 "Anush Agarwalla bags India's first ever Olympic quota in Dressage")
Anush Agarwalla, who had won a historic individual bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Games besides also playing a role in the team gold, has earned India a quota in Dressage discipline in Equestrian for the Paris Olympics.
It marks the first time an Indian rider will compete in the dressage event at an Olympics. The seven previous Indian equestrian riders to have competed at an Olympics have all done so in the eventing discipline.
Agarwalla was allotted the quota on the basis of his performance in four FEI events – Wroclaw, Poland (73.485%), Kronenberg, Netherlands (74.4%), Frankfurt, Germany (72.9%) and Mechelen, Belgium (74.2%).
The quota belongs to India, and the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) will conduct a trial to select the entry for the Paris Olympics.
“I am very proud and grateful to have been successful for securing a berth for India at the Paris Olympic Games. Competing in the Olympics has always been a childhood dream for me and I’m proud to be part of this historical moment for the nation,” the 24-year-old Agarwalla said.
The young rider hoped that he will be able to retain the quota. “I will continue doing what I have always been doing: staying focused, being disciplined, working hard, setting goals and achieving them. I am confident that I will be selected to represent India at this prestigious stage,” Agarwalla said.
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View AllJitendrajit Singh Ahluwalia, Hussain Singh, Mohammed Khan, Darya Singh (1980 Moscow), Indrajit Lamba (1996 Atlanta), Imtiaaz Anees (2000 Sydney) and Fouaad Mirza (2022 Tokyo) had represented India at the Olympics in Equestrian.
In the dressage event, the rider-horse combo performs in an arena of 20m x 60m, bordered by a low rail which the horse must stay within. The arena has 12 lettered markers placed symmetrically indicating where the movements are to start and where the changes to pace are to occur and where the movements will end.
There are seven stages – preliminary, elementary, medium, advanced medium, advanced, Prix St George and Intermediate-I. The scoring is done on scale of 1 to 10 where 1 indicates very bad and 10 excellent.
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