Latest news with #Burghley
South Wales Argus
5 days ago
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
Major stars and young talent among the defender Burghley entries
The Lincolnshire pair produced the best-ever finishing score – 26.6 – in Burghley's history last autumn, and took their second MARS Badminton title in May, making them clear favourites for back-to-back Burghley victories. Fifty-nine combinations from eight nations are represented, and other top contenders include New Zealand's Tim Price and Vitali, runners-up in 2024 and fresh from an impressive victory in Aachen in July. Tim won Burghley in 2018 and is striving to reach the top of the podium once more on what will be his 20th Burghley start, while no one is hungrier for a first CCI5* triumph than Britain's Harry Meade. Harry became world number one earlier this summer following excellent results at Burghley last year, where he finished third, fourth and 12th on his three rides, and the spring CCI5*s Kentucky and Badminton. Harry is once again planning to ride three horses at Defender Burghley – Annaghmore Valoner, Cavalier Crystal and Et Hop Du Matz. Piggy March (GBR) will be back at Burghley for the first time since her 2022 success, this time with new ride MCS Maverick. There are seven CCI5*-winning riders currently entered. The British contingent are Piggy March, Ros Canter and Ros's Paris Olympics team-mate Laura Collett (Bling), while New Zealand also boast two in Tim Price and Caroline Powell (NZL, High Time V), who scored at Burghley in 2011 and again at Badminton in 2024. Ireland's Austin O'Connor will be high on fans' lists as a potential winner with his 2023 Maryland CCI5* hero Colorado Blue, while the CCI5* victors are rounded off by Switzerland's Felix Vogg (Cartania). Fourteen riders will be making their Burghley debuts, and among them are the newly crowned British Open Champions Katie Magee (GBR) and Treworra. The pair were 11th at Badminton this year and will hope their run of great results extends to Burghley. This is a first Burghley for Christoph Wahler, who was part of German's gold medal-winning team at the 2022 World Championships. He will ride D'Accord FRH, on whom he was seventh at Badminton this year, and is the first German to compete at Burghley since the great multiple Olympic gold medal winner Michael Jung in 2018. Lucy Latta (IRE) is another Burghley debutante who could shine; the talented amateur rider has entered her Badminton 2024 runner-up RCA Patron Saint. The quality of this year's Burghley entry is undoubted; those vying for a podium place also include young British riders Emily King (Valmy Biats) and Bubby Upton (Magic Roundabout IV), and it is the second-highest rated field in the past 10 years, according to Irish statistics company EquiRatings. Event Director Martyn Johnson said: 'I'm delighted that once again we have great entries for Defender Burghley. While there are some clear favourites, I think it is an open field featuring some superb cross-country horses, and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the spectacular setting of Burghley Park in three weeks' time.' Defender Burghley entries close on Friday, 15 August, and the draw will take place early next week. To see which horses and riders are entered for Defender Burghley 2025, please visit A full preview of this year's cross-country track will feature shortly on Burghley TV, which will broadcast every moment of the action from Defender Burghley 2025. To find out more about Defender Burghley (4-7 September 2025) and to purchase tickets and hospitality, visit
Wales Online
5 days ago
- Sport
- Wales Online
Burghley Horse Trials course designer promises different feel as course reversed for first time in eight years
Burghley Horse Trials course designer promises different feel as course reversed for first time in eight years Di Grazia has also previously designed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic course Premier course designer Derek di Grazia is excited by the newly-reversed course at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials as it changes direction for the first time in eight years. The Californian, who also set the course for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, made the decision to reverse the cross-country course for the world-renowned CCI5* eventing competition at Burghley House in September. He is anticipating fresh excitement as horse and rider will travel in the direction for the first time since 2017, presenting fresh challenges and approaches to the famous jumps. 'For years it has been run the other way, so it was due for a change,' he explained. 'This is one of the big ways you can make a really significant change that totally gives a really different feel to the course. 