The European Young Rider Eventing Championship reached an exciting climax at Blair Castle yesterday with the British team winning gold plus twenty one year old Willa Newton added a silver individual medal to the British medal tally. In a tense showjumping finale in the international arena with the stunning backdrop of Blair Castle in Perthshire, the young riders from Britain held their nerve to hold off a challenge from the Irish team. The team’s combined efforts were enough to give them a total of 169.2 points, nearly nine points ahead of second placed Ireland with the German team taking bronze.
Chairman of the Young Rider squad, Alex Colquhoun says: “Being part of the building blocks of young riders’ Eventing careers is just so fantastic; we have seen riders such as William Fox-Pitt, Zara Phillips, Piggy French and Tina Cook go from successful young riders to senior team medalists.” This year's Individual gold title went to German rider Freya Fullgraebe riding Oje Oje while individual bronze was awarded to Irish rider David Hannigan who rode Red Baron.
Great Britain has a great record in this competition having won team gold six out of the last seven years and sharing it with Germany last year.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Blair Atholl over the four days of the event where they enjoyed not only world class competition but also shopping in the tented village and food hall and the spectacular Bruadar Country Fair activities and demonstrations.
See photos and biogs from this year’s squad on our booklet free for download on http://bit.ly/ooouhP
To view the full list of British Young rider European Championship achievements over the years ahead to http://bit.ly/ewgRlL *In 2010 Britain drew with Germany and therefore shared team gold.
