Anush Agarwalla beat Shruti Vora with a higher average to be selected as India's representative.

The Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) has selected Anush Agarwalla to represent the country at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics in the sport of dressage after beating close rival Shruti Vora with a better average after a careful assessment of her competitors' recent performances.

This will be India's first participation in a dressage event at the Olympics, as most of the riders in previous editions have only competed in the Eventing category.

READ ALSO : Paris 2024 Olympics: Anush Agarwalla secures India's first Olympic quota in equestrian dressage

Agarwalla has been consistent since the start of the qualifying period last year and achieved the minimum eligibility requirements (MER) four times while veteran Shruti Vora achieved the required two MERs this month.

When the average of the participants in the assessment was taken, Anush emerged as the winner. She has an average score of 67.695%, which is better than Shruti's score of 67.163%.

According to the criteria set by the Federation, the rider-horse pair must reach at least 67% twice between January 1, 2023 and June 24, 2024 to be eligible for qualification for the Paris Olympics.

Based on the EFI selection criteria, if more than one athlete meets the requirements, then the athlete with the highest Grand Prix average from last year's top four events will be selected to participate. Only scores from FEI competitions of level 3* and above are taken into account. This score must be achieved during the performance of the MER 2023 to 2024 event programming.

Shruti (riding the horse Magnanimous) achieved her second MER of the year with a second place at the Brno Grand Prix in the Czech Republic, where she scored 68.174 in the dressage test, where she qualified for Olympic qualifying.

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Shruti earned her first MER earlier this month when she became the first Indian rider to win the three-star Grand Prix of the Dressage World Cup, held in Lipica, Slovenia, with 67.761. Two other GP performances achieved scores of 66.543% and 66.174%, below the MER level.

Anush Agarwalla obtained the MER 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).

The decision was taken unanimously by the Board of Directors and the President gave his approval to the decision.

Fouaad Mirza represented India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Before him, Imtiaz Anees competed at the 2000 Sydney Games, while Indrajit Lamba competed at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Jitendrajit Singh Ahluwalia, Hussain Singh, Mohammed Khan and Darya Singh all competed at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

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