'It's really good for the competitors to have something quite different to appeal the ride.' The cross-country, taking place on the Saturday of the event that runs from 4-7 September, represents the second of three disciplines that will be contested over the three-day event. Alongside show jumping and dressage, the winner will be crowned from their performance in all three disciplines making it the ultimate equestrian event. And there will be further anticipation for the 2025 iteration owing to Di Grazia's changes. Article continues below "For people that have been following Burghley for years, the reversing of the course this year will be exciting because it will show the way the track can be ridden in the opposite direction,' he added. "The terrain will come up differently, you'll have new jumps in different locations and for the riders there definitely is going to be a different strategy in terms of the best way to ride the course because the iconic features that used to be at one end of the course will now be in a different part of the course. "So how you meet those different features will be different and the fences placed at those locations will be different to if they were placed earlier or later in the course.' (L to R) Derek di Grazia (Burghley's Cross-country course-designer), Oliver Townend (Three times winner of Burghley), Simon Grieve (Local Rider) and Martyn Jonson (Events Director) during the Media breakfast and Cross-Country Preview for the 2025 Defender Burghley Horse Trials in the grounds of Burghley House near Stamford in Lincolnshire in the UK on 11th August 2025 (Image: © Nixonphoto) While familiar features like Winner's Avenue ensure Burghley retains its familiar uniqueness, Di Grazia was keen to stress it is the overall feel of a course that makes it special rather than individual jumps. 'Burghley has many iconic fences that have been here for so many years so we always try and include those in the course,' he said. 'To highlight one over the other is not really the case because when you do a course it's not necessarily about one jump, it's about the collection of all the jumps and how they ride as a whole.' And with the likes of former winners and Olympic gold medallists Oliver Townend and Ros Canter expected to compete come September, the Defender Burghley Horse Trials are set to deliver another memorable occasion. For Di Grazia, it is the remarkable history and setting that keeps Burghley at the pinnacle of the eventing calendar. Article continues below 'Burghley is special because there is so much history here. It's been a 5* probably the second-longest of any of the 5*s,' he said. 'The setting here at Burghley, the terrain at Burghley is known worldwide for anyone who has ever watched the competition but also the competitors because competitors want to come here and compete because it is one of those very special events on the calendar. 'It takes a special horse to be able to compete here at Burghley.' Defender Burghley Horse Trials (4-7 September 2025) has been a major international sporting and social event for over 50 years. It attracts the world's top equestrians and is attended by vast and enthusiastic crowds. For more information visit
The Independent
18-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
'Chariots of Fire' runner connects with IOC candidate Coe through England's Olympic history
Only one Englishman who had a great Olympic career ever stood for the IOC presidency before Sebastian Coe, and Coe will try to win that job Thursday. The previous candidate lost his election — in 1952 — yet his Olympic achievements spanned the 1920s to the 1980s, including 48 years as a member of the International Olympic Committee. David Burghley ran at the 1924 Paris Olympics and was portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie of the games, Chariots of Fire, and in 1968 he presented medals to Tommie Smith and John Carlos seconds before their iconic raised-fist salutes on the podium in Mexico City. Burghley also presented a gold medal to Coe at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when a then 23-year-old track star won the first of back-to-back titles in the 1,500 meters. 'He is a large figure in my life,' Coe said last week before traveling to Greece for the IOC election. 'When I was forging my career we met on a couple of occasions.' The overlap between their respective careers is almost comprehensive. Olympic champion runners. World record holders. Elected members of the British parliament. Organizers of a London Olympics. Presidents of track and field's world governing body. IOC presidential candidate Burghley ran to lead the Olympic body against Avery Brundage of the United States in 1952 in Helsinki. Brundage won a 30-17 vote to become the first, and still only, IOC leader from outside Europe. In 1964, the English aristocrat who had inherited the title of 6th Marquess of Exeter challenged Brundage again in Rome though withdrew before a unanimous vote for the American. Organizing an Olympics Burghley had been elected to lead the world track body then known as the IAAF in 1946 and two years later had overseen organizing the first post-World War II Olympics in London. When the Summer Games returned to London 66 years later, it was because Coe had led the bid to an unexpected win — edging out Paris — then led the project through the entire next seven years. Coe said the commemorative Olympic torch he was given from London was later gifted to his predecessor. 