Britain’s young rider eventing squad followed in the footsteps of their senior counterparts to win team gold at the Young Rider European Championships in Bialy Bor, Poland last weekend.
The Hartpury College Young Rider Squad of Abi Walters, Kitty Boggis (pictured), Rachel Thompson and Georgie Davies stole the gold medal from the Italian and German teams in a nail-biting final show jumping phase.
The Italian squad were the surprise leaders after Saturday’s cross-country when three of their riders produced good clear rounds while British leader, Georgie Davies was eliminated when Fachoudette took an uncharacteristic dislike to a water fence.
Italian Vittoria Panizzon held the lead in the individual championship with Germany’s Michael Jung in silver and Britain’s Abi Waters in bronze.
The lead changed during Sunday’s show jumping phase when Vittoria Panizzon incurred five time penalties while Micheal Jung remained faultless to take the gold. Abi and Uther Pendragon II had just one fence down to secure the bronze.
A single fence down saw Kitty Boggis take fourth and with Rachel finishing inside the top 10, team gold was Britain’s.
Italy lost out on the team silver medal when some disasterous show jumping rounds saw the team relegated to bronze position, while Germany took advantage of Italy’s misfortunate and moved up to take silver.
Britain’s individual riders also performed well with Charlotte Littlefield, who was called up at the last minute, finishing in 16th with a clear cross-country round. Brett Kenyon had an unfortunate stop across country to end the competition in 24th place.
