in really good stead.
"I started when I was 14 years old doing sausages if someone told me I would be representing my country I would not have believed them, I'm over the moon with it."
Ira wanted to thank Dales Butchers for the support his colleagues showed him in the run-up to the competition
"My boss has been very, very supportive. Dales Butchers have always been supportive for this competition that I did, they told me to go into team GB if you want to do it. If you are going to enter it we will support you as much as we can," he said.
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