Edited press release from Vilamoura Equestrian Centre

The second day of competition at the 2021 European Championships for children, junior and young riders in Vilamoura, Portugal, saw the children in action in their first qualifier and in the afternoon, the juniors in their second round – which also counted towards the team standings. 

No less than 193 horse-and-rider combinations gave Bernardo Costa Cabral’s courses a go – set at 1.25m for the children and at 1.40m for the juniors. 

Italy and Belgium dominated the qualifier for the children, with Italian riders in first and second – Giovanni Vincoli and Qitana VDV Z (Quasimodo Z x Julio V) topped the class, followed by Nicolo' Paolo Monari and Touche D Arrogance (Rash R x Andiamo) as runners-up. Third place went to Belgium's Yari van den Branden with Gerard (Apollo van het Lindebos x Lupicor).

After the second round for the juniors, French rider Alice Laine and Emerald Sitte (Nabab de Reve x Corland) are in the lead on an overall score of 0.24, followed by Ireland’s Tom Wachman with HH Fireball (Number One d'Iso x Toulon) on 0.35 and Great Britain’s Ava Vernon with Jolie Fleur van de Noordheuvel (Cassini II x Tlaloc M) on 0.39. As for the teams, the top five in the first round of the Nations Cup were Belgium (0.83), followed by Switzerland (9.98), Great Britain (11.56), France (14.04) and then Ireland (14.2).

The juniors will ride the team final today, while the young riders have their second round which also counts as the first round of their team competition.