Dressage Team Gold for Britain
Sunday, July 22, 2007
There was little indication (other than large puddles and the odd abandoned car) of the unusual and unexpected deluge of rain which on Friday had submerged Hartpury, the venue for the FEI World Para-Equestrian Dressage Championships. Indeed, a new day had dawned, with important medals at stake and both World Individual and Team medals up for grabs. For the team competition, a nation must include at least 1 rider from Grade Ia, Ib or II, and of the 4 riders who make up a team, no more than 3 can be from the same Grade. In order to provide meaningful competition, all Para-Equestrian riders are graded according to their physical impairment. The athletes' impairments are classified, allowing riders with similar levels of impairment to be grouped into five Grades (Ia, Ib, II, III and IV), with I being for the more severely impaired riders and Grade IV being for the least impaired - the level of complexity of the test then varies according to the Grade.
There were many surprises in store, and despite the domination of the British riders throughout Friday's competition, Saturday’s Individual competition and medals were much more indicative of the international presence. However, there was little that could stop the overall brilliant performance of the British team, thus re-confirming their status as the definitive World Champions, a title which they have kept since its inception! The athletes to contribute to yet another British Gold were: Anne Dunham - Grade Ia, Lee Pearson – Grade Ib, Simon Laurens – Grade III and Michelle Crunkhorn – Grade IV. It is a remarkable result for the home team and is more than deserved for a country whose dedication to disabled sport and Para-Equestrian competition has been proven time and time again. The importance of the team medals cannot be underestimated as they will also provide the first three teams with the coveted and hotly disputed qualification slots for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Hong Kong. In 2nd place, and also the proud recipients of qualification slots at the Paralympic Games, is Germany with Britta Napel and Angelika Trabert from Grade II, and Hannelore Brenner and Bettina Eistel from Grade III. Bronze went to Norway, very closely followed by Brazil.
The new World title for Grade Ia goes to Brazilian rider Sergio Oliva riding El Grand Champ, an amazing achievement given that this is a borrowed horse (trained by Nicolas Commenge and owned by Annabelle Dervin who is also at the Championships, competing for France in Grade IV) and he has only had 10 days in which to get acquainted. Silver went to Slaven Hudina from Croatia riding Tulasi, while Bronze went to Sophie Christiansen (European Champion) from Great Britain with Gazel.
There was little debate as to the winner and new World Champion for Grade Ib, the highly decorated and experienced Lee Pearson, aboard Altino (a very recent and obviously successful partnership) proved to be the man of the day - with the highest score across all Grades with 77.333%. Silver was awarded to Nicole Kullen from Australia aboard Worleston Billy, a fantastic result given the few weeks in which Nicole had to prepare with her borrowed horse. Bronze went to Ricky Balshaw from Great Britain aboard Deacons Giorgi.
The new World Champion for Grade II is the determined and accomplished rider Nicola Tustain, aboard Hotstuff, who competed despite recovering from a cracked coccyx which should have kept her well away from the arena. Silver went to German rider Britta Napel with Durbridge 28 while Bronze was awarded to another German national, Steffen Zeibig on Waldemar.
Grade III was hotly disputed and saw Annika Lykke Dalskov from Denmark aboard Alfavard April Z become the new World Champion, only just ahead of German rider Hannelore Brenner on Women of the World and in third place British rider Deborah Criddle aboard Figaro IX.
The new World Champion from Grade IV is Norwegian rider Ann Cathrin Lubbe (current Paralympic Champion) aboard Zanko. In second place came Philippa Johnson on Benedict, while Bronze went to Sabine Peters from The Netherlands with Papillon.
For full results please consult the official website: http://www.hartpury.ac.uk/wpdc/results/
