Double Asian Games medalist equestrian Fouaad Mirza added another feather to his cap as he secured an Olympic quota after finishing as the top-ranked rider in his group in the qualifiers. Mirza with his performance also brought an end to India’s 20 years long wait to see participation in the event in the Olympics. The 27-year-old was the highest-ranked rider in Group G for South East Asia, Oceania in the individual event category after the end of the Europe stage earlier this month.
Even though it has been confirmed that Mirza has booked an Olympic quota, an official confirmation by the International Equestrian Federation will be announced on February 20, 2020.
Mirza, finished with a total of 64 points from six qualifying events. He scored 34 points on his first horse Fernhill Facetime and 30 with his second horse Touchingwood. Earlier Mirza became the talk of the town after he won silver medals in both the individual eventing and the team eventing at the 2018 Asian Games.
He became the first Indian since 1982 to win a medal at an individual event in the sport at the Asian Games. Mirza’s effort was later recognized by the government of India as he was conferred with the Arjuna Award in August this year.
Elated by Mirza’s performance Secretary General of the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI), Colonel Jaiveer Singh said,
“It’s indeed a very proud moment for the nation, sport n Federation for F Mirza to have qualified for Olympics.”
He further added that “Equestrian sport is growing rapidly in our country …. Asian games 2018 was just a start. Mirza’s achievement will further motivate more athletes to strive harder to bring laurels to the nation and sport.”
EFI has further chalked out a roadmap for development of the sport in the country. Talking about this the secretary general of EFI said that Equestrian is a special sport and it needs tremendous amount of logistics n financial support. In the same breath he said that a start has been made and surely winning at Olympics / Asian or such level of events will become a norm in times to come in the discipline of eventing of equestrian. Colonel Jaiveer further thanked the government and the Indian Olympic Association for their tremendous support.
India was last represented in the event by Imtiaz Anees in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Before Imtiaz, Late Wing Commander IJ Lamba had made history as he was the first Indian to participate in Equestrian in Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
