British Showjumping Children’s Team finish 4th at their European Championships
Thursday 28 July 2016
The British Showjumping Children’s team competing at the Children, Junior and Young Rider Championships finished in joint 4th place at Millstreet, Ireland this afternoon.
At the halfway mark, the Brits sat on 4 penalties alongside four other teams and it was Spain who led with just 1 penalty, a score which they carried through to the end to claim Gold. With the remaining two medals up for grabs it was an incredibly tense second round with all riders competing under considerable pressure to try and finish carrying no more than the 4 penalties which they had accrued in the first round.
Sienna Charles (13 years) from Alton, Hampshire with Chaitanya 2, a 9 year-old grey mare owned by Peter Charles MBE took the role of pathfinder for the team. Having jumped a brilliant first round clear, she pulled yet another superb performance out of the bag to deliver a zero penalty score for the rest of the team to follow.
Lily Freeman-Atwood (14 years) from Shrewsbury, Shropshire with Banana D’Ive Z, a 15 year-old chestnut mare owned by Mark McCourt had picked up 4 penalties in the first round, however their second round was a foot-perfect one which saw them return home with no additional penalties to add to the tally. At this stage it was just Germany and Italy that now sat on the same scoring of just the 4 penalties.
Eleanor Hall-Mcateer (14 years) from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire with Dazzle II, a 15 year-old grey mare owned by Mandy Hall picked up an uncharacteristic 4 penalties in the first round. Their second round also saw a pole lowered just outside the time allowed to see them finish on 5 penalties to become the drop score.
Oliver Fletcher (13 years) from Woolstone, Oxfordshire with Temple Rebus, a 9 year-old chestnut gelding owned by Graham Fletcher delivered a great clear in the first round and certainly carried immense responsibility on his incredibly young shoulders when he entered the arena for the second. Knowing nothing other than a clear would allow the team to jump off for one of the two medals still on offer, he looked set to deliver just that until an incredibly unlucky touch of a pole at the penultimate fence saw him pick up 4 penalties to give GB a total finish score of 8 penalties.
This left just Germany and Italy to fight it out via a jump off as to how the Silver and Bronze medals would be allocated. After a hard fought jump off it was Germany that took the lead to secure Silver whilst Italy took Bronze. For Great Britain, it was an equal 4th place finish tied with Hungary who had also finished on 8 penalties.
The Children’s Individual medals will be contested on Saturday and Sienna Charles, Lily Freeman-Atwood and Oliver Fletcher all look to be in a strong position going into the Individual stage. The Junior and Young Rider team medals will be decided tomorrow with their Individual medals being contested on Sunday.
British Showjumping would like to thank their consortium of Business Partners who assist support the Youth Squads.
The British Jumping teams are also supported by the Equestrian World Class Programme. The programme, which encompasses both Podium and Podium Potential squads, focuses on identifying talent, developing potential and maximising medal winning performances on the world stage. The Programme has been funded by the National Lottery via UK Sport since 1998 and is a portfolio within the British Equestrian Federation.
.jpg "Thrilling Weekend Kickstarts the STX-UK Pony British Novice Championship Second Round")
