2024 Paris Olympics: Equestrian Anush Agarwalla to compete in Dressage category

Indian equestrian Anush Agarwalla will be representing India at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the Dressage event after he pipped close contender Shruti Vora on better average in his recent performances.

The Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) evaluated both Anush and Shruti based on their performances in recent tournaments and Anush made the cut, post evaluation.

Anush has been consistent since the qualification period began last year and achieved Minimum Eligibility Requirement (MER) four times while Shruti earned the required two MERs this month.

When an average was taken out of the contenders in the assessment, Anush emerged the winner. He had an average score of 67.695% which was better than Shruti’s 67.163%.

As per the criteria set by the Federation, a rider-horse combination is required to achieve a minimum of 67% twice between January 1, 2023 and June 24, 2024 to be eligible for the Paris Games qualification.

This will be the first time India will be competing in the Dressage event at the Olympics. India had made several participations in the Eventing category at the Olympics in the past. In the Eventing category, Fouaad Mirza competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics while Imtiaz Anees played in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

According to the EFI selection criteria, if more than one athlete is eligible then the athlete with the highest average in Grand Prix out of the best four events in the past one year shall be chosen to participate.

Shruti (with horse Magnanimous) had earned her second MER of the year with her second-place finish at the Brno Grand Prix in Czech Republic, where she scored 68.174 in the Dressage event, thereby becoming eligible for Olympic qualification.

Shruti had earned her first MER early this month when she became the first Indian rider to win a three-star Grand Prix event Dressage World Cup, held in Lipica, Slovenia, with 67.761 score. Her other two GP performances had scores of 66.543% and 66.174% which were below MER level.

Anush Agarwalla achieved MERs four times – 67.936% (Wiesbaden, May 2024), 68.261 % (December 2023 in Mechelen), 67.152 % (December 2023 in Frankfurt), and 67.804 % (October 2023 in Wroclaw).