Australia's Para-Equestrian Team will leave for London today
| Australia's Para-Equestrian Team will leave for London today - 9th Aug 2012 | |
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| Australia's Para-Equestrian team for the 2012 Paralympic Games will leave for London today Thursday 9 August. Prior to their departure, the team of Grace Bowman, Hannah Dodd, Joann Formosa and Rob Oakley have been fine-tuning their preparations at a training camp just outside of Melbourne. Earlier in the week more than 200 students from surrounding primary schools attended a special open day where they were given the opportunity to meet the riders and have their photo taken with the team. Riders also performed their freestyle test for the excited young audience. Following this, team members were presented with cards and drawings of encouragement for the riders to put on display at the pre-Games camp and athlete's village. The horses will fly out on Wednesday 8 August ahead of the team's departure on Thursday. "The training camp has been a huge success, team spirit is high and all the riders are excited about the next phase of the journey," said National Performance Director for Para-Equestrian Julia Battams. "Now that their horses have passed their final vet checks it's starting to sink in that they're about to leave for the Paralympic Games," she added. Once they arrive in the UK, the team will travel to Hampshire, about 90 minutes outside of London, where they'll enter a pre Games training camp until they move into the athlete's village on 24 August. The Paralympic Games commence on 29 August and conclude on 9 September. | |
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