Harry Charles clinches victory in the National under 18 Championship Final
Friday 12 August 2016
Harry Charles was crowned the National under 18 Champion today as the riders who had qualified for the championship final joined together to put on a tremendous display of young jumping talent in Championship Arena 2, at the British Showjumping National Championships. As the stars of the future took centre stage in the jump off, 17 year old Harry from Hampshire produced the only clear round out of the five combinations who made it through riding Vivaldi Du Dom.
Last year Harry was part of the Junior team who won bronze at the FEI European Jumping Championship. He also won silver at the Europeans and came first in the Gents Final at Wales. In April this year he took second place ahead of his father, London 2012 gold medallist Peter Charles, at the Welsh Masters – a son certainly following in his father’s footsteps.
Speaking of his win today, Harry says: “The course was well built and had a great technical element to it. I could see that the first fence was causing problems for many so I made sure I really balanced him [Vivaldi Du Dom] on the approach. In the jump off I was conscious of the fact that Maja was really fast so I wanted to really go for it.” Maja Burnell came in second place riding Carnaval Komom having got a quick time but picked up an unfortunate 4 faults.
Image Credit - 1st Class Images.
