Pau CCI4* Crowns Youngest Ever Champion

Pau CCI4* Crowns Youngest Ever Champion

Les étoiles de Pau CCI4* has crowned it’s youngest ever winner, Thibault Fourneier.

The French, 23-year-old rider held the top spot, with his horse Saniani De Lathus, even after knocking one fence early in the final show-jumping phase. Finishing inside the time, it was enough for the horse and rider combination to grasp their first 4* win, in their first ever attempt at 4* level.

In disbelief, Fournier exclaimed;

I’m speechless, this is so unexpected. We came here to see if the horse and I could compete at this level and he has been amazing all week.”

Second place was awarded to British rider, Gemma Tattersall with Pamero 4. Tattersall was the only competitor to finish on their first phase score, scoring 29.9 in the dressage, which was maintained throughout.

After the event, Tattersall gushed on social media;

Pamero 4 is a huge credit to @CollettEventing (Laura Collett) I’m just glad to be able to ride him and show off his amazingness!!”

Despite having one fence down in the show-jumping round, Clara Loiseau finished third with 14-year-old gelding, Wont Wait. Loiseua’s excellent dressage score and speedy cross-country round, finishing 22-seconds inside the optimum time, proved enough to clinch the bronze medal. The French rider is another 4* first-timer, at the age of just 26-years-old.

Just missing out on the medals, in fourth place was Peter Flarup from Denmark, riding Frankie. Team GBR rider, Ros Canter, slipped down to take fifth place after accumulating faults from knocking two fences, plus an extra time fault.

British rider, Tom Crisp climbed the leaderboard by 48 places, to take sixth. Crisp, riding Liberty and Glory, managed a double clear in the show-jumping round, and just 3.6 time faults added to his dressage score.

[avatar user=”AbbyDickinson” size=”medium” align=”center” link=”file”]Everything Horse News Reporter, Abby Dickinson[/avatar]