No Success for Juniors and Young Riders
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Unfortunately Britain’s junior and young rider teams did not return from the 2006 European Junior and Young Rider Championships at Stadl Paura in Austria with any medals.
Britain’s young rider team was ninth while the juniors finished 11th, both out of 12 teams. The highest scoring British test was Anne Marie Perry’s young rider team test with World Classic. They scored 66.178% to finish 24th.
Chef d’equipe Jennie Loriston-Clarke said: “We knew we weren’t going to get any medals having lost Maria Eilberg and Laura Bechtolsheimer to the seniors. The heat affected some horses more than others, but everyone had to deal with that. We did lack horsepower and some horses didn’t go as well as they can. In the young riders, Henry Boswell got the best out of his horse and rode clean tests while junior Charlie Hutton did well considering Abira is only six. The standard of horses and riding at these Europeans was high; we need to go back to the drawing board and ride better.”
Junior team gold went to Holland, with the same nation’s Diederik van Silfhout and Paddox winning individual gold. The 20-year-old Italian rider Valentina Truppa dominated the young riders aboard her nine-year-old gelding Chablis and went home with individual gold while Germany headed the team event.
