British Dressage Report
Monday, August 01, 2005
BRITISH DRESSAGE RIDERS FEEL THE HEAT IN EUROPE
Three British European Dressage teams were in action this weekend, bringing home a total of four gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals.
Competing in almost 40 degrees centigrade in Hungary, the British Paralympic riders successfully retained their European title, winning team gold ahead of the German and Dutch teams.
Gold – GBR (Christiansen, Tustain, Pearson, Criddle)
Silver – GER
Bronze – NOR
Adding individual glory to the team success Sophie Christiansen (Martini Maybe) won two individual gold medals in the grade 1 competition, becoming Grade 1 European Champion at the age of 17.
Speaking from Hungary Sophie said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic. I wanted to do my best, but three gold medals were not what I expected.”
“I’m going on holiday to America with my family now, so I think there’ll be plenty of celebrating!” she added.
Nicola Tustain (Prinz Heinrich) added another individual gold medal, plus a bronze medal for the freestyle in grade 2 and Lee Pearson (Blue Circle Boy) added two more silver medals in grade 3 – two grades below his level of disability. “I’m really pleased. The difference in difficulty is like going from a novice test in grade 1, up to medium in grade 3, I even had some advanced medium movements in my freestyle,” said Lee. “I had beaten Bettina Eistel, the German grade 3 winner, at a previous show, but Gus (Blue Circle Boy) found the heat really tiring.”
Hot on his heels Debbie Criddle and Pompidou II took the bronze in the grade 3 freestyle, with other top ten placings by members of the GB squad, Michelle Crunkhorn, (Painted Affair) and Jo Pitt, (Lambrusco III).
In wind and rain more reminiscent of home Carl Hester and Escapado flew the flag for the senior British competitors at the European Dressage Championships in Hagen, Germany, finishing in sixth place individually ahead of Olympic medallists Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Beauvalais.
On Friday the British team took 5th place in the team competition, just 1.8% behind the Spanish and Swedish teams who took equal bronze, with promising performances from Fiona Bigwood (Mr G de Lully) and Wayne Channon (Lorenzo CH), who had not competed at a major Championship before.
Gold – GER, 221.708 points
Silver – NED, 221.167 points
=Bronze – ESP, 213.125 points
=Bronze – SWE, 213.125 points
(5th – GBR, 211.292 points)
Both Fiona Bigwood and Emma Hindle (Wie Weltmeyer) also went through to the Grand Prix Special, finishing in 19th and 23rd position respectively, but it was Carl’s score of 74.32% which gave him third place in the GPS, ahead of Dutch medallist Edward Gal (Geldnet Lingh) and Sweden’s golden boy Jan Brink (Björsells Briar 899).
Meanwhile in Italy the youngest British team were also going head to head with German, Dutch and Swedish teams. The British Pony riders, (Samantha Harrison, Georgina Roberts, Portia Manning, Alice Thompson), won team bronze in Pratoni del Vivaro making it the tenth consecutive year the British Pony team has won a team medal at the European Championships. Samantha Harrison and Manitu N finished in sixth place individually and Georgina Roberts and Gigolo finished 9th.
Gold – GER, 221.684 points
Silver – NED, 216.421 points
Bronze – GBR, 205.000 points
The British Dressage Team would like to thank the team sponsors, Toggi, Spillers Speciality Feeds and Natural Animal Feeds, and other suppliers, supporters and owners. Special thanks to UK Sport who support the riders throughout the year.
