Sailing and Volleyball have updated their qualification systems to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Sailing

The main addition to Sailing’s procedures is confirmation that the 2024 Last Chance Regatta is now confirmed to take place in Hyeres, France, on 18-27 April 2024. The event will qualify five boats each in the Windsurfing and Kite competitions (for each gender), four in the Mixed Dinghy event, and three in every other event. Furthermore, a few continental qualifiers have been released. The European qualifiers include the 2023 Formula Kite European Championships in our very own Portsmouth 16-24 Sep 2023, the 2023 European Championship (Vilamoura, POR, 10-15 Oct 2023) for 49er, FX, and Nacra 17 events, while the 2024 World Championships (Lanzarote, ESP, 26 Jan-3 Feb 2024) will serve as the qualifying for iQFOiL events, where as the 2024 ILCA Senior European Championship and Open European Trophy (Athens, GRE, 16-23 Feb 2024) and the 2024 World Championships (Palma, ESP, 24 Feb-3 Mar 2024) will be the qualifier for the 470 class. Finally, another qualification event, the 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships has been confirmed to take place in Adelaide, Australia, from 24-31 January 2024, while the 2024 ILCA 6 World Championships has been confirmed to take place in Mar del Plate, Argentina, on a date to be confirmed. We expect a large team in Paris of course, and will be keeping an eye on this closely.

Volleyball

Volleyball has made a slight alteration to its qualification system. In the Qualification Tournaments, the system used to say that the top 24 out of the ranking of 12 September 2022 for men and 17 October 2022 would participate. However, this has now been updated so that 21 of the 24 teams would come from this set of countries, while the other three would be host federations, instead selected from the rankings of 20 September 2021. Either way, it remains somewhat pointless for GB fans to get their hopes up.

Athletics remains the only sport not have its qualification system confirmed.

With the European Shooting Championships (Shotgun) still going on in Larnaca, there were two more chances for British shooters to punch their tickets to Tokyo early on in the cycle in the Men’s and Women’s Skeet competitions, with the top two getting a place.

In the Men’s Skeet, Ben Llewellin, Karl Frederick Killander, and Michael Gilligan lined up for GB: in qualification, the top eight would advance after 125 targets. It was Llewellin that qualified for GB in an impressive second place, hitting 123. Killander finished 47th after hitting 116, while Gilligan came in 54th hitting 114. Llewellin then advanced to the ranking match, made up of four athletes: they would hit twenty shots, and whoever was last was eliminated, and then after thirty, another would be eliminated: the other two would make the medal match. Llewellin was in the second match with Jasper Hensen of Denmark, Mikola Milchev of Ukraine, and Yaroslav Startsev of Georgia. After twenty shots, Hansen led on nineteen, with Llewellin and Startsev close on eighteen, while Milchev was eliminated on sixteen. In the next series of ten, all of them hit nine, so Hansen would go through with 28, while Llewellin and Startsev on 27 went to a shoot-off. Llewellin just took it, 4-3.

Hansen and Llewellin were joined in the final by Luigi Lodde of Italy and Jakub Tomecek of the Czech Republic. Here, after twenty shots, the bottom athlete would be eliminated, and then the same after thirty and forty until we had a winner. After twenty, Lodde and Tomecek were perfect, while Llewellin had nineteen and Hansen was eliminated on seventeen. Lodde stretched his perfect run to thirty, but Tomecek missed two creating a narrow opening for Llewellin, but he missed two as well finishing on 27. This meant it was an agonising bronze for the Welshman who just missed out on an Olympic place this time.

On the women’s side, Jessica Louise Burgess, Emily Jane Hibbs and Amber Hill went for GB. Hill came joint third with 116, after a five-way shoot-out her final ranking was confirmed as sixth. Burgess came joint eighth with 114 but came last in a six-way shoot-out for the final spot, missing the final rounds. Hibbs came 19th with 112 hits. In the second ranking match, Hill was joined by Danka Bartekova of Slovakia, Marjut Heinonen of Finland and Konstantia Nikolaou of Cyprus. She had no problems though, hitting her first twenty perfectly while Bartekova got ninteen, Nikolaou seventeen and Heinonen on sixteen, eliminating the Finn. Hill extended her perfect run to thirty while Bartekova finished on 29 and Nikolaou on 24. Bartekova and Hill were joined in the final by Diana Bacosi of Italy and Nadine Messerschmidt of Germany, and it was a high qualify field. After twenty shots, Messerschmidt led with a perfect twenty with Bacosi, Bartekova and Hill all on nineteen; Bacosi was eliminated based on her ranking match score. Messerschmidt and Bartekova hit eight of their next ten while Hill hit a perfect ten: this meant Bartekova was eliminated on 27 while Hill now led 29-28. But in the next nine hits, Hill had missed one to level it up, with one shot left each it was now 37-37. But Hill hit her final shot while the German missed to win gold for Great Britain and a Paris quota place.

