Karen Pavicic Moves Closer to Punching a Rio Ticket

In the absence of any official information from Equine Canada (EC) on the Canadian Olympic dressage criteria, we have been keeping an updated (UNOFFICIAL) ranking list.

This list includes declared athletes only.
See EC's list of declared athletes. 

Karen Pavicic made another leapfrog on the leaderboard to jump into second place following career-best performances in her home province of British Columbia this weekend. With her 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding, by Don Cardinale x Rubinstein I and owned in partnership with Jayne Essig, the duo earned 71.120% in the Grand Prix. They then returned to the ring for the Speciale to lay down a 72.451%.

photo by Dressage Ring - Facebook

Although the criteria is not public, what we do know is that it requires horse/rider combinations to submit:

• Four (4) scores achieved within the period of January 1, 2016 to July 3, 2016.  
• A maximum of two (2) scores can be from the Grand Prix Speciale.
• A maximum of two (2) scores can be from the same competition
• All scores must be a minimum of 68%

It's a Tight Race!

While Belinda Trussell is very comfortably in the lead, it's still an incredibly tight race for the second slot.
Less than 1% separates the three athletes who are vying to punch that second ticket: Karen Pavicic, Megan Lane and Chris von Martels.

It will really come down to the wire at the final qualifying competition, the CDI3* being held in Toronto June 17-19th where it is highly anticipated that both Lane and von Martels will compete to advance their Olympic campaigns.

We (unofficially) crunched some numbers, and this is what would need to happen in order for there to be another change on the final leaderboard.

For Megan Lane to reclaim the second position: she would need to achieve a score of at least 72.3 in the Grand Prix, OR in 72.5 the Speciale

For Chris von Martels to leapfrog into second position: he would need to achieve a score of at least 73.6 in the Grand Prix, OR in 74.1 the Speciale

In any of these scenarios, it will require the ride of their lives from both Lane and von Martels.

This will certainly make the last CDI3* exciting to watch, not only for us fans but in particular Karen Pavicic who has done everything she can and can now only sit back and see how things play out.

Did you know?

If Pavicic is successful in getting her Rio ticket, it will be like coming full circle. Pavicic's first major games experience was the 2007 Pan American Games, where she travelled to Rio as the alternate.

Trussell, Pavicic and Lane were all teammates at the 2014 World Equestrian Games (with David Marcus).

Chris von Martels' first major games experience happened in 2015, where he won both Team Silver and Individual Bronze at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. 

Caravella is Canadian-bred (by fellow dressage athlete Jill Irving) and a former Hunter mount. Lane purchased the Dutch Warmblood mare seven years ago, and has brought her along all the way up to the Grand Prix level. The pair were highly successful in the Junior & Young Rider divisions at the North American Junior/Young Rider championships, having earned six medals.

 

Canada Has 2 Individual Olympic Slots

Since Canada was not able to qualify a team for the Rio Olympics at the 2015 Pan American Games (that slot went to the USA), we did achieve an individual ticket thanks to Belinda Trussell & Anton's individual placing at the Pan Ams.

A second individual slot was achieved by Canada thanks to Megan Lane & Caravella's top placing in the FEI Group D & E on the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking list. (see below).

The composite team has gone to Denmark as a result of their athlete's top placings in the FEI Olympic Ranking List. 

Who will Represent Canada in Rio?

Given that Equine Canada has kept their criteria top-secret this year, a move that has been heavily criticized by both those in the sport as well as fans, it is difficult to know with certainty how the 2 individual athletes will be chosen.
However if it follows past criteria, it will be based on a ranking order - pending medical and veterinarian checks.

Hopefully this will be of help for you to keep track and cheer on your favourite horse/rider combination!

Next up in the North American FEI calendar

June 17 - 19: Cedar Valley CDI3*, Ontario

 

 Rankings as of June 11 2016

	Grand Prix Scores	Grand Prix Speciale Scores	Average
Belinda Trussell Anton	73.700 75.529	73.780 74.882	74.473
Karen Pavicic Don Daiquiri	70.840 71.120	70.157 72.451	71.142
Megan Lane Caravella	69.780 69.920	69.980 72.412	70.523
Chris von Martels Divertimento	69.880 70.120	70.490 70.392	70.221
Jacqueline Brooks D Niro	68.500 68.780 68.940	69.078	68.825
Brittany Fraser All In	68.560 68.520	69.157 68.392	68.657