Olympic challenge begins

The European Dressage Championships and showjumping's Hickstead Derby Meeting will be held simultaneously at the Sussex venue when the competition starts today.

This is the first European Championship to be staged in Britain since 1987 and Britain's mission is to qualify for the Olympic Games.

In order to make Athens, the home team must finish among the two bestqualified teams from Europe in what is an open contest.

Twenty teams have entered and Britain's main rivals for one of these two places are Austria, Finland and Russia.