last updated on August 03, 2010 17:21

Great Britain’s Claire Gallimore (16) and Gigolo achieved fifth place in both the individual test and kür at the FEI European Pony Championships, Bishop Burton College, 28 July – 1 August.

After Britain finishing a hair’s breadth behind a bronze medal in the team championship, Gallimore and Gigolo, a 12-year-old German-bred gelding by Going East, went on to produce two polished performances bringing her well within site of the individual medal zone. The talented combination scored 71.42% in the individual and 74.10% in the kür.

“He was a little bit hot in the team test,” explained Gallimore, “but on the second day I knew what to expect. Our warm-up went well and in the arena he was just on the edge – he was in a really good place.”

Riding to their ‘Born Free’ compilation of music, the talented partnership earned 74.10%, just over two percent behind the bronze medal position.
“I was very happy with our freestyle,” said Gallimore, “there were a couple of mistakes and his walk was a little hurried, which was expensive, but his canter was really uphill and off my leg – he felt fantastic.”

Gallimore, who is in her final year of Ponies before moving up to Juniors added: "The Championships were so good and the atmosphere was amazing. It was so great to have a home crowd with so many British supporters.”

Team newcomer, twelve-year-old Erin Williams and Danny Boy B were another British combination to qualify for the freestyle where they were placed a creditable 13th.

The individual gold medal went to Germany’s Jessica Krieg (13) and Danilo scoring a personal best of 76.73% and the Netherlands secured silver after a polished performance by Antoinette Te Riele aboard Golden Girl. Team Germany also took the third place on the podium after Lena Charlott Walterscheidt and Deinhard B came in on 74.68%.

The freestyle championship saw the same individual medalists on the podium again, but each with a different coloured medal. The Netherlands’ Te Riele scored 78.45% to secure gold, Germany’s Walterscheidt scored 77.90% for silver and Krieg had to settle for bronze this time on a score of 76.50%.

For results click here: http://vikingfm.bauerweb.co.uk/FEI-Pony/results.html