The next chance for our Skeet shooters will be at this month’s world championship coming up in Osijek, Croatia. The next shooting action is the European Championship (25m/50m) in Wrocław, Poland.

While the European Shotgun Championships continue in Larnaca, Cyprus, the next shooting qualifying event is about to begin. The European 25m/50m Championships take place, and all the rules in Larnaca apply in Wrocław, but for four different events (the Men’s and Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, the Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol, and the Women’s 25m Pistol): this means that the top two athletes in each event will qualify an Olympic spot for their country, with the stipulation that the same country can’t qualify the two spots.

Polish sports club Śląsk Wrocław, which is the title holders in Polish basketball as well as boasting a top-flight side in men’s football, women’s football and handball will host the event at their indoor shooting range. While start lists have not been confirmed, British Shooting have confirmed who will take part. In the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Position, Dean Bale and Michael Bargeron will represent GB. Bale managed a bronze medal at Gold Coast 2018, the website of which (which is somehow still up) says his ambition is to be an Olympic medallist, which seems a long way off. His hobbies are listed as “none as training takes up most of his time when he’s not studying”. The life of an athlete, eh? Michael Bargeron, who is “Head of Shooting” at the famous Sevenoaks School in Southampton has some respectable placings at the European and World level, but needless to say for both of them coming in the top two seems a bit of a pipe dream. In the Rapid Fire Pistol event, Sam Gowin and Kristian Callaghan don British colours: Gowin also picked up a bronze medal at Gold Coast, while Callaghan did so at Glasgow 2014. Don’t expect to see either in the top two though.

On the women’s side, in the 50m Rifle 3 Position it’s Katie Gleeson and Seonaid McIntosh. Gleeson also competed at Gold Coast but missed out on any medals, and has a world ranking of 41. McIntosh is a unicorn for GB in this event and indeed this category of shooting with an impressive medal haul at this level. Finally, in the Women’s 25m Pistol Jess Liddon goes for GB, with a world ranking of 82 coming in the top two will be unlikely but she has had some respectable placings over the years.

At Tokyo 2020, McIntosh was the only British shooter not to use a shotgun to qualify, where she managed a 14th place finish, not too far off the final. While this hurdle, top two in Europe, may be a bit too far to climb, if anyone can do it wearing red white and blue in Poland it will be the 26-year-old Edinburgh native.

These events take place from 12-15 September, with the finals on 14 September: the Women’s 25m Pistol at 10:00 (11:00 local time), the Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol at 16:00, the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions at 18:00, and the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions on 15 September at 16:00. They will be live on the ISSF’s website.

Lucy Charlotte Hall was the toast of British shooting yesterday after a silver medal at the European Championships (Shotgun) in Larnaca, Cyprus confirmed GB would be sending a team to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With the Men’s and Women’s trap events taking place, the top two would get a spot.

On the men’s side, GB had a formidable team, and perhaps one where you’d expect the quota to come, with Aaron Heading, Nathan Hales, and Matthew John Coward-Holley all winning medals at high-levels: Coward Holley had the jewel in the crown, a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020. In the qualifying stage there would be 125 targets to hit, with the top eight going through. Hales was the top performing Brit, in joint third with 121 hits, with Coward-Holley in joint fifth with 120. Heading missed out in 14th with 118 hits. Hales had a shoot-off for third with Cyprus’ Andreas Makri, but lost 2-1 to finish fourth, while Coward-Holley had a three-way shoot-off for fifth with France’s Clement Bourgue and Portugal’s Armelim Felipe Rodrigues. While Bourgue got no points, Rodrigues beat Coward-Holley 6-5 to pip him to fifth.

The next round was the Ranking Match, where the eight finalists were split into two groups of four. After fifteen targets, fourth would be eliminated, and the top two after twenty-five would go through to the Medal Match. Both Brits went in the second round where they were joined by Croatian Anton Glasnovic and Swede Rickard Levin-Andersson. It was close after fifteen targets, with Glasnovic eliminated on ten, Hales leading on thirteen and both Coward-Holley and Levin-Andersson on twelve. But the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist faltered and finished on 19 and was eliminated, with both Levin-Andersson and Hales going through on 21.

