The Indian dressage team, comprised of Sudipti Hajela, Divyakriti Singh, Vipul Hriday Chheda, and Anush Agarwalla, lived up to expectations on Tuesday, winning its first-ever gold medal at an Asian Games and the sport’s sole other medal in this category. The Indian quartet was doing well in the selection trials as evidenced by the fact that their results either matched or exceeded those of the medal winners from previous Asian Games. They took the first spot on the podium after accumulating 209.205 percentage points, leaving behind China (204.882%) and Hong Kong (204.852%). It was more about the hue of medal they would win.
The last time the equestrian discipline made an Asian Games appearance for India was in 1986, when the nation won a dressage bronze medal. Dressage judges the horse and rider on how well they execute a set of moves. Each movement receives a score between 0 and 10 (out of 10).
Each rider receives an overall score, and a percentage is calculated from that. The winner of his class is the rider with the greatest percentage. A team’s top three scorers are taken into account to determine the winner.