Seven events were prepared for Saturday at the IPPOS SPRING TOUR 2024 in Thessaloniki, as the third competition day started. On 11 May, the most successful riders came from Greece and Romania. Panagiotis Tsaktiris won the CSI 2* Class 12 and Romanian Aurel Cojocariu added four medals including two titles.
Three CSIYH1* competitions for young horses Class 10 launched the program of the IPPOS SPRING TOUR 2024 in Thessaloniki on Saturday. The Class 10a for the 5-year-old horses on 115cm went the best for the Greek Dimitri Natsis on Tjebert van de Marsweg. The 6-year-old horses jumping the 130cm obstacles were dominated by Bulgarian Apostol Tenev with his Dicaprio. The best among the 7y horses on 1.35m was also Bulgarian Ivaylo Bonev with De Jong 7.
The CSI 2* Class 11 – 130cm welcomed 15 horses in the morning. But the best was clearly the Romanian rider Aurel Cojocariu as he took gold and silver medals. His Kansas B was clearly the fastest in the morning ahead of Olympic Dream 6. The 55-year-old rider was very busy on Saturday as he was performing in four events with five horses.
The main trophy of the day in the CSI 2* Class 12 with the 140cm obstacles stayed home in Greece when in the two phase competition Panagiotis Tsaktiris with Orienta V won the title.
“It was a very nice experience in a high-level competition with many experienced riders and excellent horses from strong nations competing. I’ve never competed before at this height with this horse, but the result was really good,” said Tsaktiris in the mixed zone. “The track is very nice and the facility is amazing, you really enjoy racing. This is an amazing event. I am happy that our whole team, Lythrodontas Equestrian Club of Cyprus has brought excellent results so far,” he added.
Second place went also to Greece for Concordia with Aikaterini Laskaridis. Successful day for Romanian rider Aurel Cojocariu continued with the third place and his Hamilton, when he was even leading after the first run.
In the afternoon, Romanian Aurel Cojocariu continued his jumping marathon in CSI 1* Class 13 – 120cm with Azur de Pepinvast leading after the first round again and winning the competition with not less than 45 horses. “I was very lucky today. And I like this place and this competition. It is very nice. The course designer is very good and everything is OK. This horse is a very quick one. But I like Hamilton the most, even if it is not my horse,” said Aurel Cojocariu.
Last of the events in the program was the CSI 1* Class 14 – 105cm with 39 horse entries. The race against the clock went best for the Greek rider Aggeliki Paraskevopoulou on Allouette Sauvageonne clocking 55.35 and also taking bronze with the horse Extase des Jacobins.
The competition will culminate on Sunday 12 May with last categories including the LR Grand Prix in the afternoon. For more information about the event and the detailed competition schedule for the four-day periods of 9-12 May and 16-19 May, you can visit the website https://ipposclub.com/.