Lee Pearson misses out on 11th career gold
Lee Pearson misses out on his 11th gold, taking dressage bronze. But elsewhere Natasha Baker breaks Paralympic records for freestyle dressage and wins her second gold in her first Paralympics.
Paralympic veteran Lee Pearson missed out on his chance to win an 11th gold medal, which would have put him on a par with Paralympic champions Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dave Roberts.
In a routine completed to a medley of James Bond classics, Pearson and his horse Gentleman won gold with an impressive 72.4000 per cent score.
That put him into first place initially, but Austria’s Pepo Puch was up next and stormed ahead to gold with a 79.000 per cent score. Next up was the final competitor, Katja Karjalainen, who took silver, leaving Pearson to pick up the bronze.
But the equestrian team soared to success earlier in the day as 22-year-old Natasha Baker won her second gold of the Games.
She took a record score of 82.800 per cent on her horse Cabral in the Grade II freestyle class. Baker was also crowned Grade II individual champion just two days ago in a performance that also broke Paralympic records.
Baker, who suffers from an inflammation of the spine, faced tough competition from the likes of reigning freestyle Paralympic champion Lauren Barwick and German rivals Britta Napel and Angelika Trabert. But she rose to the challenge superbly, delivering a high-class musical routine to a Spanish-themed piece that was a class above the competition.
Baker’s medal takes ParalympicsGB’s equestrian total medal tally to eight.
Pearson suffered his first ever Paralympic dressage defeat, taking silver in the individual 1b test on Saturday.
The 38-year-old won three golds each at Sydney, Athens and Beijing in the team, individual and freestyle events.
From Staffordshire, he was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenital, a condition that prevents his legs and arms from growing correctly and means his limbs are twisted and weak. He wears plastic leg splints from his hip to his heels.
Disability a ‘selling point’
Despite being a seasoned hand at Paralympic competitions, having never missed out on a gold in the last three Paralympic Games, Pearson was feeling the heat over the London Games.
He told Channel 4 he was looking forward to the 2012 Games being over: “I’ve got so much pressure on me to do well and there are so many good up-and-coming riders.”
Pearson is also an advocate of more awareness of Paralympian’s disabilities. Last year he said the public should be better informed about athletes’ individual circumstances, arguing that this would not just create better understanding, but also make the sport more exciting for spectators.
“I think it’s our selling point to make us more marketable, and more accepted. Rather it being hush, hush. Go for it. That’s my personal plan,” he said.
Pearson was awarded a CBE for services to equestrian & disabled sport in 2009.
