Philippine riders rally to take silver in Asian Joust

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine equestrian team came from way behind to stun the field and the crowd with a silver-medal finish in the recent Federation Equestre Internationale Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand.

Veteran riders Colin Syquia, Toni Leviste, and Joker Arroyo made the feat, overcoming a disadvantage of competing with just three bets in the four-to-compete, three-to-count format.

“From the start, our team was competing at a great disadvantage, with only three riders, as opposed to the usual four, which affords a team a discard score and which normally relieves the riders of a lot of pressure, allowing them to perform at optimum potential,” said Carissa Coscolluela, president of Equestrian Philippines, Inc.

Going into the final day of the competition, the Philippines had a lot of catching up to do. But Syquia, Leviste and Arroyo did just that, thus, claiming second place behind gold-medal winner Hong Kong.

After the second day of competition, the Philippines was trailing Uzbekistan by 8.17 faults for the bronze medal, an unlikely feat to overcome in light of the strong performance by the Central Asian nation.

Syquia went in first on Chanel One and posted an effortless, immaculate, and masterful clear round that gave the team a shot of confidence that it needed. “It’s a new horse I’m on and we don’t know each other too well, but everything really came together for us,” said Syquia.

“It was a long shot, but we didn’t let that discourage us from trying,” said Leviste, whose clear round later on Loribri assured the Philippines of a bronze medal finish after Uzbekistan crumbled under pressure.

“We caught up after Colin’s and my round, and it was clear that we were hot on their heels, even we couldn’t believe it,” said Arroyo.

The team fought with intense focus and determination to edge Uzbekistan out of the podium, summing everything from their horses who rose to the occasion and hardly put a foot wrong on the final day.

With Hong Kong having a firm hold of the gold, it was up to Kuwait’s last rider to keep the silver for themselves, being more than eight faults ahead of the Philippines.

Asian Games 2018 gold medalist Ali Al Khorafi rode as the anchor rider for the Middle Eastern country, normally ensuring a fault free round, but an unexpected refusal and a fence down cost him 10 faults, ceding the silver medal to the Philippines, and placing Kuwait third in the final standings.