Italy
Feb 09 2005 - EVEI MediaItaly brings three horse/rider team members to the 2005 President's cup. Experience is matched with new talent at this competition. A Gold Medal winning senior rider is matched with two 17 year old World Junior Championship riders. Introducing young riders to world level FEI events is one of the key strategic tools used by Team Italy to maintain their dominant strengths at international competitions world-wide!
Gianluca Laliscia |
Italy, winners of Team Gold Medal at the recent World Endurance Championships, are represented by three riders in The President's Cup. Team member Gianluca Laliscia arrived in Abu Dhabi yesterday. In The President's Cup he rides the Anglo Arab chestnut gelding Figaro de Murat on whom he finished 3rd in the 157km Torgon-Aosta in July last year. In previous races in the UAE, Laliscia has finished ninth in the Final of the Triple Crown in March last year. He rode his first international compition in 1991 and in 1997 finished 15th in the Open European Championship. Laliscia's passion for endurance has also led him to be involved in organising some of the top FEI rides in Italy. These include the 2001 Open European Championship which was held in Castiglione del Lago, not far from his home. |
Carlo Di Battista |
Carlo Di Battista has won the Italian National Young Riders Championship for
the past two years. He was a member of the Team Gold Medal at the 2003
Young Riders World Championship in which he finished fifth
individual.
He has ridden since a child and been competing in endurance since he was fourteen when he won his first compition over 120km on his horse Aron. His sister Simona also competes and they have 18 horses between them that are trained by their father. Twelve of these are experienced horses; the other six are still novices. The breeding of endurance horse is important to the family at their endurance base in the centre of Italy, approximately 100km south of Rome. They stand one stallion, Karoun, who is Polish and Tunisian bloodlines, and 16 mares. Last year Battista rode and completed, 11th, his first 160km ride in Newmarket UK on Jonnhi Stecchino the horse he rides in The President's Cup. Battista is still at college and is hoping to train to become a veterinarian. |
Enrico Ercoli |
The other young rider is Enrico Ercoli, who was second in the Italian
Young Riders Championship last year. He has been involved in endurance
for the last three years and was also a member of the Gold Medal
Italian Team at the 2003 Young Riders World Championship.
In 2004 he finished 14th in La Baule France over 160km on TB Amir El Arab, the horse he rides in the President's Cup. At his base close to Perugia he has six horses three of which compete at 120km plus; and three novices. Ercoli hopes to be selected for the Young Riders World Championship in Bahrain at the end of this year. He will also compete in the Young Horse 2005World Championship at Compiegne in France. |
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HH President's Cup
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