Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza will rely on form to choose his horse for Tokyo Games
Mirza has time till the end of this month to choose between the experienced gelding Seigneur Medicott and the spirited young mare Dajara 4 with whom he had finished second and third respectively to meet his Minimum Eligibility Requirement in the CCI 4* – Long Eventing competition in Poland.
The MER fulfilment ticked the final box in Olympic qualification for the 29-year-old from Bengaluru, who had earned the quota last year to become the first Indian equestrian to qualify for the Games in more than two decades.
“At the moment, I’ve not decided. I’ll leave it late till the time of submitting the entry at the end of June. Both are carrying very good form and it’s quite difficult to choose at this stage,” Mirza said in a virtual media interaction.
Mirza, who is currently training in Bergedorf, a village in northwest Germany, is only the third Indian equestrian after Indrajit Lamba and Imtiaz Anees to secure an individual spot in Eventing at the Olympic Games. Anees was the last to make the cut for the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a wildcard.
“It would be solely on the horse’s form. I would choose the one carrying the best form leading up to the time of submitting the entry,” Mirza, a double Asian Games silver medalist, said.
It would be a sweet selection headache for Mirza who had ended India’s 36-year-old medal drought at the Asian Games by winning a silver medal at Jakarta 2018 astride Medicott who later sustained an injury.
