Eventing young guns are working hard to gain selectors' eyes as the clock ticks closer to the announcement of New Zealand teams for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky later this year.
Equestrian Sports New Zealand has just announced the latest Eventing High Performance Squad Review, with the UK based Andrew Nicholson and his three horses Nereo, Avebury and Mr Cruise Control leading the A squad, with exciting young riders Clarke Johnstone (Waikato), Jonathan Paget (Auckland) and Annabel Wigley (Christchurch) included on the B squad, along with the more established likes of Joe Meyer, Caroline Powell and Mark Todd, who are all also UK based.
Eventing chief selector Andrew Scott says it's exciting times for New Zealand eventing with such determination shining through.
“These younger riders have been notching some excellent results in recent months and they're just knocking on the door to make the potential team.”
Nicholson has been in outstanding form this season with some solid results, including fourth at the recent four star event in Luhmuhlen, Germany aboard Mr Cruise Control.
While Caroline Powell and Lenamore, New Zealand's best performed at Badminton with a seventh place finish, are not available for selection, she is named in the B squad with her other mount Mac MacDonald.
“It is disappointing not to have Lenamore available for selection,” says Erik Duvander eventing high performance leader. “He's been a terrific campaigner for New Zealand since he first represented the country in 2006 at World Equestrian Games.”
Todd is on squad with Grass Valley after a strong performance at Badminton.
“The performances at the two four star events at Badminton and Luhmuhlen were most definitely key deciders for these squads,” says Scott.
The team is due to be named in early September, with the World Equestrian Games starting September 25 and running for three weeks.
Click the following link to go to the Official Squad announcement: http://www.nzequestrian.org.nz/Article.aspx?ID=3252
Front page photo: Andrew Nicholson |