On the podium after the traditional champagne soaking - (L-R) Andrew Cooper, Hazel Shannon and Will Enzinger
The girl raised in Far North Queensland who has just won the CCI4* at the Australian International 3 Day Event will be heading home in the truck later today and sleeping in a swag "And even then it won't be a very long sleep!"
Hazel Shannon put in a performance throughout the past few days that has signalled her as a serious part of the future of Australian eventing. Her Australian thoroughbred Clifford, owned by Wendy Ward and already ranked fifth in the eventing horse world rankings before this performance, hardly put a foot wrong throughout the event and 24 year old Hazel has handled the pressure well
They started in second place after the dressage and added just 0.4 penalties to finish on a score of 52.50, well ahead of second placed Will Enzinger on Wenlock Aquifer (Will also was fourth on Britannica MVNZ) and third placed Andrew Cooper on Evergem Perfection.
Both Andrew and Will had picked up show jumping penalties, giving Hazel room to breathe but her coach Heath Ryan told her before she went in that 'You're not competing against anyone else so it doesn't matter if you have rails in hand, you are competing for a future place on an Australian team' (more from Heath to come in an interview soon)
But Hazel didn't need them and finished in style with a clear round. The 'quiet achiever' had just achieved her first CCI4* win .......
Our full CCI4* report and more interviews to come
