British Team NAF UK finish 2nd in Gorla Minore CSIO3* Nations Cup

Saturday 24 April 2021

British Team NAF UK finish 2nd in Gorla Minore CSIO3* Nations Cup

 

“It was so close in so many ways” said Di Lampard, World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping on the team’s 2nd place finish in the CSIO3* FEI Nations Cup in Gorla Minore, Italy today, 24 April.

The 1.45m course consisting of twelve obstacles with fifteen jumping efforts rode well on the all-weather surface arena which basked in temperatures of  22° with it expected to be even hotter tomorrow for the Grand Prix.  Competing under the title sponsorship banner of Team NAF it was a 2nd place finish for the Brits who sat just two time penalties behind the winning nation France.  It was the Czech Republic that finished 3rd in the competition that had seen eleven nations come forward to contest it.

The opening rider for GB and the entire competition was Laura Renwick from Maldon, Essex with the 13 year-old chestnut gelding Dublin V owned by Arabella Prior. Leading the way from the start, Laura posted two incredible clear rounds making herself and Dublin one of only four combinations that managed to do so across the forty-four starters that came forward.

Having set the standard for others to follow she also gave the team a perfect platform to deliver from, and our next team rider Georgia Tame did exactly that.  Georgia, from Horsham, West Sussex with the 10 year-old bay stallion Z7 Ascot owned by Team Z7 made the course look easy when she came home leaving all fences untouched in the first round albeit just outside the time allowed to pick up a single time penalty. Her second round saw their more forward paced performance stop the clock within the time allowed and once again leaving all fences standing to return a zero penalty score.

For third rider Alison Barton from Bradford, West Yorkshire with Roma IV a 14 year-old liver chestnut mare owned by Gay Hartley things didn’t go as well as hoped.  An early elimination at the 4th fence, a stile, saw the decision made to withdraw her from the second round.With the team down to three riders it meant that all scores would count towards their final tally and left without the luxury of knowing they had a drop score in hand.

The anchor rider came in the form of the legendary John Whitaker, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, with the 13 year-old bay Unick du Francport which he owns with wife Clare. Returning home with a clear in the first round, their performance saw Great Britain sit comfortably in 3rd place at the halfway stage.  Their second round saw a touch of the first element of the combination resulting in a front pole lowering and 5 penalties accrued having finished slightly outside the allotted time.

Di Lampard, talking about the team and the competition as a whole said “There were three outstanding performances today. Laura, who was first in the competition to enter the arena and set the standard; she was absolutely fantastic.  Georgia followed with two really good rounds and they are proving to become a good partnership for us. We had bad luck with Roma, she just wasn’t herself today so we discussed it as a team after the first round and made the decision to withdraw her from the second  rather than ask her to come forward again.

“John, what can I say other than he was, as usual, the exceptional anchorman. His first round was excellent and even more so when you consider he was on a relatively inexperienced horse at this level. The second round was just unlucky and his horse will have gained from the experience today. It’s most people’s dream to ride on a team with John and the lift he gave by being here was amazing.  It wasn’t limited to our team either as there was clear ‘hero worship’ across all nations and just delight at him being here and taking part so that they could watch the master first hand.”

For further information on the show and full results visit www.equieffe.it

Image:  Laura Renwick & Dublin V (copyright - sassofotografie)

British Showjumping would like to thank NAF, title sponsors of the Senior Nations Cup Teams along with the Pony, Children, Junior, Young Rider and Veteran teams.

NAF’s premium range of Five Star brands include Superflex, Superflex Senior, PROFEET, Optimum, Magic, Oestress and Respirator Boost with quality at the heart of everything they do. They are a UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme), GMP+ (International Feed Assurance Scheme) and BETA NOPS (Naturally Occuring Prohibited Substances) accredited company and this enables them to guarantee full traceability on all the natural ingredients they utilise in their formulations, which are also selected in compliance with the FEI guidelines for Clean Sport. For further information, visit www.naf-equine.eu/uk/index.jsp.

The GBR showjumping teams are supported by the British Equestrian Federation’s World Class Programme, funded by UK Sport through the National Lottery. The Programme focuses on identifying talent, developing potential and maximising medal-winning performances on the world stage.

 
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