European golds for British young guns

Britain’s young talent swept the board at the European Championships in Greece this weekend, with the two individual golds, plus junior team bronze and young rider team silver medals.

The competition took place at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Markopoulo, Greece. Both Gemma Paternoster and Charlotte Platt made light work of round one, each clocking up just one pen with Portia Howard scoring 11 and Ryan Prater 21. Round two saw more consistency with Platt, Howard and Paternoster all adding four pen and Ryan Prater eight, putting them into equal first place with Switzerland.

But in a tense jump off Britain was outpaced by just 0.34 secs, leaving Switzerland in gold medal position. The bronze medal went to the German team with a score of 29 penalties. However no one could beat Gemma Paternoster in the individual class where she took the gold. Charlotte Platt finished third for the individual bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the British Accenture Junior Team also fulfilled its potential, with an individual gold for William Whitaker and team bronze behind Germany and France.

Britain’s team, consisting of Andrew Mizon (Special Diamond), William Whitaker (Carnaval Path), Joe Whitaker (Desdemona) and Hannah Paul (Saffier van de Brandkreek), finished on a total score of 16 penalties, with Germany taking the gold medal (8 penalties) and France the silver medal (10 penalties).

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