This year’s grassroots championships at Badminton – the Science Supplements Cup – will be held in 2021 and British Eventing (BE) is planning to run a one-off under-19 championship next year.
These measures are part of a number of announcements around eventing championships in light of the current suspension of sport owing to Covid-19.
The 2020 Science Supplements Cup will run at Badminton next May, alongside the 2021 championships. This is a tried and tested format as the 2012 Mitsubishi Motors Grassroots Championships ran at Badminton 2013 after the cancellation of the 2012 event owing to the weather.
BE says is it continuing to monitor the situation regarding the 2021 regional finals and will update on plans for qualification for the 2021 championships as soon as possible.
In other news for grassroots riders, the Airowear 2019 BE80(T) championship was due to run at Norton Disney at the end of April, after two cancellations due to bad weather. BE says it is now “in discussions with both Burghley and Norton Disney about the rescheduling of this championship”.
The 2020 BE80(T) championships are currently scheduled to run at Burghley in September, but that will obviously be subject to review now.
Bishop Burton was due to run a youth championships from 24-26 July, including a young rider CCI2*-L and a junior CCI*-L, as well as under-18 classes at BE90open and BE100open. In conjunction with the venue and the youth programme personnel, BE has now made the “difficult decision” to cancel this championships, saying: “The period of lockdown and the uncertainty of when we will be able to recommence sport means that it is unlikely there will be sufficient time to run appropriate qualifiers and training to ensure that competitors are ready for their championships.”
Those who would have been out of the under-18 category next year will have some recompense with BE promising, for one year only, an under-19 championships in 2021 “which we hope will provide those competitors disappointed this year [with] a chance to compete next year”.
The British pony championship due to run at Belsay from 28-30 May has also been cancelled, but discussions are taking place about alternatives.
Article continues below…
You might also be interested in:
From the Badminton Horse Trials archives: watch when Mary King won her first title in 1992
Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round
£5,000 top prize on offer as eventing legends line up for virtual three-day event
Top riders Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin, Tom McEwen and Scott Brash are all involved
Meanwhile, BE reports that it is working closely with the team at Gatcombe, who remain committed to running the Magic Millions Festival of British Eventing (8-9 August) and “we are considering all options, including rescheduling, to enable this to happen”.
We are continuing to produce Horse & Hound as a weekly magazine during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to keep our website at horseandhound.co.uk up to date with breaking news, features and more. Click here for info about magazine subscriptions (six issues for £6) and access to our premium H&H Plus content online.
