China’s Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro lead the 3*.

© Les Garennes

By Equestrian Life

Saumur Complet 2019 has begun, with the CCI2*L and CCI3*L dressage complete. Leading the 2* is France’s Christopher Six and Hampton P, while China’s Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro lead the 3*.

The draw for the CCI4*-L dressage, which takes place today, is out: Australia’s Chris Burton and Polystar I are set to ride 21st in the start order at 3.35pm local time (11.35pm AEST).

You can watch the live stream here.

Live results throughout the event can be found here.

Eventing: the Olympic future of China, Thailand and Hong-Kong will be set this weekend…in Saumur!

Saumur is also an important event for Group G nations looking to gain a team start at the Tokyo Olympics. The CCI3*-L is the event being used as the qualifier, and China’s Alex Hua Tian has put his team in a great position after the dressage phase.

One of the coaches of the Chinese team, the French Pascale Boutet, said:
 
“This weekend's challenge is huge. We have three countries, China, Thailand and Hong Kong, and only two places for qualification at the next Olympic Games! In terms of sport experiences, those three countries are really young, and they all have recently decided to be active in eventing. The last 2018 World Equestrian Games had qualified Australia and New Zealand; Japan was automatically qualified, from then, the qualification process of the G group (Oceania and South-East Asia, ndlr), only two places were still at stake. Those three countries have decided to take the opportunity, predicting that it might be easier to be qualified to the Olympic Games in eventing then in show jumping (explained by the fact that there are fewer countries competing in eventing than in show jumping).
 
“I've worked with China for ten years, and everything got faster a few months ago. We had to put in place a viable project that plan to create a Chinese team training in Europe. Meanwhile, the stables had to stay in China as horses living in China cannot leave the country and the Chinese riders do not have a long-term visa. Thus, in Europe, China has three stables: in France, at my home, in Belgium, and another one in Holland with Martin Lips. The leader in this team is Alex Hua Tian, a Sino-British athlete, living in England. For the stables where I have the responsabilities, horses were bought in December, it is really recent. It is only the third competion, here in Saumur, for those combinations. In France, I train the horses, the riders train in China and they come back in Europe a few days before each competitions. Today’s results, in dressage, are encouraging, we are particularly proud!
 
“If China qualifies its team for Tokyo’s Olympic Games, then we will have to qualify individually the athletes that will compose the Chinese Olympic team. Those individual qualifications are done at the CCI 4*L level, our riders do not have experience at this top level, the challenge will be higher than qualifying the team this weekend. But in the Chinese culture, we go for it, we trust coaches and horses! Yesterday, (Wednesday 22th of May, ndlr) we have done the course inspection, they were impressed as they do not have the experience at this level, but they will go for it! As they will do at the 4*L level, if they succeed to qualify a team. We will have then to qualify three athletes, it will be another huge challenge, as there is a big level difference between 3* and 4*. The stable based in Holland from a longer time than the one in France, has few experiences at the 4* level but the athletes of the horses based in the French one haven't any experiences.”

The CCI3*-L competitors will take to the cross country course today – stay tuned!

Source: Press release

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