Britain goes for gold
IT’S rare that a nation fields a championship squad in which every member has a real chance of an individual medal, but that’s the case with Britain’s quintet here. They start as favourites for the team gold, with high hopes of retaining Britain’s championship triple crown at Olympic, world and European level.
The individuals from the squad of five will be named once the riders and horses are out in Pratoni del Vivaro, but it’s likely to be Kentucky runners-up and championship debutants Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir, simply because of their inexperience.
Ros Canter, Laura Collett, Tom McEwen and Oliver Townend all have at least two previous championships on their CVs, with Oliver – who rides the incredibly consistent Ballaghmor Class – gaining his 10th senior squad cap this time.
Olympic individual silver medallists Tom and Toledo De Kerser are the only pair coming forward from Britain’s 2018 World Championship gold medal-winning team. Ros defends her title after winning four years ago on Allstar B, but will not be under pressure individually with the relatively inexperienced Lordships Graffalo.
The individual gold expectation will sit instead with Badminton victors Laura and London 52, who start as joint-favourite with Germany’s Kentucky winners Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH. Battle lines will be drawn in the first phase, where both will aim to score around the 20 mark.
Michael spearheads a formidable German squad who must represent Britain’s strongest competition. He lines up with Olympic individual champions Julia Krajewski and Amande De B’Neville, 2014 world champion Sandra Auffarth (Viamant Du Matz) and Christoph Wahler (Carjatan
