Australia’s Oceania Championships Young Rider Team continued to impress on cross-country day at Melbourne International 3 Day Event.
Going into today’s second phase with only a narrow lead over the New Zealand team, they managed to strengthen their hold on the prestigious contest thanks to a superb riding display led by Gemma Tinney.
The 19-year-old and her super fit mare Annapurna were the last combination out on the course and they rocketed around to finish clear and well within time.
The effort pushed her into second place overall (45.70) behind NSW rider Andrew Barnett (41.90).
Her team mate Shenae Lowings also rode strongly and is now sitting third in the overall individual standings (47.60). Olivia Barton is 8th after finishing on 51.90 penalties and Tayah Andrew is 14th (59.3).
Former Australian Olympic Eventing coach and Equestrian legend Wayne Roycroft was highly impressed with what he witnessed from the Young Rider team at Werribee Park today.
“Gemma Tinney is still inexperienced and she is an excellent young rider,” Roycroft said.
“I was very impressed with the whole lot of that team, that’s where our future is,” he added.
For full provisional results of the CCI2 * go to; http://bspscoring.com/M3DE/2017/XC_1706_CCI2.html
It’s a different story for Australia’s Senior Oceania Championships Team. They trail the Kiwis after cross-country http://bspscoring.com/M3DE/2017/XC_1706_CCI3.html
New Zealand’s Jock Paget (46.90), Virginia Thompson (47.10) and Samantha Felton (49.20) currently fill the top three positions with last year’s CCI3 * winner Stuart Tinney and his big grey Warmblood War Hawk the highest placed Australian representative rider 5th (52.60). Hazel Shannon fell at the sixth fence and were eliminated. Both her and Clifford did not suffer any major injury.
Whilst they might be behind the Kiwis overall, Roycroft commended the Australian selector’s decision to give some new names a chance in a representative team this weekend.
“I think the fact that the Australian team selectors decided to put in unproven combinations that are young and looking forward to the future is a really good idea.”
“The Kiwis will be hard to beat this time but our riders will gain great experience from the competition and being in a team situation,” Roycroft said.
The final day of the Melbourne International 3 Day Event and the Oceania Championships begins tomorrow at 9am.
