Yoshiaki Oiwa makes eventing history at Bramham

Yoshiaki Oiwa has made eventing history at Bramham International Horse Trials as the first Japanese rider to win a CCI outside of his home country.

‘Winning wasn’t planned’

Yoshi produced a faultless showjumping round with Calle 44 to claim the 2017 Equi-Trek CCI3* title on a final score of 45.4.

“I wanted to be competitive, but winning wasn’t planned!” said Yoshi. “He’s really careful showjumping, but sometimes a bit too careful cross-country.”

The three-time Olympian has been training with Pippa Funnell for the past few months, alongside his girlfriend who is training with William. Bramham was his last event before he returns to Germany, where he is based with Dirk Schrade.

Yoshi was in third place after the cross-country, but moved up to the top spot after Gemma Tattersall and Sammi Birch both had a pole down.

‘Absolutely gutted’

Gemma was in the lead going into the final phase – although she momentarily slipped way down the placings after receiving 50 penalties for knocking out a flag at the Equi-Trek Round House combination at fence six. This was later taken away again, so she moved back to the top of the leaderboard.

Quicklook V had never previously faulted in a three-day event so the odds were in Gemma’s favour. However, ‘Pebbles’ uncharacteristically hit the back rail of the triple bar, which moved them down to second place on 48.1.

“I’m absolutely gutted, she is as surprised as anyone to have a jump down. It’s her first showjumping fault at a CCI,” said Gemma. “But it’s still second at Bramham, I’ll just have to come back next year!

“It was a seriously tough track today, one of the toughest I’ve seen at a recent three day. The time was doable, I shouldn’t have got a time fault.”

Defending champion

Australia’s Sammi Birch, who is based in Gloucestershire, was just behind Gemma with a score of 48.8. Sammi hopes this result will help Hunter Valley II, who she bred herself in Australia, qualify for four-star.

Defending champion, Andrew Nicholson had 12 faults with Byrnesgrove First Diamond, which put them in ninth. As always, Andrew made the cross-country course look easy, but he ran into problems with his second ride Swallow Springs who was eliminated.

You can watch all the action from the Equi-Trek CCI3 as we are screening an hour-long highlight show on H&C TV. Bramham Horse Trials 2017 is on 17 June at 8pm on Sky 253, or you can watch online via H&C Play.