‘We shine at being adaptable'

With a young team of horses, Britain’s Paralympic dressage riders may benefit from a year’s delay – although other nations will also have more time to train and progressive illnesses can create extra challenges, finds Andrea Oakes

- Andrea Oakes

THE mood in the British para dressage camp is buoyant. While the postponement of Tokyo 2020 certainly rained on our parade, para-athletes, perhaps more than any other, tend to see a silver lining. Once the disappointment had subsided, Team GBR regrouped and refocused – with sights firmly set on gold.

“Obviously when it was announced I was upset; the postponement of an Olympics is unprecedented,” says Sophie Christiansen, who has eight gold medals to her name. “You think the Games will happen and that on that date you will be going down that centre line. Once I got my head around it though, I realised I was definitely in a position to gain from it.”

Like many of our top para riders, Sophie is building partnerships with relatively new horses. She can now spend more time developing eight-year-old Die Furstin and 13-year-old Innuendo III – and may even be “spoilt for choice” between the two.

British para dressage performance manager Georgina Sharples believes that the delay is a bonus for the squad as a whole.

“At the European Championships last year, we were aware Tokyo 2020 was a tight time frame,” she explains. “We had a lot of unestablished partnerships and I remember thinking we had a busy winter ahead.

“But, with more time and less pressure, our riders have consolidated their training and worked on areas that will give a better performance,” adds Georgina. “We could have had a whole load of horses in the twilight of their careers at this point; we just happened to be lucky. When we make our first selections next year, hopefully we can cast a wide net.”