Fourth place finish and personal best score for Ireland’s Anna Merveldt and Esporim in Austrian Grand Prix Special

Irish Dressage rider Anna Merveldt and the 11-year-old stallion Esporim have continued their brilliant recent run of form, by taking an impressive fourth place finish in this morning’s (Sunday) CDI4* Grand Prix Special at Achleiten in Austria.

Anna Merveldt and Esporim (Photo: Joe Reynolds)

A personal best score as a pairing in Grand Prix Special of 71.426% for Merveldt and Esporim saw them finish narrowly behind third place finisher Florian Bacher (AUS) with Fidertraum (72.872%). Second place went to another Austrian rider, Victoria Max-Theurer and Abegglen NRW (77.702%), while victory went to six-time Olympic Gold medallist, Germany’s Isabel Werth with DSP Quantaz on a score of 80.149%.

Anna Merveldt represented Ireland at the London Olympics in 2012 and was part of the Irish team that has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. In recent weeks Merveldt and Esporim have recorded a string of top-four placings at international Grand Prix level across Europe.