Will Whitaker delivers another clear on Day 2 of the FEI European Championships
Thursday 24 August 2017
Will Whitaker with Ludwig Criel’s 13 year-old bay stallion Utamaro d'Ecaussines put in another superb performance today to jump clear over the 1.60m Louis Konickx designed course at the FEI European Championships in Gothenburg.
This saw the pair finish with no further penalties to add to their 5.06 penalties which they carried forward after yesterday’s opening round clear. These were the differential points awarded due to the time difference of their 85.81 seconds and the opening leader Peder Fredricson’s (SWE) clear in a time 75.70 seconds.
Coming forward in 39th place this morning it was a long wait whilst the rest of the field jumped to see the impact that their clear would have on their overall placing on the leaderboard at the end of competition. With many of the field that had started off ahead of him incurring penalties, as a result of struggling with some of the questions being asked of them, it was a leap of twenty-two placings to see them finish this evening in 17th place going forward to tomorrow’s third leg of the championships.
For Will this has been a crucial leg of the championships as Sunday’s Individual final will only see the top twenty-five come forward so it was great to see them finish in such a strong position at this stage. As one of the top fifty competitors, he now progresses to tomorrow’s third individual qualification round which commences at 20:30 hrs local time.
Commenting afterwards Will said: “It’s a tough course today, from the first to the last, it comes thick and fast. He gave me everything all the way round; now we just have to concentrate on tomorrow, and just keep doing what we’re doing. It’s always nice to get off to a good start; he’s an amazing horse, he always gives his best and he just jumped brilliant.”
Today also saw the first 1.45m international class for riders aged 25 years and under take place. It was a 3rd place finish for GB’s rider Tim Wilks with the 13 year-old gelding Quelbora Merze when he finished clear in a time of 36.56 seconds behind Rodrigo Giesteira Almeida (POR) who stopped the clock in 35.38 seconds and Martin Dinesen Neergaard (DEN) who jumped clear in 35.54 seconds to take 1st and 2nd place respectively. GB’s second rider Jess Dimmock also delivered a clear with the 11 year-old Cassius Clay but their time of 38.82 seconds saw them finish further down the line in 38.82 seconds.
For full results and start lists visit http://bit.ly/2vTZEk7
The British senior teams are supported by the BEF’s UK Sport National Lottery funded World Class Programme.
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