On Tuesday evening, March 11, the Brazilian Dressage team once again showed that it is the major force in South America. On the last day of competition for the discipline in the South American Games in Santiago, Chile, the young talent João Victor Marcari Oliva won the gold medal in the individual freestyle final with Xamã dos Pinhais scoring 70.781%. João Paulo dos Santos and Veleiro Top, with 68.938%, got the silver medal and Leandro Silva with Di Caprio and 68.281% got the bronze medal.
The Brazilian Dressage team stood out in the discipline at the South American Games over the three-day competition. When the competition began, seven medals were at stake and the athletes demonstrated the strength of the Brazilian Equestrian at Latin America, winning all of them, without even giving their main rivals Argentina and Chile a chance. There were three gold medals, one team and two individual medals – Leandro Silva and João Victor-, two silver and two bronze.
“This is a fantastic result for our sport. Congratulations to the entire CBH staff, it would be unfair to name names now because this is a team achievement. When we took on CBH, as one of our projects, we had to strengthen the technical part of the discipline, and now we can prove that we are on track. The planning to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio is in full swing,” said Luiz Roberto Giugni, president of the Brazilian Equestrian Confederation (CBH).
The competition marked the debut for the Belgian Mariette Whitages as coach for Brazilian Dressage and it honors the great work done by the Brazilian Equestrian Confederation to strengthen the discipline in Brazil. Along with Jean-Maurice Bonneau, jumping coach, and Mark Todd, eventing coach, Mariette completes the trio of foreign professionals hired by the CBH to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“I am very happy and proud to be appointed the coach of the Brazilian Dressage team and very much looking forward to a common future. I was happily surprised by the quality of the horses and the motivation of the riders. I proposed to the CBH to introduce a system of criteria,which would allow the combinations to belong to the A or the B team. In the future I also would like to see the creation of a talent scouting plan for the young ones. Besides the technical aspects, I really would like to focus on team spirit, respect and discipline as well as a good fysical condition of rider and horse”, said Mariette Whitages.
Dressage, considered the most classic form of equestrianism and practiced in Brazil for over 50 years, is going through its best spell in the last ten years. It opened in the South American Games on Saturday morning (March 8), and could not have been better. Team Gold, with 68.729%, and guaranteed a place for Brazil at the Pan American Games at Toronto 2015. The Argentina team got the silver medal with 65.804%, and Chile won bronze with 64.704%. The individual Intermediate I competition was on Sunday (March 09) which again, Brazil won. Leandro Silva and Di Caprio (70.132%) with gold, João Victor Marcari Oliva and Xamã dos Pinhais (67.632%) with silver and João Paulo dos Santos and Veleiro do Top (67.533%) with bronze.
The South American Games take place in Santiago, Chile, between March 7 and 18. Besides Brazil, 13 other countries take part in the competition: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.