EA High Performance Update Relating to Event Cancellations, Planning and COVID-19 – 27th April, 2020

We hope you have all been keeping safe, well and healthy.  

As COVID-19 continues to evolve and countries around the world remain in various stages of lockdown, the health and wellbeing of our riders, horses, support teams and their families remain our priority as we continue to monitor the situation closely.

Last week EA High Performance (HP) met virtually with the FEI to discuss critical matters relating to the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games including Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs), qualifications, horse ownership timelines and event planning. A decision on these matters is yet to be finalised and the discussion remains ongoing. EA High Performance will continue working closely with the FEI to ensure that any outcome will be fair, in the best interest of the sport and uphold the integrity of the Olympic spirit. 

The past week has continued to see multiple key events around the globe cancelled due to COVID-19. The only five-star event in the Southern Hemisphere, the Australian International Three-Day Event, held annually in Adelaide has been cancelled along with Luhmühlen Horse Trials, another five-star event held in Germany. CHIO Aachen, which always attracts a strong contingent of Australian riders across multiple disciples, has also announced that the event will not run this year. These events were without doubt highlights in the wider equestrian calendar but were also key Olympic preparation events for many of our riders. We are working closely with our riders to re-evaluate their Tokyo preparation and support their altered training schedule.

Domestically the Equestrian Australia Dressage Committee (EADC) notified HP that Dressage NSW has taken the decision to forego hosting the 2020 Australian Dressage Championships on October 15th - 18th at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre (SIEC). The current situation and the uncertainty surrounding when competition may resume domestically makes planning extremely difficult.  All of our HP disciplines are currently faced with the same decision-making process regarding events scheduled to run in 2020 and we expect that further events will be impacted, both in Australia and Internationally. We would like to thank the EA National Discipline Committees and the event organising committees for their hard work and diligence in addressing these difficult decisions head-on and for always ensuring horse and rider welfare remains the top priority.

The FEI has announced that the FEI Eventing Calendar Task Force met on the 24^th April and reached decisions on various issues such as deadlines and date clash rules for the FEI calendar in 2020, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games MER events in 2020/2021, CCIO events, five-star events 2020, FEI Championships 2020/2021 and associated fees and costs. The FEI Board will review these decisions during a special virtual meeting held today (27^th April) and we expect to be able to update the equestrian community on the outcomes this week.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic the FEI previously announced the FEI Sports Forum 2020 would be completely reviewed in form and scope to only feature time sensitive topics, namely FEI Anti-Doping Rules for both human and equine athletes, with these revised regulations being implemented on 1 January 2021. As the FEI Sports Forum can no longer be held in person the FEI have made all documentation available online. Consultation and feedback from the equestrian community remains an important part of the decision making process and the FEI would like to encourage all stakeholders to review the rule changes and provide feedback, directly to the FEI via the website, so the final review process can begin on 13 July. You can find all FEI Anti-Doping rule revisions here: https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei/sportsforum/2020

The EA High Performance Panel and the Chairs of the National Selection Panels continue to meet regularly to discuss the impact of the current circumstances on our Tokyo preparation, strategic and operational planning, nomination policies and funding. As there are so many variables still at this stage, we will continue to work hard in adapting these plans and policies and to remain available to our stakeholders during this time.

We thank you all for your understanding and continued support and please feel free to contact the High Performance team directly if you have any questions or queries.