YR Euro blog: How it feels to win gold

I still can’t believe it, sitting here with a medal — a GOLD medal — around my neck seems like the most unrealistic, but better than best thing ever, especially as it seemed completely unattainable at the beginning of the week.

Saturday night was a great opportunity for some international team bonding, and we were extremely grateful to David Merit for releasing his hold on us in order to fully appreciate Blair’s Saturday night party. Even better, it was Charlotte Castle’s birthday, so having kicked off the dancing in ‘classy’ Brit style, she and Nicola Malcolm took to the stage to join ‘Tunacave’ in one of their old school renditions.

I meanwhile, must admit to discovering a German with some nifty dance moves, — which was something else I never would have expected, as they always seem so serious — but definitely an entertaining surprise. Rooey it seems thought the same, as he was snapped with his eyes shut during the German anthem in the prize-giving.

The morning sped by pretty quickly, and before I knew it all the squad had flown through the trot up successfully. We had 10 marks in hand going into the show-jumping, so I didn’t even let myself think about winning gold. I just knew I had to, and WOULD go clear.

I hadn’t even heard that the Swiss, who were in silver, had opened up our advantage when I cantered into the arena on a thoroughly bouncy Rooey. He just loved the crowd, felt more like a little rubber ball than ever before and didn’t even give the slightest impression he would touch anything. Even the massively influential planks at the end didn’t pose a problem.

I can honestly say the feeling of managing a clear inside the time was doubly as thrilling as coming through the cross-country finish yesterday — and I thought that was good! The relief was immeasurable, as I knew Dani and Emily were both on great jumpers, and by the time Em was jumping we knew we’d done it.

Winning a rug and a sash has always been one of my dreams, so to come home with both, in addition to a gold medal, is just overwhelming. And it shows blogging can’t give me all bad luck! Thanks very much as well to all the selectors, but especially to Gill and Emma for giving us all so much help throughout the week. I’ll be going for individual gold too next year!!

Charlotte

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