David Evans receives the Bill Thomson Memorial Bursary for cross-country design from the late Duke of Marlborough
Photo courtesy Adam Fanthorpe/Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials
David Evans, course-designer and course-builder at the SsangYong Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, is to build the cross-country course at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
David and his team built the Mike Etherington-Smith-designed track at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong, and have been chosen as builders for designer Derek di Grazia in Tokyo.
David, who lives in Oxfordshire locally to Blenheim, has long been one of Britain’s best and most popular course-builders, working at venues such as Chatsworth, Bramham, Gatcombe and Burgham as well as events in Europe such as Luhmühlen CCI4*.
In 2016, he was appointed to design Blenheim’s CIC3* track, and in 2017 he has taken over the CCI3* course at the SsangYong Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials for the first time.
Event Director Mandy Hervieu said: “I am delighted that David and his excellent team have been awarded this prestigious contract for Tokyo. Blenheim’s cross-country courses are superbly built and beautifully presented, with outstanding attention to detail, and it is great to think that there will once more be a ‘little bit of Blenheim’ at the Olympics.”
David Evans said: “It is a great honour to be involved in Tokyo 2020. I have just visited the site with Derek – it is fantastic and involves very interesting terrain. The organising committee are very welcoming and are doing everything in their power to help us.”
This is the first time David has worked with Derek, who is one of the most respected course-designers in the world. As well as the Tokyo Olympics, he is designing the track at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA in 2018 and has been in charge of the course at Kentucky CCI4* since 2011.
David with some of his team – from left to right, Dave Tyler, Mike Pope, Carl Fletcher and David Evans, taken at Luhmühlen 2017 after their successful bid was announced
Photo courtesy Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials.
