Today was the final stage of competition for the dressage riders at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. The freestyles! This is the dancing to music where the choreography is designed with the strengths of the horse featured in the required movements. The freestyle is the competition for the Individual Medals.
The competitors qualify for the freestyle in the previous days of competition and the highest scorers of a Team go forward to the freestyle. Only three riders from a Team can compete . For Canada Tina Irwin, Lindsay Kellock and Naima Moriera Laliberte went on to compete in the Freestyle.
Tina was the first of the Canadians to go in the Intermediare 1 Freestyle.
Next was Lindsay Kellock.
The Grand Prix Freestyles came next. Naima was the second rider in.
In the Pan Am Games the scores of the two levels are put together for the medal standings. I do not know why they don’t award separate medals for the Intermediare 1 and medals for the Grand Prix. As the Grand Prix is a higher level it would seem fair to give a set of medals for each level. But there must be some good reason for it. If anyone knows what it is please leave a comment below.
So here are the final scores and standings.
Gold Medal to Sarah Lockman ,and First Apple, (78.980) from the USA.
Silver Medal to Tina Irwin, and Laurencio, (77.780) from Canada.
Bronze Medal to Jennifer Baumert, and Handsome, (75.755) from the USA.
Naima Moriera Laliberte finished in 6th place (73.565) after Yvonne Losos de Muniz of the Dominican Republic (75.430) and Nora Batchelder (73.630) of the USA. Lindsay Kellock (73.550)was in 7th.
Congratulations to all the riders and a special WHOOP WHOOP for Team Canada bringing home the Team Gold Medal and securing a Team spot for a Canadian Dressage Team in Tokyo 2020. These women rode with courage, determination and grace.
During the winter season in Florida Canadian riders will be competing, in the Grand Prix, to gain a spot on the Team for the Tokyo Olympics. I will be there to cheer them all on and to do interviews with any who are willing to speak with me about their journey. If there is any particular rider you would like me to interview just leave a comment below.
All images in this post are by Cealy Tetley. My thanks to Jessie Christie of Equestrian Canada for making them available to me.
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