THE national junior squad will be eying a top 10 finish when they take to the track for the FEI World Endurance Championships for Young Riders and Juniors in Italy next month.
Team manager Mohamad Din Mat said the squad - which is comprised of Muhammad Faris Haikal Hassan Sa'ari, Muhammad Aimin Azfar Nazulki, Nur Qasrina Amani Zakaria and Muhammad Yusuf Luqman Zakaria - will be placing their focus on the team event at San Rossore on September 17-18.
"We recently competed in a series of tournaments in Argentan and Jullianges in France to qualify, which we did, and also prepare for the world juniors," said Din.
"We had utilised new horses which we have leased from their owners in France and will be using the same horses in San Rossore.
"I believe our riders have adjusted well to their horses and have a good understanding with them now.
"Our target in San Rossore will be the team event for the 120 kilometre category and our goal is to place within the top 10 but obviously we will try our best to place higher than that.
"We have to plan our strategy carefully to allow us to have all four riders hit the finish line together. I believe we have a good chance of doing well as we have a talented team of riders."
Qasrina, who was a reserve rider for the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games competition, and Luqman are siblings.
Tournament rules for the world junior meet require the riders to utilise the same horses they qualified on. The team had decided to use horses from France as it would be more convenient to transport them to Italy, as compared to bringing them from Malaysia.