British junior crowned European eventing champion at Bishop Burton
British junior Anna Wilks produced a foot-perfect showjumping round to win the Junior European Eventing Championships at Bishop Burton College in Yorkshire at the weekend (15-17 August).
Anna and her ride, Touch of Pleasure (pictured top competing at Houghton International earlier this season), finished on their dressage score of 41.2 to take the individual title ahead of Ireland’s Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua.
Ireland claimed team gold for the second year in a row, with the British team finishing fourth behind Germany and France.
“He was amazing”, said 17-year-old Anna, who is based with Pippa Funnell. “I couldn’t have asked any more of him. He produced a fantastic dressage mark and was then faultless in both jumping phases.
“It is even more special because my grandmother bought him as a four-year-old and I have produced him since then. He truly is a once in a lifetime horse. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Emily King suffered a serious horse fall across country on Saturday (16 August) and was taken to hospital. She has since tweeted that she did not sustain any fractures, but that she is “very bruised”.
Ireland — who were trailing Germany after the dressage and cross-country — jumped six clear rounds from both team and individual riders to steal the gold by less than two penalities.
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Horse Sport Ireland’s chairman Pat Wall said: “It was a tribute to their professionalism that the team riders kept such cool heads under pressure during the showjumping.
“Six consecutive clear rounds from the Irish was wonderful to watch, and Cathal Daniels’ final round that earned him individual silver was sheer class.”
Don’t miss the full report from Bishop Burton in Horse & Hound magazine (Thursday 21 August)
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Sophia Heath joined Horse & Hound in July 2013 having previously worked for the Daily Telegraph's Olympics website, CNN International and Omnisport. A Durham graduate with a Masters in journalism from City University, Sophia has evented, showjumped and hunted. Sophia left Horse & Hound in early 2015 to join an international boating website.