Equestriennes confident of medal finish

BUSAN, South Korea – An impressive result in the friendly one day before actual competition has boosted the confidence of the Philippine equestrian team with the start of the event today at the Busan equestrian course.

The RP squad, the only all-women team in the nine-nation field, figured in a tie for first with powerhouse teams Japan and South Korea and this augurs well for the Filipinas’ bid in the first round of the team show jumping.

"It’s just a friendly but we tied Japan and Korea and it could have been a gold if it were the Asian Games, but it’s a confidence builder. Everybody is gearing for action and we’re coming in with so much confidence," said Toni Leviste, a veteran rider of past Asian and Olympic wars.

The other members of the team are Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski, another mainstay of past RP squad, Michelle Barrera and sisters Danielle and Paola Cojuangco, granddaughters of sportsman and San Miguel Corporation chair Danding Cojuangco.

In fact, Mr. Cojuangco is due to arrive Thursday night to cheer for the two girls. Mikee’s father former Cong. Peping Cojuangco and husband Dudut Jaworski are also in town for the occasion. Toni’s father former Batangas Gov. Tony Leviste will also be coming.

The top 20 out of the starting field of 40 riders after the two-day team show jumping event will move on to dispute the individual medals on Monday. They will go through 15 to 17 obstacles on a 90-second time limit over a well-laid course.

The 29-year-old Leviste and Barrera have been training in Europe with Belgium as base while the Cojuangco sisters honed up in Australia and have come up with brilliant finishes in Southeast Asian meets.

Mikee Cojuangco, who was a member of the team that won the bronze in the 1995 Chiang Mai Southeast Asian Games, will be riding Rustic Rouge, Barrera will be aboard Coal Miner, Leviste will handle Nazli and Danielle will be on top of Ascot. Paola has been designated team reserve.

Leviste is fresh from a stint in the world championship in Jerez, Spain, where she finished 68th as the only rider from Southeast Asia and will be competing here with a new horse – the 12-year-old chestnut mare Nazli.

"She’s my type of horse," she said.

The philosophy graduate from Ateneo has retired Ghandy, the gray white horse she rode in the Sydney Olympics, and leased Nazli from Brazilian Nelson Pessoa, a world figure in the sport of equestrian, after the world championship. It was stabled in Belgium.

It will be the second Asian Games for Leviste, having finished fifth overall in the Bangkok Asian Games.

Motherhood and family life have taken much of the time of the comebacking Mikee Jaworski, now a mother to boys – a two-year-old Robbie and nine-month-old Rafael. But she had since returned to the sport and ruled one event in New Delhi last year.

"Kung may awa ang Diyos baka manalo," she said.

The 17-year-old Danielle and her sister Paola have been very active in show jumping events in the region and have shown a number of podium finishes.

Danielle recently won the Premier Cup Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian Open Mayor Cup. She came in second in the first round of the SEA World Cup qualifier in Kuala Lumpur and fifth in the second.

The daughter of the former rally and car racing champ Mark Cojuangco, Danielle is on her first Asian Games and has became popular around the venue for her good looks and charm that Thai individual gold medalist Pongsiree Bunluewong had professed a big crush on her.