PrintGreek riders claimed a colossal medal-haul at the 2010 FEI Balkan Dressage Championships in Katerini, Greece over the weekend including three sets of team gold and two individual titles. However yesterday (Sunday) it was Romania's Sorin Alexandrescou who was crowned Senior Individual champion with a great performance from Mercur Casino as his Greek opponents had to settle for silver and bronze.
The Balkan Championships, which first took place in Istanbul, Turkey in 1968, have embraced a varying number of disciplines down the years and Dressage first featured in 1992. The region covers Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Moldovia, and, from the outset, the Championships have succeeded in promoting and improving the standard of equestrian sport in south-east Europe. This year the Jumping and Dressage disciplines have been scheduled for separate locations and from 2 to 4 July, the Pieria Riding Club in Katerini, which hosted the Balkan Jumping Championships in September 2009, opened its gates once again for the 2010 Dressage equivalent.
Perfect Start
A total of 43 riders battled it out in the three levels of competition and the host nation got off to the perfect start on Friday when the Junior squad claimed the first team gold medals of the tournament. Rea Kapetanou (Gilbaeks Sika) set the standard with a great mark of 67.135% and together with Amaryllis-Aikaterini Goulandri (Red Diamond 4), Aggelii Vrettou (Cogito) and Dafni-Maria Sachinoglou (Mercedes) racked up a team total that gave Greece a more than four percentage points of an advantage over Turkey in silver medal position, while Bulgaria finished just less than five marks further behind in bronze.
The Greek seniors then followed suit later in the day when Katerina Los (Largos), Kelly Sklavounou (Dynastie), Eleni Myrat (Indy D St Gatien) and Hara Pouli (Wandango) scored an emphatic victory over Turkey's Ferhat Yavas, Osman Hazinedaroglou, Yasemin Kap and Yasar Ayhan Okmen. Four nations took part in this team medal decider, and Bulgaria again took bronze while Russia, similarly fielding only a three-strong side, finished a long way behind in fourth.
Saturday's Children's Team Championship was another Greek triumph as Marianna Basdra (Forever), Fotini Georgitsou (Kolliante), Fani Stafylopati (Cassian) and Danai-Evgenia Stefanidi (Wilster) earned a combined score of 209.8% to pip the Turkish side who completed on a aggregate mark of 193.856%. Yet again Bulgaria took bronze here, finishing on a total of 188.28%.
Completely Dominant
