European team wins gold at Youth Olympics

19 August- Team Europe rounded off two days of superb jumping with a Gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing on Wednesday, retaining the title won by the region in 2010.

The team, comprising Great Britain’s Jake Saywell, Italy’s Matias Alvaro, Ireland’s Michael Duffy, Sweden’s Filip Agren and Lisa Nooren of The Netherlands, put in impressive performances over the two days of the team competition, to finish top of the leaderboard with a total of zero penalties.

Finishing close behind for the Silver medal were the team from South America, whilst North America took the Bronze. Africa was fourth, with Australasia fifth and Asia in sixth place. In total six double clears were recorded during the competition, three of those coming from European riders.

Jake Saywell, a member of the UK Sport National Lottery funded World Class Development Programme said; “It was a lot better second time around, the horse jumped super actually. We were a little bit unlucky at the last fence, he just tired a bit and he is a big horse and it is quite humid.

“Just to be here is a great honour and makes me feel very privileged but to get a medal is fantastic. And winning the gold is exceptional and it tees me up well for the individual competition now.”

All of the teams competed on borrowed horses that were provided by the organisers and allocated by lot.

source: http://horsetalk.co.nz/