Sunday 1 August 2010

Birthday boy takes final gold of Pony Championships







Irish show jumper Bertram Allen took the gold in the individual showjumping competition, bringing down the curtain on a fantastic 2010 FEI European Pony Championships at Bishop Burton College.

Fifteen today, Allen was contesting his first European Championship but claimed he came to “win gold” and did so with a faultless performance across the competition. He has been partnering Acapella Z for the last two years and trainer Con Power commented: “It is always a privilege to train good horses and good jockeys. I have trained this partnership from day one and they have always been on an upwards curve.”

It was a closely contested competition right to the end with none of the top three riders lowering a rail across all the rounds. The silver medal went to Julie de Pelsmaeker from Belgium who finished on just one fault with Sambo Lino.

Niels Knape from the Netherlands took the bronze with just two faults, commenting: “I’ve had a great time here, I’m really happy. I came here for gold but I’m still very happy.”

British rider Amy Inglis on Nils D’Hurl Vent lowered just one pole in the first round and produced an excellent clear round on the final day to finish in joint fourth with just four faults. She said: “It felt really good today, the pony went really well and he really enjoyed himself. I put the one fence I had in the first round down to nerves but I trusted my pony to look after me and he came back brilliantly.”

Katrina Moore, Chef d’Equipe for the British Team was pleased with the overall performance of, “The team went very well,” she said, “Amy went superbly, she made a small mistake in the first round but it was just nerves. She is only 13 and she came back from it so she did really well. We have two very young riders on the team and they all did brilliantly.”

British rider Emily Roe, who finished in 16th position on Aroldo, collected the award for the highest placed British bred horse from the Sports Pony Stud Book Society. The pony had previously been to a European Championship with Emily’s older sister Rebecca in 2006. “I’ve had a great week,” said Emily, “It just wasn’t a week for the British in terms of medals.”

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