Junior rider Yurie Yoshida, young rider Mio Fukuoka, and Grand Prix rider Toshiya Kawabata were the grand winners of the 2018 CDI Gotemba in Japan, on 15 - 16 December 2018.
This Japanese international was judged by Australian-European judges' panel Mary Seefried, Ricky MacMillan, Leif Tornblad, Thomas Kessler, and Freddy Leyman. The junior rider division featured four combinations, the young riders category had five. This year there were remarkably few Grand Prix riders in Gotemba with all Olympic team riders absent and just three contesting the Grand Prix and one the freestyle.
Yurie Yoshida completed a hattrick in the junior division, scoring the overall win for a third year in a row at Gotemba. The 17-year old Yoshida trains with Yuko Kitai at her Hacienda Riding Club, and was victorious on the 15-year old Danish warmblood gelding Engbjerggaards Ballestino (by Michellino x Ragazzo), which she bought in Germany in September 2016. At the Nationals she scored 65.587% in the individual test and 69.825% in the Kur to Music. The runner up was Ayane Sakurai on the 15-year old Dutch warmblood Winnetou D (by Obelisk x Itens).
At young riders' level it was the 18-year old Mio Fukuoka who reigned supreme aboard her mother's 16-year old Westfalian Tiida (by Fetiche du Pas x Diamantino). The combination also won Gotemba for a third, consecutive year. Fukuoka is trained by Ryuma Hieda at the Little Horse Club in Kobe, Japan, and she made her international show debut in 2016. Fukuoka scored 65.470% in the individual test and 67.485% in the Kur to Music for the title. The runner-up was Satsuki Watanabe on the 15-year old Dutch warmblood Widor.
Photos © Japan Eq. Federation
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