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Indian riders pull off golden surprise after a 41-year wait
The Indian dressage team, considered underdogs, has won the country's first-ever gold in dressage at the Asian Games after a 41-year wait.
They were among the most unfancied gold medal hopes in the 655-member Indian contingent at the Asian Games. While they had belief, many others reckoned that the dressage team was there to make up the numbers. On a temperate Tuesday at Hangzhou, they proved the doubters wrong to go down in history.
The team almost didn’t make it to the Asian Games, and it took an out-of-court settlement with the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) to ensure their participation. But the team has now won the first-ever Indian gold in dressage, and the first equestrian gold for the country in 41 years.
The pervading pessimism in the run-up to the Games has, in an odd way, made the success of Sudipti Hajela, Divyakriti Singh, Hriday Chheda and Anush Agarwalla sweeter. The four young riders — the oldest member of the team, Chheda, is 25 — managed a combined score of 209.205. Hosts China were next with 204.882 points followed by the team from Hong Kong, who scored 204.852.
India’s three previous gold medals in equestrian came in the 1982 Asiad in New Delhi, and the only dressage medal, a bronze, was won by JS Ahluwalia at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
Dressage is a highly technical discipline which demands skill and precision from both horse and rider. It may not look as challenging as a cross-country course or show-jumping, but it demands elegance and accuracy. In the team event, the pair must ride “tests” with the rider memorising a series of movements (such as walk, trot, canter, pirouette) that are performed in front of a set of judges.
For the Indian riders, history was of little significance when Hajela, astride her 16-year-old stallion Chinski, began their Tuesday morning action with a solid 66.706. Then Singh, riding Adrenalin Firfod, racked up 68.176 points, followed by Chheda on Chemxpro Emerald scoring 69.941. The last to compete were Agarwalla, riding Etro, who tallied 71.088. In dressage, the scores of only the best rider-horse pairs are added to arrive at the final total.
“It’s a big moment for us. We are super happy and proud. All our sacrifices have finally given us results,” said Agarwalla. The 24-year-old from Kolkata has been based in Borchen, Germany since 2017, and is coached by 2004 Athens Olympics gold medallist Hubertus Schmidt. He began his equestrian journey at the age of eight in Kolkata’s Tollygunge Club. Three years into his training, he started taking weekend flights to Delhi to train in the capital.
“I have been based in Europe for a few years now. Being away from friends and family can be lonely but it is the desire to represent the nation that has kept me going,” Agarwalla. He and ace rider Shruti Vora were the first Indians to participate at the World Championships for Dressage in Herning, Denmark in 2022.
Divyakriti Singh agreed. The 23-year-old who is based in Hagen, Germany, finds it tough to handle loneliness but the thought of doing something special for the country has kept her on her toes. Having trained in Europe in her school and university days, she returned to India before shifting back to Europe in 2020 just before the pandemic, and was stuck there throughout the lockdown.
“There was a very strict lockdown and I was in a new country all by myself away from my family. I was an amateur then and was new to professional sport, so it was very hard. But without the experiences and learnings from those hardships, I would not have been here today. We train all the year round in distant locations and it was not easy to push ourselves,” she said.
“Ours is not a social sport, and we lead a boring life. But I think I enjoyed every bit of it. I have not gone home for a very long time and my family has made a lot of sacrifices too. I went to a boarding school and that made me a little bit independent. It has been a long journey but a very good one,” Singh added.
For 21-year-old Hajela, missing festivities and parents’ birthdays was the biggest test. “My family has sacrificed a lot for me. Living away from home has been the most difficult part. Not having a family there (in Europe) at such a young age and living a lonely life,” the Indore native said.
“None of us have ever enjoyed the life of a regular teenager. Our school lives were not normal either. You can’t attend your mother’s and father’s birthdays, I missed Diwali and Holi, we just continued the boring life. Days like these make it all worth it.”
“No one expected us to win gold, but we stuck around the tough phase,” added Agarwalla. “It was not easy to deal with EFI and court but all that actually motivated us to do well.”
