Great Britain’s Young Rider team seize Team Bronze at the FEI Jumping European Championships for Children, Juniors and Young Riders
Friday 14 July 2023
Great Britain claimed a podium place at the FEI Jumping European Championships for Children, Juniors and Young Riders in Gorla Minore, Italy, as the Young Rider team proudly lifted a bronze medal.
Experienced pathfinder Olli Fletcher was best of the Brits on day one as scores were turned into penalty points and he added four faults to his 1.03 point score in round one of the team competition on the 10-year-old IV Willem.
Nicole Lockhead Anderson had a day one 8.36 penalty point score and jumped a super clear in the initial team round on the 13-year-old Chatondo with Claudia Moore following suit aboard the 11-year-old Hardesther to add zero to her 2.13 points. It didn’t go according to plan for Sandy McLean, on an initial 3.25 points, as the 12-year-old Gino F came home on eight faults to be the discard score.
Britain stood in second place of 16 teams overnight after two rounds on 10.41 points, almost eight points behind Ireland at the top of the leaderboard on 2.50 points with the deciding round to play out on Friday.
Olli and Claudia jumped clear in round two of the team competition but Nicole returned on eight faults and this was added to make a final score of 18.41 as Sandy came home on 16 faults. The team dropped to third for the bronze medal 3.32 points behind Belgium in silver. The mighty Ireland added zero to their original score of 2.50 to deservedly take gold.
"We had to wait right until the very last riders for the final result over a big course that only produced four double clears, of which Claudia was one. We carried eight faults but that was good enough for Bronze and we go into Sunday's Indivdiual Final with Claudia standing in third and Olli in sixth," said Team manager Clare Whitaker.
FEI Jumping European Championships for Children, Juniors and Young Riders – 14 July, 2023
Young Rider Nations Cup
1st Ireland 2.50 points
2nd Belgium 15.09 points
3rd Great Britain 18.41 points
Olli Fletcher & IV Willem – 1.03/4/0
Nicole Lockhead Anderson & Chatondo – 8.36/0/8
Claudia Moore & Hardesther – 2.13/0/0
Sandy McLean & Gino F – 3.25 8/16
Image courtesy FEI
