by Arianne Mallare
Fifteen equestrian riders joined the one-day event including three Filipino riders.
One of those was Colin John Syquia, the lone male rider of the team Philippines.
In the first round, Syquia was all-effort atop adventure e for three and a half years now.
Syquia was careful and watchful with his momentum so not to touch the fence up to the end of the first round with his clocking, 80.03 seconds. He’s only 7th placer against 14 riders.
Coming to the 2nd round, the 43-year old Florida based athlete speed up, resulting to a clean and zero fault performance submitting a time of 61.93 seconds.
With this, team Philippines turned their hopes high to bring home any medal color from the event.
From fifteen competitors, only five qualified in the jump off.
Syquia was the third performer in the show jumping finals. He and ‘Adventure E’ was more aggressive and high-speed this time. For the third time, the Filipino Equestrian rider cleared the fence with an impressive clocking of 37.63 seconds, faster than two previous riders in the final jumping.
The last two riders, didn’t surpass Syquia’s time which resulted to a gold medal finish this year.
“The competition was fantastic, the venue has been great, the host has been great, the jumping was very good, the level of riders and horses are quite high, it was very exciting, it was very competitive.”
This was also Syquia’s first time to wear national tri-colors and very grateful to be bringing gold medal for the country.
“This is huge though, this is the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity of representing my nation, my country and it’s an immense feeling of pride and honor and I can’t explain it.” he added.
Aside from Syquia, Filipino Equestriennes Chiara Amor and Marie Antoinette Leviste competed in the occasion. | Arianne Mallare – PTV Sports