In the Medal Match, Hales and Levin-Andersson were joined by Jiri Liptak of the Czech Republic and Armelim Felipe Rodrigues of Portugal. After fifteen hits, fourth would be eliminated, after twenty-five, third would be, and then a champion would be declared after thirty-five. After fifteen, there was a clear leader, and a clear backmarker: Liptak had a perfect fifteen and Rodrigues was eliminated with ten, but it was close between Hales and Levin-Andersson on twelve. Both missed just one of their next ten to be on twenty-one, while Liptak extended his perfect run to twenty-five. The tiebreaker would be the Ranking Match, but both were equal on that: therefore it would go back to the qualification round, where Levin-Andersson was ahead; ergo Hales was eliminated. A bronze medal and missing out by the smallest possible margin, a tiebreaker within a tiebreaker, on a Paris 2024 place.

On the women’s side, there was also a high amount of optimism, with Hall joined by Kirtsy Hegarty and Ellie Seward. Hall was the only Brit to qualify, with 117 points earning her joint fourth, although Hegarty put in a respectable 113 to earn 13th and Seward earning 110 hits and 22nd. Hall was in a tiebreak with France’s Carole Cormenier and Italy’s Jessica Rossi and came up on top, with three hits compared to two for Cormenier and one for Rossi. In the ranking match she was joined by Rossi as well as the latter’s compatriot Giulia Grassia and Spain’s Mar Molne Magrina. After fifteen it was Grassia who was eliminated on nine, with Molne Magrina on thirteen and both Rossi and Hall on twelve. But the Spaniard faltered, missing six of her final ten to finish on seventeen, allowing Hall to safely go through in second with nineteen behind Rossi with twenty.

So into the medal match, with Hall and Rossi being joined by Silvana Stanco of Italy and Fatima Galvez of Spain. Hall led after fifteen with fourteen hits, with Stanco and Rossi both on thirteen; Galvez with ten was eliminated. After twenty-five it was Stanco that took the lead, adding nine to her score to make twenty-two, but Hall survived on twenty-one. Rossi was eliminated with twenty. The ball was in Stanco’s court, but Hall would make her work for her gold medal, with a perfect ten from ten of her final shots; but unfortunately, Stanco responded the same. So Stanco won 32-31, but the silver medal was enough for Hall to send our first representative to the Games.

The action from Larnaca continues with the Men’s and Women’s Skeet starting on 8 September. For the Trap shooters, their next chance to add a quota will be at the World Championships (Shotgun) in Osijek, Croatia, which also start next month.

It’s August in Cyprus, and like every year, all of Europe is eager to visit. Thousands of Europeans (and more importantly, millions of Euros) will descend of the beaches, restaurants, and hotels of the paradisaic island nation. But a significant amount of Europeans will instead be heading to the small village of Teresefanou (population: 1300): instead of towels, clothes, and disrespect for the locals, these tourists will be bringing cartridges, bullets, and guns to the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range for the 2022 European Shotgun Championships. Okay, they will probably be packing clothes as well.

Two spots (at most one per NOC) are up for grabs in four events: the skeet and trap for both genders; Belarusians and Russians are allowed to compete. Qualify one athlete per gender in the skeet and you make the mixed team event. The European Shotgun Confederation has an interesting website, where the last ‘News’ item was published in July and there are no startlists (the document they do provide does ensure that the food at the venue is ‘excellent’ however); the ISSF’s website is a bit better but still no list of competitors. The IOC website has a list of a few ‘stars’ (some Olympic medalists and a couple of French athletes). Fortunately, British Shooting has a list of British hopes.

We will start with the Men’s Trap, where our three athletes are headed off by Matthew Coward Holley, Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist. Nathan Hales, who won bronze in the team event in 2019 and Aaron Heading, who came 23rd in Tokyo but has a decent medal haul at World, European and Commonwealth level completes our team. In the skeet, Michael Gilligan, who has been around the blocks for a while and picked up a couple of Grand Prix medals; Freddie Killander, who came 4th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and Ben Llewellin, who won silver at that event are our team. On the women’s side, Lucy Hall makes the step up in the trap after winning Junior Gold last year, joined by Kirsty Hegarty who came 16th in Tokyo and Ellie Seward, who finished 9th in the Gold Coast. In the Skeet, World number 41 Jessica Burgess, Gold Coast 2018 5th-placed finisher Emily Hibbs, and Amber Hill who won silver in that event and also qualified for Tokyo 2020 but had a COVID-related DNS.

