CHENNAI: Asian Championships will not be the only event that Indian riders will miss. It has been learnt that they had already skipped the important Olympic qualifiers earlier this year. Like the inaugural Asian event in Thailand next month, Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) had decided against sending an eventing team for the qualifiers in May.
The special qualifiers were held in Saumur (France) and Baborowko (Poland). Placed in Group G, India were scheduled to participate in the France leg. China and Thailand finished second and third behind Japan to book an Olympic eventing team slot each. Thailand’s eventing team finished third at the 2018 Asian Games, where the Indian team had bagged a historic silver.
The Indian eventing team has never qualified for Olympics, and the riders feel that a great opportunity of creating history in France was lost because of EFI. Only Fouaad Mirza has a chance to qualify for the individual event, as far as this discipline is concerned.
“Had EFI sent its official entry, the riders could have participated in the France qualifiers,” said a rider. “Given the competition, Indian riders had a good chance of finishing in the top-three. Thailand bagged a quota by finishing third. Their team was third behind India at the last Asian Games. But it’s over now. The eventing team hasn’t qualified for the Olympics.”
EFI, though, has a different take on the issue. The body said that financial constraints were the reason behind not sending the team to the Olympic qualifiers.
“We needed European horses to compete in the France qualifiers,” said an EFI official. “Had we competed with Indian horses there, our riders would have had no chance of qualifying.”
“We had two options. Either buy European horses or lease them. But we don’t have enough funds to do that, because of which we didn’t send the team.”
The top-six teams from the 2018 World Equestrian Games had qualified for the Olympics. Those were Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Japan earned a berth for being the host nation. Poland won the qualifiers on home soil in May, while China and Thailand earned spots in the same month in Group G qualifiers.
A total of 65 combinations will compete in eventing, with the 15 qualified teams making up three combinations each (45 in total). A further 20 slots will be allotted to individual combinations. The qualifiers got over last month, leaving the Indian team high and dry.