2024-09-06 10:36:34
Eliza Cholakova and Marta Kolusheva came third in their groups
Desislava Milanova with the horse Kazenta in the “Young Riders” category won the first test with a parkour height of 130 cm at the Equestrian Balkaniad in Istanbul, and Milko Kochev, who also passed the test without a mistake, was third.
The test is for speed and Desi and Casenta showed a flawless flight over the obstacles and the Bulgarian national anthem sounded for the first time over the stadium.
All categories of riders participate in the first show jumping competition day. In the tough competition in “Men”, our participants did not manage to rank in the top places.
In the “Women” category, Romania took first, second and third place, and Simona Govedarova placed 9th without a single mistake, Irina Nikolova placed 14th and Draga Decheva placed 17th. Elena Nikolova and Maria Gerkova made mistakes.
The extremely contested competition in “Juniors” with 29 participants, 11 hundredths did not reach Eliza Cholakova to hear the Bulgarian national anthem again.
A Romanian rider was leading until the penultimate participant, until the Turkish rider Ibrahim Akçaseven flew in front of her by 3 hundredths.
And a warrior is a warrior alone is valid for the only participant from Albania, Emma Kuheaya. If she had not made one mistake, she would have been second out of all 33 participants in the Women’s category, because her time is 1 second behind that of the winner Elena Popescu, but the next time is 2 seconds more. Albania’s Emma placed 20th, but everyone noticed confident, hearty and inspired and earned a standing ovation from everyone in the stands.
In the “Children” group, there were 25 participants, with Marta Kolusheva ranking third. Lora Cholakova, Maraya Georgieva and Raya Hristova took fifth, eighth and tenth place, respectively, and they all passed the parkour without a mistake.
On Friday, they face the tough test of the team race, where the result of each rider also depends on his teammates. Children most emotionally accept responsibility and put even more fervor and dedication than into individual ranking.
The atmosphere
During the entire competition, popular music is playing over the arena and it turned out that the Turkish organizers are fans of a Bulgarian song, so the voice of Stefan Valdobrev with the Usual Suspects “Slow down” is heard more than once and to our delight, the others like it too guests of the competition.
The hosts did not forget to add a touch of national tradition: the tournament in Istanbul is certainly the only one where professional boots and boots polishing is offered to the competitors.
This activity is always handled by the riders or their trainers, but here many take advantage of the service even as an attraction. Our competitor commented that he always cleans his boots thoroughly, but he has never had them shine like the master did.