Holly Gillott and Dougie Douglas win Odense Grand Prix
Sunday 18 May 2014
Today saw Holly Gillott from Loughborough triumph in the £30,000 Grand Prix at the CSI 3* Nations Cup show at Odense, Denmark.
Having jumped double clear on Friday in the Furusiyya Nations Cup competition where she took the role of pathfinder for the team, she would have been absolutely delighted with the double clear that she posted for Great Britain. Her performance without doubt was instrumental in the team securing pole position and it was a tremendous performance that she gave with Graham Smith’s 9 year-old liver chestnut gelding Dougie Douglas.
Looking as fresh as he did on Friday, Dougie Douglas put in a foot perfect first round with Holly to return home clear, one of only a minority to do so across the fifty starters contesting the 1.60m course.
With thirteen coming forward for the jump-off, all GB’s hoped were pinned on Holly with her being the only British Rider to qualify. Putting her foot on the accelerator from the start, Dougie Douglas certainly kept the pace up and stopping the clock in a time of 38.01 seconds with all fences standing proved impossible to beat.
The closest to her time was Marie Demonte for France with Rhune d’Euskadi who had to be satisfied with 2nd place with their time of 38.34 seconds. Third place went to Soren Pederson for Denmark with a time of 39.60 seconds.
This was a tremendous performance for Holly, which was all the more notable due to it being her first experience of competing at a Senior 3* Nations Cup event. Chef d’equipe Di Lampard was absolutely delighted with their performance and for GB to have posted a Grand Prix victory in addition to securing a win in the Nations Cup only two days before just serves to highlight the tremendous up-and-coming depth of talent that GB have in reserves.
For further information on the event at Odense and full results please visit www.csio-odense.dk.
The British Showjupming Teams are supported by Exchequer and National Lottery funding via UK Sport.
14kvaj7pl3106.jpg "Jonathan Egmore and Mollie Rose Smith are winners in the Equissage Pulse British Novice Second Rounds.")
11dtw0hmsttk0.jpg "NAF Five Star Bronze and Silver League Qualifiers get underway at Speetley Equestrian Centre")
