BRAZILIAN event rider Marcelo Tosi will leave his Wiltshire base focussed on putting in a top performance for his nation at London 2012.

The 42-year-old, who has spent the last year-and-a-half at Iain Greer’s stables in Marston, is one fifth of the Brazilian team that will be going for glory when the eventing competition kicks off with dressage on Saturday at Greenwich Park.

Tosi, who represented his country at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and Beijing 2008, will ride Greer’s 15-year-old gelding Eleda All Black, known as “Huggy”, and says that he has managed to keep the nerves at bay in the lead up to London.

“We’re all very excited and it’s going to be great to ride in London, where the sport originally comes from,” he said.

“For sure it’s a big competition but I’m not nervous. You have to just think like it’s another competition and do your job.

“In Brazil we are not as far forward in eventing as some of the other countries around the world, so I think a fifth or sixth finish would be great for us. “Getting to London been an important project and I need to thank all of my team and the owner (Greer) for helping me be there.”

For Tosi, London offers a glimpse of the sort of excitement that will be generated when the Games are staged in his homeland in Rio in four years’ time The rider, who was born in the city of Piracicaba, added: “A lot of people are already working on getting the young horses ready for Rio – it’s going to be great to have the Olympics in Brazil.”

Wiltshire are well represented in the eventing, with Little Cheverell-based Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks, plus Badbury’s Andrew Hoy part of Australia’s quintet.

Marlborough-based Andrew Nicholson and Jonelle Richards, who is based in Mildenhall, compete for New Zealand. Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport have ordered South Africa to include rider Alexander Peternell in their Olympic team.

A CAS verdict last Monday ruled that Peternell, who is based at Hinton, west of Chippenham, had met the selection criteria to be chosen ahead of Paul Hart.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) responded by removing Hart from their team, but still did not call up Peternell, although they have now been ordered to do so.

The case is the first to be heard by CAS’ ad hoc division in London, which has been established to deal with matters arising at the Games.

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