In 2020, GB qualified two places in the men’s trap, one in each women’s event, and none in the men’s skeet: there was no mixed skeet event in Tokyo. Coward Holley will be aiming for a top-two finish, and I’m also excited to see how Hill will do. The opening ceremony is on Thursday with Trap qualification on Friday and Saturday, with the finals later on Saturday. On Thursday September 8 the Skeet qualification begins and goes into the next day, which is the day of the finals, September 9. You can watch it on the ISSF’s website, issf-sports.org.

The last and most modern Cycling discipline, BMX Freestyle has had its qualification system for Paris 2024 announced.

BMX Freestyle

BMX Freestyle has two events: a Men’s and Women’s Park event. Both have twelve quotas at the Games, up from nine in 2020: at most two per NOC per gender. The systems are the same for both genders. Six places will be earned at the 2024 Olympic Qualifier Series (dates and locations TBC), while two will be earned at the 2022 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships (Abu Dhabi, UAE, 9-13 Nov 2022), prioritising athletes from continents that didn’t earn a place at the OQS (meaning that we will not know exactly who has gained those quotas until nearly two years after the event). With a similar rule in place, three places will be earned at the 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships (Glasgow, GBR, 3-13 Aug 2023), with the final place going to the host nation. This is a departure from 2020’s mostly ranking-based system.

In 2020, we earned one spot per gender, but now two may be a possibility in at least one gender (most likely Women) with the amount of NOCs earning two spots increasing.

Athletics is the only sport we are waiting on before we have a full set of Paris 2024 procedures.

With an expected qualification in dressage coming a few days ago, the second and final Olympic qualification event at the 2022 FEI World Championships came in the jumping competition.

In Olympic jumping, there will be 20 teams of three in Paris, with seventy-five individuals: the sixty team members and fifteen who qualified separately. This would be the first qualifier for the team event, with the top five teams (except from France, who have already qualified as hosts) qualifying for the Games, also qualifying three individual spots.

Our team was made up of two-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Maher on Faltic HB, a horse at his biggest competition yet; young talent Joseph Stockdale on Equine America Cacherel, a relatively unknown pairing; Tokyo 2020 athlete Harry Charles on Romeo 88, and gold medallist in this event in London 2012 Scott Brash alongside Hello Jefferson. All four horses were still relatively early in their relationship with their riders, as we are just one year into the Olympic cycle, albeit a shortened one. There were 22 teams, and in the first competition, it was all about speed. Every athlete completed a course with four seconds added for faults. The competitor with the lowest time got zero points (needless to say, ‘points’ are a negative in equestrianism), every one else would get get a score, with one point added for every two seconds put on.

The fastest was France’s Julien Epaillard on Caracole de la Roque in 79.08 seconds. First to go for GB was Stockdale, who with one fault put in a time of 91.85 seconds, earning him a score of 6.39. Later down the line it was the turn of Charles, who with one fault but in a time of 88.50 seconds, earning a score of 4.71. Then went Maher, who had no faults and put in a time of 82.52, earning 1.72 points. Finally was Brash, who put in the second fastest time overall, 79.54 seconds with no faults, to earn 0.23 points. In this round (and every other round), the three best performing athletes are taken into consideration, so Stockdale’s score was excluded and the other three were added up: GB had 6.66 points after the first round, putting them in fourth.

On the second day, points were earned for going above 83 seconds (one point per second), and there were still four points for any fault. Each team would go once, and then the top ten would go a second time. In the first round, Maher had a faultless performance, but Stockdale picked up twelve points and Charles picked up eight before Brash had a faltless performance. This was added up after Stockdale was excluded for eight total points, putting us on 14.66 after that round and in sixth position. With France as one of the teams ahead, that would just be enough for a medal. In the second and final round of the day, Maher picked up four points, as did Stockdale, before Charles put in a perfect performance when GB needed it most, showing experience beyond his years. Brash put in eight points so his score was excluded, GB got eight points in the round and finished on 22.66. But as Germany, France, and Belgium faltered ahead of them, GB not only had an Olympic qualification spot confirmed – for the team and three individuals – but a first medal in this event since the turn of the millenium as well, finishing fifth.

With the Dressage and Jumping all wrapped up, we now turn to the World Eventing Championships next month in Italy to try and make it a clean sweep in this sport. The next qualification event is the European Shooting Championships in Cyprus in about two weeks’ time.

After a silver medal shaped success for our dressage team in the 2022 FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark, the focus now turns to the Jumping competition where five team places (and hence fifteen individual ones) are up for grabs.

