The national riders handled the pressure well to clinch a top-five finish at the FEI World Endurance Championships for Young Riders and Juniors in Italy on Wednesday.
National riders Faris Haikal Hassan Sa'ari, Aimin Azfar Nazulki and Yusuf Luqman Zakaria finished the120km race in a combined time of 20 hours, three minutes and 33 seconds to finish fifth from 35 nations in the Under-21 team event in San Rossore.
The United Arab Emirates won the title in a time of 14:18:45s, followed by Spain (14:33:03s), Italy (16:44:59s) and Belgium (19:12:37s).
Team manager Mohamad Din Mat said he was pleased to see the team overcome the challenges to achieve their target.
“One of our riders, Nur Qasrina Amani Zakaria had to pull out of the race at the last minute due to an injury suffered by her horse,” said Mohamad yesterday.
“But we are grateful that we still managed to achieve our target of finishing top five.
“All our remaining riders were able to complete the 120km race according to the plan we had set.”
The timing of the top three riders from each nation are selected for the overall team classifications.
The national riders used horses brought in from France for the competition. They had the chance to test the horses in a series of competitions last month in France.