Equestrian: Top 25? It’s really cool, says Kallista

Kallista Field says she intends just having fun when she rides in the second round of the Olympic Games individual dressage contest on Friday.

Field's New Zealand record score with her mare Waikare was good enough to secure her a top 25 berth at Sydney, with Field ranked 21st of the 47 starters.

Field and Waikare posted a superb score of 66.44 percent in their first round test yesterday, a record for a New Zealander in front of international judges. Two judges ranked it the 16th best test of the first round.

She will now contest the second round, the Grand Prix Special, with the top 15 riders then riding off for the medals on Sunday.

Field knows she has only a very slight chance of reaching the final round, but she says reaching the top 25 is almost as good as getting a medal this early in her career.

``Its amazing, just really cool,'' she said on Wednesday. ``I did it on a good day and I'm lucky. I'll just have fun now. Its super -- and really good for the sport.''

The Grand Prix Special involves piaffe and passage moves suited to Waikare, so Field is hoping for a second good score.

Field, 22, was the youngest rider in the dressage and her realistic aim in the sport is to challenge for an Olympics medal in 2008.

Her form this year has seen her pick up a new sponsor, but she had to sell two horses to get to Sydney, and said locals at Pahiatua had raised $6000 to get her to the Games.

``I don't know how I'm going to repay them all,'' she said.

Although Field does not expect to make the top 15, two of the five judges at Sydney ranked her almost good enough to be there. Swedish judge Eric Lette, considered the best at the Games, and German judge Volker Moritz each ranked her 16th out of 47, but she was more harshly marked by the Dutch, United States and Australian judges.

Defending champions Germany again secured the team gold medal after the two days of Grand Prix dressage ended today, with the silver going to the Netherlands and the bronze to the United States.

It is Germany's seventh team gold medal since 1964.

- NZ