Liu 'satisfied' with dressage first
She may not have advanced to tomorrow's Grand Prix Special, but Liu Lina, the first Chinese rider to compete in an Olympic dressage competition, was satisfied with her performance.
'I feel very proud and very happy to ride for China,' said Liu, 29, whose family lives in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 'I will learn a lot from this. It is very important to my development.'
On Piroschka, Liu rode her test on Wednesday and gained a score of 60.625, placing her 41st after the Grand Prix ended last night. Liu said she was moved by the friends who came to watch her, as well as her mother, Tan Jianhua.
In 2002, Liu (pictured) didn't qualify for Athens, but managed to qualify for Hong Kong. The crowd and giant television screen was intimidating for her horse, and Liu felt that if she had been more relaxed, the performance could have been better.
'Piroschka did very well in passage and piaffe,' Liu said. 'She was a bit nervous at the beginning.'
