Australian Team Wins Medals at the Virtus World Championships

The Australian Team had great success at the inaugural Virtus World Equestrian Dressage Championships at Sparsholt College in the UK. The team of eight athletes performed outstandingly to win two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze medal in the individual events, and the Team Silver medal.

The first day of competition started on a great note, with Australian riders Luke Purtill, Catherine Viney, Bel Dabic and Chloe Karsten winning the Team Ssilver medal behind Great Britain and ahead of Germany.  Chloe also won Gold in the II-2 division and Bel silver in the II-3 division.

In the individual events the following day, Chloe Karsten riding Jack won the Gold the II-2 division and Luke on Rossi won the Bronze in II-1.

Other athletes representing Australia were Phoebe Roche (Finn), Sarah Sherwood (Cosmo/Jack), Sui Watts (Minty) and Andrew Driffield (Doodle).

Amazingly, these achievements were all done on borrowed horses, whereas the other medal-winning teams were riding their own horses. 

Equestrian Australia’s Para High Performance Lead Nick Hunter was overjoyed at their success. “These great results reflect a great team. They cap off a historic month in which Equestrian Australia signed an MOU with Sport Inclusion Australia to strengthen the inclusion of Virtus athletes in equestrian sport”

Congratulations to all athletes and staff on a very successful Championships!