Horse Sport Ireland recently confirmed that Ireland has secured two individual places in the Para Dressage competition at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Qualification for the 2020 Paralympics began early last year and ran until January 31st 2020.
The allocation of two Para Dressage places for Ireland is based on the individual ranking list, and in-line with other equestrian disciplines, the final decision on which athletes will be selected to represent Ireland will take place before the August 3rd deadline for entries.
Para Dressage is the only Equestrian discipline that is included in the Paralympic Games, where it has been a regular fixture since 1996. The Para Dressage competition at the 2020 Paralympic Games will be held at Tokyo Equestrian Park from August 27th to 31st.
Individual medals will be decided on the first two days, followed by two days of team competition before the final freestyle titles will be decided on the final day of competition.
A total of 78 athletes and horses will compete at the Paralympic Games with a total of 11 medal events taking place across five grades of competition.
Horse Sport Ireland is also submitting an application for a possible third individual Para Dressage place at the Paralympics through the Bipartite Commission Invitation system, however with just three of these places available across the globe, competition for these places will be extremely competitive.
The Bipartite Commission Invitation qualification slots are granted on a discretionary basis by the International Paralympic Commission and the respective International Federation (in this case the FEI). Bipartite slots are awarded to the individual athlete, not to the National Paralympic Committee.
