Appeal against Australian eventing team for London Olympics

There has been an appeal against the Australian eventing team chosen for the London Olympics.

Andrew Hoy (Rutherglen), Christopher Burton (Holstein Park Leilani), Clayton Fredericks (Bendigo), Lucinda Fredericks (Flying Finish) and Shane Rose (Taurus) were nominated to the Australian Olympic committee for selection this morning at 8am, after the names were revealed on Wednesday.

However, Equestrian Australia has confirmed in a press release “that during the 48 hours given to athletes to appeal against the nominated team, athletes have lodged an appeal which will be heard by an independent tribunal in due course. The final team selections will be advised by the Australian Olympic Committee.”

Neither Equestrian Australia nor the Australian Olympic Committee are making any further comment until the appeals process has run its course.

It is not known which rider or riders appealed, but forum speculation this morning centres around bias towards riders based in the northern hemisphere. All but Shane Rose of the riders named are based in Britain.

The difficulties of selecting a team when the potential candidates never compete against each other on a level playing field because they live so far apart has long been an issue for both Australia and New Zealand. For this Games, New Zealand has chosen to run its high performance programme from Britain and it’s likely that the whole Kiwi team will be British-based.

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Pippa Roome

H&H magazine editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.