Denmark’s riders dominated the scoreboard after the first day of Olympics Dressage qualifiers on Tuesday, with Nanna Skodborg Merrald and her chestnut gelding Zepter showing the day’s most outstanding performance.
Reaching a total score of 78% in jury ratings that are based on a hypothetical perfect performance, Skodborg Merrald finished leading her group ahead of Dutch rider Dinja van Liere.
Despite reaching the day’s best score, Skodborg Merrald, who finished 11th at her first Games in Tokyo 2021, remained cautious.
“I’m happy with my performance but also I’m a little bit hungry for more... I know where to improve,” she said pointing to Zepter’s piaffes and the passage, two of the discipline’s toughest trot movements in which the horse is asked to walk with extremely collected high steps.
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Daniel Bachmann Andersen, also from Denmark, led another group with Germany’s Frederic Wanders, on his first Olympic appearance, coming in second.
Britain’s Becky Moody, who was called in at the last minute to replace Charlotte Dujardin after her suspension over alleged horse abuse, scored the highest rating in a third group, with Patrik Kittel from Sweden coming in second.
Tuesday’s first day of dressage Grand Prix, in which riders are asked to perform the sport’s most difficult exercises like pirouettes, piaffes and flying changes in a roughly 8-minute ride, was marked by temperatures well over 30 Celsius.
Some of the discipline’s heavyweights, including the top-ranked Germans and defending Olympic gold and silver winners Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Isabell Werth will make their first rides on Wednesday.
The first two athletes from each of the six groups and the six with the next best scores will qualify for the individual final. The best ten teams qualify for a separate team final.
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