Anush Agarwalla has secured India an individual spot in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Equestrian competition in the Dressage event through overall ranking, the International Equestrian Federation has confirmed. With some smart planning and execution he pipped a Korean rider to the final qualifying berth by 7 points.
Having led the Indian Dressage team to a historic Asian Games gold medal and won an individual bronze on Etro in Hangzhou in September last, Anush Agarwalla did not rest on his oars and returned to his base in Europe. In a tribute to his planning, he nailed a series of high scores to realise his dream of qualifying for the Olympic Games.
Though the quota is allotted to the National Olympic Committee, it may well be a formality for the Equestrian Federation of India to confirm Anush Agarwaalla and his mount, Sir Caramello Old, as the Indian entry to Paris 2024. It is the second successive time that an Indian rider has qualified for the Olympic Games after Fouaad Mirza competed in Tokyo 2020.
Though the qualifying period ended on December 31, 2023, Anush Agarwalla had to wait till Monday for FEI to confirm a place for India in the Dressage competition in Paris 2024. His tally of 859 points in the Olympic Ranking was compiled with a string of superb performances in the final month.
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Anush, who had missed qualifying for Tokyo 2020, returned to Europe to train his sights on Olympic Games qualifying. He got a boost along the way when the Mission Olympic Cell included him in the Target Olympic Podium scheme. He launched his bid with a fine effort on being reunited with Sir Caramello Old in Wroclaw, Poland, where they logged 214 points.
However, Sir Caramello and he did not do as well as expected in Stuttgart in November, finishing 18th in the Grand Prix and not making the cut for the Grand Prix Freestyle to Music. It was a setback but it allowed Anush Agarwalla and his trainer, Hubertus Schmidt, time to reflect on what needed to be done to give the rider and his horse the best chance of making the grade.
They knew that it would be tough to unseat the New Zealand rider from pole position and the Singapore rider from the second spot in the Asia-Oceania Group. But they sensed a chance to make it to the Olympics as the highest-ranked combination among those nations that had not already qualified through either the team route or the individual route for the seven groups.
A very focused approach to qualifying, drawing from an awareness of what needed to be done in the last three events of the year worked. The combination produced good execution of the routines in the Grands Prix Freestyle to Music in Kronenberg (214 points), Frankfurt (200) and Mechelen (222) to give himself the best chance of qualifying.
Equestrian circles have pointed out that the Grand Prix, which can loosely be said to be equal to a preliminary test, is not Anush Agarwalla’s strongest suit while he revels with his horse in Grand Prix Freestyle to Music. Happily for the pair, it secured its career best Grand Prix score of 68.261 per cent in Mechelen before posting a high of 222 in GP Freestyle to Music.
South Korea’s Young Shik Hwang (on Delmonte 7) may regret not being at the final event of the year, the FEI Dressage World Cup in Mechelen, Belgium. After his final event in Frankfurt, he logged 852 points and held a 27-point lead over the Indian at that stage and would have expected to retain his lead when not travelling to Mechelen.
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