Emma Kanerva and the dressage team will be seen in the finals of the weekend. Marko Björs believes that Kanerva is just on the way to his best performances.
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
Finnish dressage riders had a real top success when both Emma Kanerva that the dressage team advanced to the weekend finals. There are 18 competitors in the individual competition.
heather, Henri Ruosteen mixed by Joanna Robinson the team represented was ninth in the qualifying class, while the top ten had tickets to the final competition.
Kanerva succeeded brilliantly, reaching a result of 73.680 percent. He had to worry about his personal final place for the next day, but positive news was confirmed on Wednesday.
Kanerva competed in the Olympics for the first time already 12 years ago in London at the age of 27. Explaining dressage for Urheilu Marko Björs says that Kanerva is just on his way to the peak years of his career.
The meritorious tops of the sport are older than Kanervaa, 39. Some over fifty.
– Emma was last at the London Olympics. He was able to perform really brilliantly now, which means a lot to the whole of Finnish dressage, Björs praises.
Kanerva has put everything on the line for his sports career. Kanerva went abroad 20 years ago to study as a rider in Germany.
– He has made a very long career and life choices in order to be on top of the world. Now he really earned his place and is there.
Great things from a small country
In Finnish dressage, it cleans perfectly as a whole. The last time a dressage team competed at the Olympic level in Finland was 36 years ago in Seoul, South Korea.
A team was also sent to the Sydney 2000 Games, but due to illnesses and injuries, Finland was unable to compete.
On the youth side, the situation is good anyway. Björs reminds that Finland is a very small dressage country.
Succeeding in the world requires international top-level choices.
– It looks really good in terms of dressage. Now there is a new young generation coming from here. All Finns competing in Paris live in Central Europe because they have to. When you move with horses, it’s different.
“Resounding success”
The team competition will be held on Saturday. The personal competition is on Sunday.
Björs says that the result of the Finnish team can still improve and the ranking can even rise.
– That would be great. Emma, on the other hand, has everything possible in the free program. The choreography, the interpretation of the music and the artistic effect are evaluated. You can see that Emma enjoys the fact that she gets to present her own show.
One can expect tremendous success.
Björs doesn’t speculate on any particular placement prospect, but is confident about the whole team.
– I have strong credit when I have seen how the horses move and the riders participate in the competition. Certainly the riders are able to perform at their own level and even improve and show off. They are able to show the world that Finnish dressage riders are the best in the world.
Great prospects for the future
Björs makes the reigning Olympic champion the favorite of the individual race Jessica Bredow-Werndlin (GER), by Cathrine Laundrup-Dufour (DEN) and the legend of dressage of Isabell Werth (GER).
Werth has a whopping 12 Olympic medals. He already tasted his first Olympic victory in 1992 in Barcelona, when Kanerva was 7 years old.
– He is the greatest Olympic athlete of all time, who has won at least one gold in all six Olympics.
– It’s great that young Emma is involved. For example, Werth is 55 years old and the others are also experienced championship competitors. This will definitely give your career a new rise.