India won its third gold medal at the Asian Games 2023 on Tuesday as its equestrian team finished first in the dressage event. Anush Agarwalla, Hriday Chheda, Divyakriti Singh, Sudipti Hajela, and their horses teamed for a score of 209.205, giving India its first gold medal in 41 years. Raghubir Singh earned a gold medal in solo eventing in the 1982 Games in New Delhi, while the last medal in dressage was a bronze in 1986.
After falling to third position in the first stanza, the Indian team mounted a spectacular recovery. permitting China and Hong Kong to proceed. Anush and his horse Etro scored 71.088, putting him in second place in the individual standings. With others contributing, India seized the lead and won the 10-hour race. Chheda and Emerald (horse name) earned 69.941, Divyakriti and Adrenalin Firdod (horse) earned 68.176, and Sudipti and Chinski (horse) earned 66.706 to put an end to India’s gold drought on Day 3 of the Games.
Dressage, sometimes known as the mesmerising art of ‘dancing horses,’ marks the pinnacle of horse training and is usually recognised as the most difficult yet aesthetic discipline among Olympic equestrian sports. In this discipline, both athletes and horses undertake a highly organised series of manoeuvres at the walk, trot, and canter, with all routines performed totally from memory.
These motions receive ratings from a group of judges stationed around the arena, which are then transformed into percentage-based scores. The scores are normally in the range of 0 to 10. These complex manoeuvres include the half pass, piaffe, pirouette, and passage.
In a 60 by 20 metre rectangular arena, competition for both team and individual medals takes place over three rounds. Each team consists of three competitors, and the team’s overall performance is determined by the sum of their individual scores. If it’s essential for veterinary or medical reasons, substitutions can be made.
