Equestrian: Dressage medals at Youth Olympics

New Zealand equestrian riders won gold and bronze medals in the final of the individual dressage competition at the Australia Youth Olympics festival in Sydney yesterday.

Ashleigh Williams, 17, and Brigette Learmonth, 15, both students at Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, won the gold and bronze medals respectively to add to the team gold medal they won yesterday with Waipukurau's Amanda Goldsbury.

Williams, riding Southern Perception, averaged 66.85 per cent for the competition to nudge out the silver medallist, a Japanese rider on 65.23 and Learmonth, riding Northern Tyson, with 64.70.

All riders competed on borrowed horses, which they retained for the duration of the competition.

Earlier in the day, Tauranga's Lucy Olphert and Caroline Parkes, from Tolaga Bay, made the top 12 for the final of the individual showjumping competition from a field of 24.

Olphert, 15, the leading candidate in the qualifying rounds of the previous two days, finished fourth while Parkes improved her position from 22nd place to 10th.

- NZPA