The first gold of the Rio 216 Para-dressage competition was won by Norway’s Ann Cathrin Lübbe at the Olympic equestrian center on Tuesday (Sept. 13).

In a closely contended Grade III individual test Lübbe, riding Donatello, scored 72.878%, just over 0.7 of a percentage point ahead of Denmark’s Susanne Sunesen on Que Faire. Sweden’s Louise Etzner Jakobsson took the bronze at this, her first Paralympic Games, riding Zernard.

Lübbe is a former gold medalist having won both the individual and freestyle Grade IV titles in Athens 2004, with silvers in those two events in Beijing 2008. She was clearly delighted to be back on top. "Oh, it’s good to be back,” she said. “It was very nice. I worked so hard for it. I’m so pleased that today I was the best and the horse did so well.”

Lübbe’s win was tinged with a level of sadness however as her horse had previously belonged to a student of hers, who was killed in a road accident. “Her parents are here,” she said. “It means everything. It’s so important to me