British riders strike gold – four times over
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Britain’s Eventing teams gained an unprecedented 100% strike rate this year winning team gold medals at four levels of European Championship events. On top of that the British squads produced six individual medal winners as well.
The senior squad of Zara Phillips, Daisy Dick, Mary King and Oliver Townend trounced the opposition in Pratoni in Italy to gain team gold – their seventh successive European victory. The team triumph was spear-headed by 46-year-old mother of two Mary King whose attacking performance cross-country with Call Again Cavalier earned her individual silver – adding to the individual bronze she won at this venue 12-years ago in 1995.
At the other end of the scale of experience 14-year-old Gina Ruck, competing in her first British team, was the youngest member of a British squad this year. Gina and her compatriots Chloe Kilpatrick, Tom McEwen and Libby Soley headed off a strong German team on their home-ground at the Pony European Championships in Freudenberg to bring back four more team gold medals. Libby Soley, last year’s European individual bronze medallist with her wonder pony Noble Springbok, making his third successful appearance for the British pony team, went two better this time to take individual gold. It was triumph over adversity for Libby who came back from an injury sustained earlier in the year having suffered a broken collar bone and collapsed lung after a fall.
Another to experience the highs and lows of the sport this season is Young Rider individual silver medallist Nicola Wilson. In June 18-year-old Nicola sustained serious injuries to her pelvis after a fall at Longleat Horse Trials but fought back to fitness just in time to gain a place on the squad for the Young Rider European Championships, for riders aged 18-21 years old, held at Blair Castle in Scotland. The team of Charlotte Agnew,Dani Cuomo, Emily Galbraith and Georgie Spence scored another golden victory here with Emily Galbraith adding individual bronze to the medal haul.
The Junior team of Laura Collett, Harry Dzenis, Marina Lawson-Smith and Emily Llewellyn made it a full house of gold medals after their win at the Junior European Championships at Avenches in Switzerland. 18-year-old Laura from Gloucestershire, a team gold medallist at the Pony European Championships in 2005, went to Switzerland as reigning Champion and pulled off the magnificent double retaining her title and becoming the first Junior rider to achieve this feat.
