After a wonderfully generous weekend of reporting from Italy, Austin Ligon was kind enough to send us the results of Campo de Mayo CIC***, with some insightful commentary on how it plays into the individual Olympic race. Thanks, Mr. Ligon!
Ronald Zabala and Master Rose at Poplar, photo by Samantha Clark
From Austin Ligon:
It looks like Ronald, who rides in the US and just competed at the Poplar CIC*** took 1st on Master Rose and 5th on Che Kairo at Campo de Mayo CIC*** in Argentina, which should secure the South American Regional Reserve Slot for him and Ecuador.
Master Rose has now also picked up his minimum eligibility requirement (MER) for CIC, so just needs one for CCI to qualify. (A rider and each horse must have a MER at a CIC*** and CCI***.)
The issue with Argentina that some have talked about is they have NO current riders who are 3-star CCI qualified, even though they have earned the right to a 5 person team thru the Pan Am Games (2-star). They had 3 riders and 3 horses get their CIC*** MER this weekend at Campo de Mayo….and 5 who failed. So they still have a long way to go to get a group of 5-6 riders and even more horses qualified in time (June 14th). These are the spots that folks on the wait list are lusting after, should Argentina falter. I believe they have two more events, one CIC*** and one CCI*** scheduled in Buenos Aires this spring. “Watch this space,” as they say. There is some concern the Japanese may not make the full five, but they already have the first 3, which guarantees their team can compete…and their top 2 riders are very good, as the Aussies found to their chagrin when they fielded their “B, team at the Asian championship competition at Blenheim, and got their hineys spanked and sent to the individual list.
One final note…I also found the results from Vladikavkaz (Southe Ossetia, Russia) where the Russians and Belarus rode this weekend. None passed Michael Ryan (IRE) at spot #20, so the Irish get a team of at least 3 members, with 2 more slots possible from wait list. Andrei Korshunov (Russian) did the best, and moved up to the high wait list with 187 pts. And that’s it.
Now the folks on the wait list go thru the excruciating wait to see if spots open up (you can see why we wanted to avoid this fate), and the rest of us, along with the team organizations, go forward to focus on getting ready and keeping horses healthy.
Nina, by the way, has achieved the MER for all four horses…just in case.
Austin Ligon
