Vanessa Way & KH Arvan from Oakura in Taranaki have headed off the best of the New South Wales Grand Prix dressage competitors today at a pre Olympic Qualifier event at Clarendon near Sydney with a winning score of 67.8%. Riders used the event as warm up for the Australian Dressage Nationals and Olympic Qualifier to be held at the Horsley Park Sydney Olympic venue at the end of October./p>
Very wet conditions resulted in a large number of withdrawals reducing the field from an original eleven starters to just four, but Way's score was more than 6% ahead of her nearest rival, the very experienced Sue Hearn with Duntroon. Way was very pleased with Arvan's test in the wet conditions with just a few small mistakes in their performance "so there's more to come yet" she said.
Full Clarendon results from Sat 8th Oct
Way is one of a five strong NZL team heading to that event with the aim of qualifying a Dressage team for London 2012. Other nations looking to qualify are Japan, South Africa and Australia, but in a shock announcement last night, Japan has withdrawn having said as late Thursday that they would be in contention.This leaves three teams competing for two team places. The South Africans have not announced their team so are an unknown threat at this point, but Australia is expected to be strong having scored their best global team placing ever (8th) at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky last year.
Remaining NZ team members Louisa Hill (Clevedon) Nicky Pope (Whitford) Shiwon Green (Cambridge) and Kieryn Walton (Owhango) are continuing their preparation in NZL and will join Way about 20th October in Australia.
