Paris 2024: Sarah Slattery misses out on place in individual freestyle event

A ninth-place finish for Sarah Slattery in the Grade V individual event of the Para dressage saw her just miss out on qualifying for Saturday's individual freestyle competition.

The Galway woman, making her Paralympics debut on Savona, put together a score of 68.410 that unfortunately was not enough to see her inside the all-important top eight. Sweden's Lotta Wallin, riding Questionmark, took the last qualifying spot with a score of 69.026, with Michele George of Belgium riding the appropriately named Best Of Eight heading the standings on 76.692.

Slattery was unlucky early on as Savona took a small misstep which cost her slightly on the judges' scores but the pair recovered instantly.

"I’m absolutely thrilled," was Slattery's immediate reaction to her top-ten finish.

"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."

Sarah Slattery achieved a top-ten finish in the Grade V individual event and outlined how cancer in her left arm when she was eight eventually led her to taking part in para dressage #RTEparalympics #paris2024