PARALYMPICS GAMES: Slattery "thrilled" to finish ninth in Paris

GALWAY’s Sarah Slattery completed a clean sweep of top-10 finishes for the Irish in the Grade V individual para dressage event at the Paris Paralympics this afternoon.

Slattery, making her Paralympic debut on Savona, put together a fantastic test to score 68.410% and finish ninth overall, giving the Irish team plenty of momentum ahead of Friday’s team event.

Slattery was unlucky early on as Savona took a small misstep which cost her slightly on the judges scores but the pair recovered instantly and ultimately there was delight, despite just missing out on a top-eight finish and qualification to Saturday’s Freestyle.

Slattery said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. It was amazing, we had a little stumble at the start but I recovered, she recovered and the test couldn’t have gone any better in my eyes.

“I’m thrilled with the test, thrilled with her – the two of us together, it was just super. Aside from that little blip, everything else was pretty perfect and it went just as well as it had in training and in our prep for this.”

With her baby daughter Millie watching on from the Kiss and Cry area in Slattery’s husband Jonathan’s arms and her older daughter Harlow in the stands, the result was that bit more special for the 34-year-old.

“It was so emotional, so emotional,” added Slattery. “I’ve just come back up now from the stands where Harlow was – she ran up to me crying and I ran down to her crying. To have them all here with me is amazing, it’s so special.”

High Performance para dressage Director Debora Pijpers was equally pleased with Slattery and Savona’s performance. She said: “We are really, really happy. Sarah rode every single step of the test, they were super. Very nice, very uphill, very harmonious, very fluent – we are very, very happy.

“She did everything she could, and on her Paralympics debut in an arena like this is fantastic.

“They were both so focused and she literally did everything her coach Niels Bax and I advised her to do – we couldn’t be happier.”

Pijpers will announce her three-person team ahead of Friday’s team test.