Young Riders Academy announces Team 2017

Lugano, May 23th 2017 – The Selection Panel, consisting of Jean Maurice Bonneau, Dirk Demeersman, Emile Hendrix and sports manager Sven Holmberg, together with the YRA board, after having evaluated all candidates’ attitude, capabilities, motivation together with technical skills and competition results, came up with the official assessment concerning the young Riders Academy Team 2017.

Five riders among the 26 made it to Full Program team, while other five entered in this year Educational Program squad; “this year the Board and the Selection Panel have had an even more challenging task in choosing the final lineup. National Federations, again, presented a group of athletes remarkably motivated with a good technical side” commented Sven Holmberg, Sport Manager.

The Full Program offers a long stay ( about six months) of “tailor-made” training and boarding at a renowned professional stable and includes qualified education in communication, business and economics, veterinary and legal practice connected to show jumping.

The Educational Program team will gather during the year for the 4\5 academic sessions – on the above topics, this group will also benefit from YRA support during jumping seasons which consists in clinics, sport training and shows invitations.

Clinics during the year will be held by JMaurice Bonneau, Jos Lansink, Rodrigo Pessoa and Franke Sloothaak, while the trainers for the full program are going to be: Marcus Beerbaum, Rolf Goran Bengtsson, Henk Nooren, Marco Kutscher, Ben Gerco and Wim Schroder. Gianluca Bormioli will also for this edition support the group of trainers.

In 2017, for first time, YRA will also introduce an official representative for non-European countries : Karen Polle. She is a very passionate and talented girl who wanted to join the team; due to the fact she is from Japan, living in US, and almost 25 years old, the panel decided to include her as a rider ambassador in this year educational program.

Full Program: Francesca Ciriesi (ITA), Matt Garrigan (IRL),  Adam Grzegorzewski (POL), Guido Klatte (GER), Andrzej Oplatek (POL).

Educational Program: Kendra Brinkop (GER), Michael G Duffy (IRL), Niklas Krieg (GER), Karin Martinsen (SWE), Karen Polle (JPN).

“We want to thank all European National Federations for their support, their growing interest in this project is a great honor for all of us” declared moreover Eleonora Ottaviani, President of the Board.

Both Teams, as usual,  will meet in Lugano in mid-June for the 2017 program kick off at Franklin University of Switzerland.

The young Riders Academy is a program conceived for European talented young show jumpers, under the patronage of the European Equestrian Federation (EEF), with the cooperation of the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) and the support of Rolex.

Founded in 2014 by Athenaeum, a non-profit association, the program will give talented riders between the ages of 18 and 23 the chance to get six months of training and boarding at a well-known professional stable. On top of that, professional education in communication, business and economics, veterinary and legal practice related to show jumping. The objective is to develop future champions as well as potential managers of this sport.