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S'pore para-equestrian Laurentia Tan moves on to Paralympic finals after 5th-place finish
Go Team Singapore!
September 04, 2024, 06:43 PM
Para-equestrian Laurentia Tan, 45, has punched her ticket to the finals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Image from SNPC / Dyan Tjhia
Made it to finals
Riding her horse Hickstead to perform a pre-determined series of movements, world no. 7 Tan garnered a score of 72.000 in the Grade I individual event on Sep. 3.
Athletes are judged on the accuracy, quality, and artistic expression of their movements, and are awarded marks by a panel of five judges.
Image from SNPC / Dyan Tjhia
With her score, Tan came in fifth place, and qualified for the individual freestyle event on Sep. 7.
Tan's compatriot Gemma Rose Foo, who rode in the same event on Sep. 3, came in joint 10th out of 22 riders with her score of 68.917, and will miss out on the finals.
Fellow Singaporean Hilary Su made her Paralympics debut in the Grade III individual event, coming in 12th.
All three will return for the team event on Sep. 6.
More on Laurentia Tan
Tan is a four-time Paralympic medallist.
She earned two bronzes at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, becoming the first Asian woman to win a medal in equestrian sport at the Paralympics.
Tan followed this up with a bronze and silver medal in the 2012 London Paralympics.
This is her fifth Paralympic Games.
Will be competing in finals on Sep. 7
In a Sep. 3 Facebook post, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong shared his appreciation for Tan's contributions as a veteran of the Singapore contingent.
Tong shared that though Tan's event was only scheduled to start at 5pm, she arrived early in the morning at the venue, Chateau de Versailles, to support Su, the team's debutante.
"She looks out for her teammates, and unselfishly shares her experience. Her presence was calming and so meaningful. When Hilary went for her event, Laurentia sat in the teeming rain to watch Hilary go through her paces with her horse, Gambler, on her Paralympic debut," Tong wrote.
Tan will be competing in the finals on Sep. 7.
Top image from Singapore National Paralympic Council / Dyan Tjhia
