European Under-25 Championships in 2nd Year Staged in Austria This Week
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Aug. 28, 2017
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Josefin Gyllenswärd and Don Angelo, Sweden’s under-25 champion partnership, will compete at the European Championships in Austria this week after leading her team to bronze at the inaugural event in 2016.
Six teams and three individuals for a total of 28 combinations are entered in the championships at Lamprechtshausen, Austria Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
The first year of the championships created to develop a bridge from youth divisions to senior ranks at Hagen, Germany in June, 2016 had nine teams and a total of 41 combinations from 14 countries. Germany won gold, Netherlands silver and Sweden bronze.
Josefin, at the age of 25 in her last year of eligibility and born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden focused on the team competition in Austria, giving up a dream to compete in Ullevi stadium that was the venue for the Lövsta Future Challenge International Under-25 alongside the European Championships of dressage and jumping last week. She did not want to put Don Angelo through back-to-back competitions.
Josefin and the 12-year-old Westfalen gelding have worked with Spanish team trainer Nicky Barrett for the past 3 1/2 years.
She was named the 2016 future star by the Swedish federation “for willingness to train and her team spirit,” an irony in that when Josefin was nine years old she was “terrified” of horses.
She also was recipient of a scholarship from the Ulla Håkanson foundation created by the former Swedish Olympian to help fund training and development of youth riders.
Josefin’s short term plan is to place at this week’s championships and then next year work to establish herself in the senior ranks with Don Angelo and her nine-year-old Dirigivel that she will debut nationally this fall.
Like many of her peers around the world, he longer term aim is to ride at the Olympics.
The nations entered at this year’s championships are Austria, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, plus individuals from the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland.
The lineup:
Austria
FRIES, Franziska/ATOMIC
PORSCHE, Diana/DI SANDRO OLD
VALENTA, Karoline/VALENTA’S DIEGO
ZACH, Timna/QUANTICO
Czech Republic
MARESOVA, Barbora/PLESANT
Denmark
ENGERMANN, Sille/DARIUS
JENSEN, Michala Mejlgaard/TREBIZ
STORKBORG, Marlene/FRITZ
VALLENTIN, Victoria E./FABIENNE
Germany
KLÖSSINGER, Lisa-Maria/FBW DAKTARI
NOWAG, Bianca /FAIR PLAY RB
PIOTROWSKI, Juliette/SIR DIAMOND
RATHJENS, Ninja/EMILIO 111
Netherlands
MEULENDIJKS, Anne/MDH AVANTI
NEKEMAN, Denise/BOSTON STH
NIEUWENHUIS, Jeanine/TC ATHENE
VAN DER VLIST, Maxime/BAILEY (104GK05)
Poland
CICHON, Mateusz/HERZREGENT 2
Spain
BALASCH GONZÁLEZ, Erik/DORADO 69
CERRILLO SOPENA, Luis/SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
LAIZ ZANDIO, Antonio/GEJLHOLMS MENOTTI
MATUTE GUIMON, Juan/DON DIEGO YMAS
Sweden
GYLLENSWÄRD, Josefin/DON ANGELO
HANNELL, Mathilde/DEELA MAE
JÖNSSON, Lina/QUENTIN
WESSNER, Johan/STERLING G
Switzerland
ROOS, Tamara-Lucia/AMARETTO XII
SUTER, Andrina/AXIOM
