New Zealand’s hopes of having a showjumper at the 2016 Rio Olympics hang on a good result at Tuesday’s CSI1* Olympic Qualifier in Hagen, Germany.
Bruce Goodin and Samantha McIntosh, who have both ridden at Olympic and World Championship level, are tasked with taking on the rest of Group G – South East Asia and Oceania – which includes New Zealand, Japan and Australia, among others.
Up for grabs are two team slots and an individual spot, and this is New Zealand’s only chance to qualify outside of via the rider rankings.
Equestrian Sports New Zealand high performance director Sarah Dalziell says a strong performance and qualification at the special event would be a huge boost for Kiwi showjumpers.
“Increasingly, we are seeing good results being posted from our off-shore high performance jumpers,” says Dalziell. “Such efforts are demonstrating the strong performances which are required not only for participation at Rio next year, but are also key to the longer-term strategy for the ESNZ Jumping High Performance Programme.
“It would be great if we could cement those results by attaining an individual qualification at Hagen.”
For Goodin, the qualifier is a vital step in his plan.
“Tuesday’s result changes things one way or another, our whole look at next year,” he said. “There is only one spot up for grabs . . . it’s a make or break sort of deal really. Yes, life will go on, but this is something that I really want to have the chance of trying to do.”
The Olympics are not new to Goodin, who has been selected four times to ride at the prestigious event, but he has his heart set on Rio.
“I think our horses will be ready to go and have a really good chance of doing well,” says Goodin, “but first we have to qualify. We have to put ourselves in the position to be able to go, and it is all down to Tuesday afternoon.”
He will ride his 2014 Alltech FEI World Champs horse Centina 10, who won a CSI3* at Munich earlier this year.
“My horses are jumping well and having good results. I am fortunate to have multiple horses who can jump at this level, but it hasn’t all gone to plan with Cayenne 175 having to take a badly-timed break.
However, either Centina or Freestyle would be able to do the job.”
France based McIntosh has also had a late change from Aki 70 to Estina.
“Aki had an incident with the blacksmith, which meant he would miss too much work in his build-up, so now my hopes lie in Estina to pull through for me and Lakeridge Equestrian in Hagen,” says McIntosh.
Estina has notched some good results recently, including a fourth place finish in the grand prix at the CSI2* at Bonheiden in Belgium.
Dalziell is heartened to see such depth in the stables of each rider.
“That depth is absolutely key to the sustainability of our programme,” she says. “Both Bruce and Sam have multiple horses to call upon for Hagen.”
Also at the event will be ESNZ jumping performance coach Jeff McVean.
The top two teams will qualify at Hagen, but it also possible for New Zealand to qualify an individual if a Kiwi rider is the next leading rider behind those in the top teams.
There are 12 countries competing at Hagen, with 29 riders from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China, Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
The details -
Samantha McIntosh’s Aki 70 (owned by SCEA Haras de la Becassiere) and Estina (owned by Lakeridge Equestrian).
Bruce Goodin’s Centina 10 (owned by Glen Nielsen), Freestyle 39 (owned by Stall Kocchs) and Cayenne 175 (owned by Glen Nielsen).
