As the first day of competition got underway at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Deodoro it was Lee Pearson who was the first out into the arena for Great Britain, as the Grade Ib class took to the stadium this afternoon.
Aboard David and Lynda Pearson, Gillian Chinn and his own Zion, Lee produced a lovely test aboard the eleven year-old bay gelding, after a great first halt saw the duo on their way. With some very expressive movements through the walk the combination were awarded a score of 75.280% which saw them finish top of the standings.
Commenting afterwards Lee said; “I didn’t care if it was 55+ [score], that horse gave me everything he could possibly give me – I could have perhaps been a bit more accurate, for example we have to trot round the corner and do a transition to walk in the first corner, he’s a big horse he’s 17.2hh so we were possibly a bit late but I felt it was balanced and flowing and I just love him to bits. It was amazing, it was brilliant, I feel like it was the best test he’s done.”
Lee’s next competition will be on Wednesday (14 September), when he rides in the Individual Championship Grade Ib test. Tomorrow sees the Grade IV and Grade Ia athletes in action, with ParalympicsGB’s Sophie Wells, Anne Dunham and Sophie Christiansen all getting their Games underway.
The Team test is compulsory for all competing athletes; for team members, results from the Team test are added together with the scores from the Individual Championship tests to arrive at a total score for a combination, with the three highest scores (in teams of four) counting towards the overall team total.
For athletes competing as Individuals, their scores from the Team and Individual Championship tests are added together to establish the overall athlete rankings for that Grade; only the top one-third of athletes per Grade go forward to contest Friday’s Individual Freestyle.
For a full list of results, please visit the Rio 2016 website.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sparrow Photography.