Sister act secures silver in Austria!
| Sister act secures silver in Austria! Vaulting sisters Joanne and Hannah Eccles won the silver medal in the Pas de Deux at the FEI Open European Senior Pas de Deux and Junior Championships, held in Stadl Paura, Austria (4-8August). |  |
Both girls were over the moon with Hannah commenting: ‘This is fantastic, it's more than we had imagined! The scores were so close, so we knew we had to be foot perfect for a chance at the medals.'
The Great Britain Junior Team also finished sixth, performing well in difficult conditions which saw their horse replaced at the last minute following the veterinary inspection. In the Junior Female Individual competition Britain's Brogan Moffat finished 16th, Stephanie Hunter 19th and Elloise Cundy 25th.
Joanne and Hannah now return home for two months for final training for the individual championships at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, USA which start on 25 September.
A World Equestrian Games includes the eight disciplines of dressage, eventing, show jumping, para-equestrian dressage, driving, endurance, reining and vaulting. A World Champion will be crowned in each of these disciplines.
The Olympic and Paralympic sports are generously supported by lottery funding via UK Sport, but the non-Olympic sports of driving, endurance, reining and vaulting, although supported where possible by the World Class Programme, do not receive direct funding for the event. The British Vaulting Team going to WEG are currently trying to raise £50,000 to get their four horses to Kentucky.
A variety of fundraising initiatives have been launched to help support the trip to Kentucky for all the British teams. These include an online auction with new exclusive lots added each month and the opportunity to buy Team GBR merchandise which ranges from clothing to a recently launched silver bracelet, generous donations are made to the teams for all items sold. Further information about all the fundraising activity can be found on the official Team GBR website.
All the news and behind the scenes views in the run up to and during the Games can be found on the official website, including the opportunity to sign up FREE as a Team GBR Supporter to receive regular updates. Visit www.equestrianteamgbr.co.uk for more details
Added on: 19/08/10.
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