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Author: Equestrian GB

Para-dressage rider Georgia Wilson has been shortlisted for the SportsAid One-to-Watch Award which recognises the achievements of up and coming athletes across British sport.

The 23 year-old from North Wales was picked as a reserve for this year’s FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina following a number of good results in the 2018 season which includes three plus 70% scores in Grade II classes at Hartpury, Bishop Burton and Deauville with her five year-old mare, Midnight.

SportsAid’s One-to-Watch Award was launched in 2006 with double Olympic medallist and diving world champion Tom Daley the inaugural winner.

Paralympic champion Hollie Arnold MBE claimed the accolade in 2008 with para-athlete Sally Brown, hockey player Harry Martin, heptathlete Morgan Lake and sprinter Jodie Williams among the previous victors.

Wilson is now in line to join such illustrious company as one of ten nominees selected from around 1,000 rising British stars supported by SportsAid across more than 60 different sports.

Georgia commented; “It was quite a shock to found out that I had been shortlisted. Everything has been a shock this year.

“Without SportsAid I wouldn’t have been able to go to France at the start of the year and all the extra funding helped me compete.

“It has just been a massive help and without it I wouldn’t have been able to achieve as much this year.

Georgia trains alongside her hero and double Paralympic champion Sophie Wells MBE.

With the Paralympics less than two years away, the Grade II rider is hoping to achieve her dreams and compete in Tokyo.

“I wasn’t expecting this to all happen this year because I only got Midnight in April. She’s quite a new horse, so to get this far and achieve so much it was really good,” Georgia, who receives her SportsAid support from ICAP, added.

“I train with Sophie Wells because I look up to her and she is one of my big inspirations. She is a great friend as well and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.

“My dream is to go to the Paralympics and win gold, but next year I want to go to the Europeans on Midnight. If I can achieve as much I have done this year next year, then I should have a good chance of being selected for the Paralympics.

“It would be amazing to be selected. People don’t get those kinds of opportunities very often, so to be selected would be an amazing opportunity.”

The winner of SportsAid’s prestigious One-to-Watch Award will be revealed at the charity’s annual SportsBall, sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada, in London on Thursday 15 November.

Please visit www.sportsaid.org.uk for further information.

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