The now traditional champagne soaking on the podium at Adelaide
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at the
Mitsubishi Motors Australian International 3 Day Event - find out more here
With the overnight leader Amanda Pottinger and second placed Hazel Shannon more than 15 penalties ahead of the rest of the field at the Mitsubishi Motors Australian International 3 Day Event, it all came down to a show jumping battle between these two ladies from either side of the Tasman.
Hazel Shannon and Willinga Park Clifford
Amanda and Just Kidding had a rail in hand heading into the final phase but Hazel and Willinga Park Clifford widened the gap with eight jumping penalties, giving Amanda a little more breathing space for her final round. Three rails fell for Amanda and the crowd held their breath, then another one fell and Hazel Shannon became the Australian International 3 Day Event CCI4* champion for a second time, becoming the first person to claim the title twice on the same horse
Like the cross country course the day before, the show jumping track was a true test and caused plenty of problems with just three riders, Hazel, Amanda and Emma Bishop, making the time of 81 seconds and no-one jumping a clear round.
Sonja Johnson moved from fourth into third place on board Misty Isle Valentino (the horse she would marry if he were a human) with eight jumping faults and three times penalties when her fellow Western Australian, Emily Gray and Jocular Vision also had two rails but five time penalties.
Sonja Johnson and Misty Isle Valentino
“I was gobsmacked that I got time penalties” said Sonja “You are looking at someone who cleans up the 1.35m speed classes so I don’t know what it is about this arena! I think it’s because it’s such a big arena and you get suckered into taking turns, from example from Fence 2 to 3 a little wide. I walked it with Emma Bishop and I walked Fence 6 and rolled back to 7AB and she looked at me and asked ‘Do we need to do that?’ and I said, it depends how many time faults you want!”
“It is something we know but I underestimated it today”
Amanda Pottinger and Just Kidding
Amanda Pottinger would obviously have loved to win her first 4* start and make it two in a row in Adelaide for New Zealand but coming second isn’t too shabby at your first Australian International 3 Day Event!
Gemma Tinney and Annapurna
The New Zealand rider based in Australia, Hayley Frielick, finished in fifth place riding Class Action LP while Gemma Tinney took sixth place and told us about her first 4* experience