There are seventy-five athletes in the jumping competition in Paris 2024: the three members of the twenty teams (sixty in all) and then fifteen individuals. GB will be expecting to qualify a full team, and that’s putting it lightly.

The first qualification event starts today in Herning: hosts France have taken the first spot, and then five places will be earned in this competition. Twenty-two countries, including GB, are taking part in the competition, and the top five will book their ticket to Paris. If France come in the top five, as they have already qualified, instead sixth-placed will get the berth.

Each team has four members, and the highest three scores will be added up for the final ranking, the exception being Israel with just three members. GB have a four-strong team then: going first is Joseph Stockdale, the son of the late Beijing 2008 show-jumper Tim Stockdale. The younger Stockdale is likely to be a reserve, this being the highest level he has ever competed at, and what an experience it is for the 21-year-old. Stockdale and his horse Equine America Cacherel (yes, the horse’s name has put a sponsors’ name at the front of it: I can already imagine some IOC apparatchik losing his mind) have put in a string of consistent performances over the year and deserve the chance to make their name at the world-class level.

Second in the team is Harry Charles on Romeo 88, a duo that competed in this event in Tokyo 2020, where the GB team finished 10th. Another youngster at just 23 (this is equestrian we’re talking about), Charles was called up at the last minute to the British team after being originally selected as an alternate when a teammate picked up an injury, but was actually the best performing Brit in that final. It won’t be easy for him when we’re targeting a top five place and there is some world class talent, but in elite sports you have to show up at the big occasion.

Ben Maher is our third athlete, and it’s a big contrast as this is an established athlete, winning gold in this event at London 2012 and gold in the individual event in Tokyo 2020. That introduction should be enough for you to understand the talents of Maher then, but his horse Faltic HB might be a little less known, as Maher is still relatively new to riding him. However, results show that there is little to be afraid about.

Finally, Scott Brash was also on the team with Maher that won gold in London 2012, and he rides Hello Jefferson, the horse that took him to joint 7th in the individual event in Tokyo 2020: Brash describes his horse as “powerful, careful and quick”, which is quite handy really if he’s going to be running and jumping for a living.

In 2020, GB didn’t qualify from this event and had to pick up a spot at the regional qualifier for Europe instead, and that time there were six places on offer rather than just five. If you want to watch this, it’s on the delightfully named clipmyhorse.tv, but only for “Premium members” for the low low price of… £129.95 a year? Blimey. Luckily you can get a one month free trial.

With the IOC looking at sports to put on the chopping block, equestrian fills the criteria and quotas are getting cut every Games. Surely the FEI will want to grow their sport from its (in no way unjustified) perception as a sport only for the elite? If they do that’s not the way to do it. The action starts at 10am UK time.

Equestrianism is a unique sport on the Olympic calendar: the only sport where there is no distinction between sex or gender, and now that modern pentathlon is abolishing the equestrian part of its programme, it will be the only sport involving animals from Paris 2024 onwards. And perhaps dressage is the most unique event of all: incomprehensible to many audiences, the days-long event of horses trotting up and down, dancing to classical music flies in the face of the Olympics’ new ethos of “youthful and urban” sports in Agenda 2020.

The last time Great Britain didn’t qualify a full team in the dressage event was in the boycotted 1980 Olympics, and since winning our first medal in London 2012 we have picked up some sort of medal in every Games in the team dressage event. In Tokyo, it was bronze. It goes without saying that not qualifying a full team would cause British Equestrian Federation officials to utter the f-word: failure.

The small Danish city of Herning was the venue for the first qualification event, the 2022 FEI World Equestrain Games, and the equation was simple: come in the top 6 (excluding hosts France) and qualify without having to rely on continental spaces. The format was simple: each team would have four riders (apart from New Zealand, that sent just three), and the three highest scores would be added up for a total.

The British team was 13th to get going on the first day, and it was Richard Davison on the 16-year-old Bubblingh. Davison was expected to be GB’s weakest rider, in effect a ‘reserve’, which is why he went first. He still put up a respectable score of 68.851%, but if replicated by the three on the A-team that wouldn’t be good enough to qualify in the top six, never mind medal. British equestrianism website “Horse & Hound” described “tense moments” that lowered Davison’s score, and the 66-year-old was quoted as saying that the horse “wasn’t easy at the beginning and we had a few miscommunications, but equally he came back and he suddenly received the messages and he delivered some nice stuff. I’m fascinated in training horses like Bubblingh – they’re not the easiest, and he’s complex, but that’s why I do it.”

