Annie Ho and Super Combed Photo courtesy HorseMoveThailand
Annie Ho added only 1.2 time penalties on a tough cross country and 1 time penalty in the show jumping phase to finish on a score of 48.2 as the individual gold medallist at the 2013 FEI Asian Eventing Championships.
Individual medallists L-R Silver: Thanaporn Chavatanont (Thailand), Gold: Annie Ho (Hong Kong), Bronze: Weerapat Pitakanonda (Thailand)
Annie, who was riding for Hong Kong but who is now based in the UK, finished 23.4 penalties ahead of second placed rider, Thanaporn Chavatanont of Thailand riding Painters Peer. Thanaporn (or Mint, as she is known) finished on a score of 71.6, having jumped clear around the cross country course with 14.8 but dropping two rails in the show jumping.
Korntawat Samram on course Photo courtesy HorseMoveThailand
None of the riders managed a double clear on the John Nicholson designed cross country course and 11 of the 19 competitors were eliminated during this phase. It must have been a tough course, Mr Nicholson! Young Thai rider Korntawat Samram had a good cross country phase, jumping clear with only 6.8 time penalties to finish in second place after this phase but unfortunately had to withdraw his horse prior to the show jumping
Third place went to Weerapat Pitakanonda, also of Thailand riding Monarchs Royal Touch and Japanese Olympian Negishi Atsushi riding Rata 21 finished in fourth.
Team presentations: Gold for Thailand, silver to Indonesia and bronze to India
In the teams competition, Thailand took the honours with three of their riders successfully completing to take the gold medal winning position. Sadly the Indian and Indonesian teams failed to complete but based on their dressage scores, Indonesia took second place on a collective dressage score of 231 while India took third on a score of 218
In his welcome on the Asian Eventing website, Col. Fuangvich Aniruth-Deva, Event Director and the Secretary General of Thailand Equestrian Federation says
“Long before the first owned horse event was introduced in 1998 Asian Games in Thailand, we were competing on borrow horses in Asia region. Since 1998, the development of our equestrian Olympic disciplines is accelerating especially on Show Jumping. Eventing is however another story. Though it seems to be potential sports for Asian riders to climb up and rise to the top, competition level in overall Asia is still understated and incomparable to the world-class events.
FEI monitors this very closely for years. To start off the long term development plan and prove the world that we are ready to lift up the competition level in our region, it is necessary to organize more regularly the international eventing competitions. And that must be the ones that yield best and safest results for both horse and rider.
I have been involved with Eventing discipline since my very first equestrian education in England, then as a national rider, FEI Coaching Level 2 and now FEI 3 star and 4 star judges. Til now, my aim is to develop this beloved sport for Thailand and Asia region. And after the hardship and continuous efforts, let me present you the first FEI Asian Eventing Championships ever held in Asia!”
Let’s hope that the first Asian Eventing Championships may herald a new era for eventing in the region. We’d love to see you all competing in Australia too!
Annie Ho on her victory lap as the first ever Asian Eventing Champion
Photos courtesy of Asian Eventing and HorseMoveThailand
