Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza is but to determine which one in every of his two horses will accompany him to the Tokyo Games and stated he’ll choose the one carrying the very best kind main up to the time of submitting the entry later this month. Mirza has time until finish of this month to select between the skilled gelding Seigneur Medicott and the spirited younger mare Dajara 4 with whom he had completed second and third respectively to meet his Minimum Eligibility Requirement within the CCI 4*- Long Eventing competitors in Poland.
The MER achievement ticked the ultimate field in Olympic qualification for the 29 year-old from Bengaluru, who had earned the quota final yr to change into the primary Indian equestrian to qualify for the Games in additional than 20 years. “At the second, I’ve not determined. I’ll go away it late until the time of submitting entry on the finish of June. Both are carrying superb kind and it’s fairly troublesome to select at this stage,” Mirza stated in a digital media interplay.
Mirza, who is currently training in Bergedorf, a village in north-west Germany, is only the third Indian equestrian after Indrajit Lamba and Imtiaz Anees to secure an individual spot in Eventing at the Olympic Games. Anees was the last to make the cut for the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a wildcard.
“It would be solely on the horse’s form. I would choose the one carrying the best form leading up to the time of submitting entry,” Mirza, a double Asian Games silver medalist, stated. It could be a candy choice headache for Mirza who had ended India’s 36-year-old medal drought on the Asian Games by profitable a silver medal at Jakarta 2018 astride Medicott who later sustained an damage.
“Initially they (vets) have been very uncertain about Medicott restoration however he’s a fighter and we managed to get him again to good kind. He’s in fine condition,” Mirza said. Talking about the young mare Dajara who is five years younger to Medicott, Mirza said: “She’s slightly less experienced but she has far more potential. She’s a real, real exciting horse for the future.
“These two horses are very different from the two that helped India get the slot in 2019. Having said that, they are the two better horses that I’ve.” Mirza stated he could have to think about just a few issues earlier than deciding on the horse. “Medicott is usually a horse who doesn’t take too properly to adjustments in his environment, he may cease consuming, and you understand these types of issues are fairly troublesome particularly whenever you journey so far-off,” he said.
“You can’t have an athlete not eat and then expect him to perform well, small things like this I’m going to think hard and long about but the final thing would be which horse carries more form.” For the Olympics, an equestrian can qualify multiple horse however for competitors the rider has to select one. Both the horses have been vaccinated in opposition to the Equine Herpes Virus that led to cancellation of many occasions in Europe in February and March.
The horse might be in quarantine for every week earlier than flying out to Tokyo the place they are going to enter the bio-secure bubble. Mirza stated he would journey with a workforce of 4 which would come with a groom to take care of the horse, a vet and physio and all of them have taken their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Son of an equestrian veterinarian Dr Hasneyn Mirza, the game got here naturally to him and his Olympic dream was fuelled by watching outdated tapes of Mark Todd’s Olympic glories of 1984 and 1988. “I bought a number of pleasure watching the tapes from a really younger age,” he said.
Mirza, who has been in Germany for more than two years training with his horses, said he has expenses running up to Rs two crore a year. “It’s a very expensive sport and I’m very lucky to have a sponsor,” Mirza, who’s backed by Embassy International Riding School Bangalore, stated.
“We’ve some good infrastructure however the authorities wants to be concerned to run some programmes to nurture younger abilities,” he stated.
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