Athina is a 5* Jumping Rider

Well, this month Athina took a giant step on way to Olympic glory. With her husband and their three horses (each), the couple entered the CSI in A Coruña, Spain as 5* participants. This was nothing odd for Doda, but for Athina, it symbolizes a culmination of her rapid progress in the past two years.

On Day 1, the pair competed against each other and some 55-60 other riders for the Azkar trophy, which was worth 20,000 euros. The bar was set at 1.45m.

Doda and the Athina-owned stallion AD Norson triumphed in a faultless third place and added 3,000 euros to the bank. Athina and AD Uceline were also faultless in their performance, finishing in a respectable fourteenth place and bagging 80 euros. Athina also jumped the course with AD Ricardo, and despite accumulating one point for an error, still managed to finish at 21st place, far ahead of Doda and AD Tomboy's four-point 34th place.

Pedro Veniss, one of Doda's Brazilian compatriots, jumped Athina's AD Babouche in the same competition and finished in 37th place with four fault points.

The competition for the NH Hoteles trophy wasn't as glorious, but it wasn't horrible either. Athina and AD Crosshill were hit with ten fault points. Their final ranking was 25th. As for Doda, he and Lady in Blue just missed the prize ranks at tenth place. That was a pity because the 1m50-bar competition was worth 80,000 euros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 2's Trofeo La Caixa (worth 20,000 euros) made up for the small disappointments of Day 1, however. Doda finished the 1m45-bar course in both second and eighth place, bagging a total of 4,600 euros. Athina and Ricardo took tenth place and 100 euros!!!! Athina and Uceline, with 8 fault points, finished 32nd in the pecking order.