'That sits in the Olympic museum at Burghley House,' he said. 'His family I'm very close to still.' Olympic medals The 16th century stately home about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of London is home to Burghley's memorabilia including his 400-meter hurdles gold medal from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Burghley, the 'Leaping Lord,' had run in the 110 hurdles at Paris where his British teammates Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100 and 400, respectively. Burghley was depicted in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire as the character Lord Lindsay. In 1932, Burghley took silver for Britain in the 4x400 relay in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where 52 years later Coe won his second 1,500 title. Final lap Their paths would cross at one more Olympic gathering after Moscow, at the 1981 Congress in West Germany, were Coe was among the pioneering athlete representatives. They exchanged 'passing pleasantries,' Coe recalled last week, back then in Baden-Baden where Burghley was made an IOC honorary vice president weeks before his death aged 76. Near the site of Ancient Olympia this week, Coe aims to ascend one step higher than perhaps the most eminent of English Olympians to go before him. ___
Associated Press
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
‘Chariots of Fire' runner connects with IOC candidate Coe through England's Olympic history
COSTA NAVARINO, Greece (AP) — Only one Englishman who had a great Olympic career ever stood for the IOC presidency before Sebastian Coe, and Coe will try to win that job Thursday. The previous candidate lost his election — in 1952 — yet his Olympic achievements spanned the 1920s to the 1980s, including 48 years as a member of the International Olympic Committee. David Burghley ran at the 1924 Paris Olympics and was portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie of the games, Chariots of Fire, and in 1968 he presented medals to Tommie Smith and John Carlos seconds before their iconic raised-fist salutes on the podium in Mexico City. Burghley also presented a gold medal to Coe at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when a then 23-year-old track star won the first of back-to-back titles in the 1,500 meters. 'He is a large figure in my life,' Coe said last week before traveling to Greece for the IOC election. 'When I was forging my career we met on a couple of occasions.' The overlap between their respective careers is almost comprehensive. Olympic champion runners. World record holders. Elected members of the British parliament. Organizers of a London Olympics. Presidents of track and field's world governing body. IOC presidential candidate Burghley ran to lead the Olympic body against Avery Brundage of the United States in 1952 in Helsinki. Brundage won a 30-17 vote to become the first, and still only, IOC leader from outside Europe. In 1964, the English aristocrat who had inherited the title of 6th Marquess of Exeter challenged Brundage again in Rome though withdrew before a unanimous vote for the American. Organizing an Olympics Burghley had been elected to lead the world track body then known as the IAAF in 1946 and two years later had overseen organizing the first post-World War II Olympics in London. When the Summer Games returned to London 66 years later, it was because Coe had led the bid to an unexpected win — edging out Paris — then led the project through the entire next seven years. Coe said the commemorative Olympic torch he was given from London was later gifted to his predecessor. 'That sits in the Olympic museum at Burghley House,' he said. 'His family I'm very close to still.' Olympic medals The 16th century stately home about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of London is home to Burghley's memorabilia including his 400-meter hurdles gold medal from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Burghley, the 'Leaping Lord,' had run in the 110 hurdles at Paris where his British teammates Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100 and 400, respectively. Burghley was depicted in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire as the character Lord Lindsay. In 1932, Burghley took silver for Britain in the 4x400 relay in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where 52 years later Coe won his second 1,500 title. Final lap Their paths would cross at one more Olympic gathering after Moscow, at the 1981 Congress in West Germany, were Coe was among the pioneering athlete representatives. They exchanged 'passing pleasantries,' Coe recalled last week, back then in Baden-Baden where Burghley was made an IOC honorary vice president weeks before his death aged 76. Near the site of Ancient Olympia this week, Coe aims to ascend one step higher than perhaps the most eminent of English Olympians to go before him.