Later on in the day Gareth Hughes had his test on Classic Briolinca, which Horse & Hound calls one of Britain’s “most exciting grand prix dressage horses”. Hughes has experience in this event: in 2014 GB won silver at these Games in this event, with Hughes on the team. And Hughes’ test was a “delight to watch” according to Horse & Hound, with the only hitch coming when an overenthusiastic crowd’s clapping unsettled the horse at the end. And Hughes knew how well it had gone: “She was good wasn’t she?”, he was simply quoted as saying. Good indeed, with a score of 75.978% and two world-class athletes to come putting GB right into medal contention.

On the second day, we had athletes whose names will be known even to people that don’t care about equestrian: Olympic glory has that effect on people. Charlotte Dujardin won silver in this event in 2014 and was part of the GB team that won bronze in this event in 2018: those team successes two out of five of her World Championship medals. Before Dujardin showed up, GB had never won a medal in the team equestrian event, but she took gold in London 2012 and also medalled in Rio and Tokyo, while also medalling in the individual event in those Games. The horse was less familiar though, with Imhotep “one for the future” according to Equestrian Life. Not that you would have known it from the test today, with the horse “demonstrating much exuberance” and only one “minor blip” occuring, according to “Horse & Hound”, to earn a 77.407% score and keep GB in the medal contention. GB Olympics fans will be excited by what Dujardin said at the end of the test: “He’ll get better and better and more and more confident. I trust him and he trusts me. In a year or two when he can manage all that power he’s going to be spectacular. I think he’s just an incredible horse and I’m so excited for the future.” We all know what’s happening in two years’ time!

It was up to Charlotte Fry to finish the job for GB on Glamourdale, a horse that has “come of age this year” according to Eurodressage. Fry was on the bronze-medal winning team in Tokyo 2020, but I don’t think anyone was expecting what happened in Herning. A test so good it earned Fry a personal best, and although the audience started clapping, for Glamourdale, it was only a help: “When they started [clapping] it I wasn’t expecting it and then it came, and he came up a little on the poll and he was like ‘Oh wow, there’s people here!’. He loved it. I think I started smiling at that point!” And the score justified the big smile, an amazing 80.838%. While equestrian is far removed from most of the British population, one can’t help but be happy for the 26-year old from Scarborough who lost her mother as a teenager. Only Denmark’s Catherine Laudrup-Dufour got a higher score.

So as the three highest-scoring riders, Hughes, Dujardin, and Fry had their score added together: 234.223% (out of 300%). That earned them a silver medal, with hosts Denmark winning gold on 235.451%, and Germany earning bronze on 230.791%. They also take home €16,500, and most importantly they qualify a team for the Olympics, as well as three individual spaces, the maximum for this event.

Of course, Equestrian is a sport of three disciplines: Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping, and next up for grabs is a Jumping place on 10 August in these championships. Eventing has its own championships next month in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy.

The first qualification spots for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the sport of equestrian will be decided in Herning, Denmark, as the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games come to town. In the Olympics’ only non-gendered sport, there are three events: Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping. Spots for the team event in Dressage and Jumping will be decided here: these also yield three spots in the corresponding individual event.

Six of the fifteen Dressage spots (and eighteen individual Dressage spots) will be up for grabs, with everyone eligible apart from hosts France, who have already qualified. The GB team is made up of Gareth Hughes, who won silver in this event in 2014, riding Classic Briolinca, described by equestrian website “Horse & Hound” as “one of Britain’s most exciting grand prix dressage horses”. Legend Charlotte Dujardin will need no introduction to anyone reading this blog: she has won 6 bronze medals and was also part of the 2014 silver medal winning team, and also won a bronze in 2018. The horse, Imhotep, might need some introducing though: “Equestrian Life” calls him “one to watch for the future”. Finally, Charlotte Fry who won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in this event rides Glamourdale this time, a horse that has “come of age this year and is ready for the big time” according to Eurodressage. In reserve for GB is Richard Davison, a veteran of the sport, whose horse Bubblingh struck a Eurodressage correspondent for his “attractive, kind, and elegant head”. GB will be expected to qualify a full team in this event, although if they miss out in Herning there is another chance at next year’s European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany.

The start list for the Jumping competition hasn’t been released yet. Unlike the Dressage event, just five team places (and thus fifteen individual ones) will be up for grabs in these championships, which takes place on 10 and 12 August. Again, anything less than qualifying a full team will be seen as failure, but there will be other chances to qualify a place.