Anush Agarwalla continued his winning form in equestrian, adding an individual bronze in the Dressage event to the team gold a day earlier. Riding astride Etro, Agarwalla totalled 73.030 points – 69.900 for technical and 76.160 for the artistic section -- to finish third. Teammate Hriday Chheda, however, was eliminated after blood was spotted on his horse Chemxpro’s leg.
“The feeling is unreal. I still don’t believe I have won the bronze even after winning the team gold. I knew I had a good partnership with my horse, and I knew it would be a good day when I got up in the morning. I just felt good about it, I even texted my mother that we would get something. My horse has been amazing all through, it’s been a long and often difficult journey, but holding this medal today, I feel it was all worth it,” Agarwalla said after the event.
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Having got Etro only in February, Anush revealed that it had not been easy to build the comfort level so quickly. “I’ve never ridden stallions or young horses before. He’s a nine-year-old stallion so it’s been quite a difficult task with lots of ups and downs. But I’m super happy with how he behaved today. Even the last few days, he was amazing. He landed in China and he knew it was game time,” he beamed.
A bronze had looked likely even before the competition was over with Agarwalla placed comfortably at the end of his routine. That he was the penultimate rider to go was an advantage as he knew exactly how much he needed and did not worry about too many competitors bar one. Japan’s Ryunosuke Kuroda, who went after him, finished 4th.
“When the last rider went, I knew I was third. But the last rider was a very strong competitor so those 6-7 minutes were very difficult for me, they felt like 6-7 years, to be honest. I could not breathe at that time, I was very nervous – perhaps more than at any point of time in the last few weeks. It was a great, tough battle that I will remember for a long, long time,” Agarwalla revealed.
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