The Olympic Equestrian Events in Hong Kong will have two royals taking part this August - one from Britain and one from Jordan - but they will each have very different roles.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Equestrian Events had already been guaranteed a royal flavour with the attendance of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein in her capacity as President of the International Equestrian Federation. Princess Haya is a former Olympian, having competed for Jordan in the Jumping competitions at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, where she was also nominated as flag-bearer for the Jordanian delegation at the Opening Ceremony.
But now a second royal has been added to the Hong Kong mix following the announcement that world champion Zara Phillips has been named for the British Olympic Eventing team.
Phillips, granddaughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and 12th in line to the throne, was selected to be part of Britain's Athens 2004 squad, but her top horse Toytown went lame and Phillips' Olympic debut was put on hold. The pair went on to claim team and individual gold at the 2005 European championships and then won the world title and team silver in 2006. Another European gold, this time a team medal, was added to Phillips' haul last year.
Zara's mother Princess Anne was on the British Eventing team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, while her father, Mark Phillips, won team gold at the 1972 Munich Games and now coaches the U.S. Eventing team
Now Zara, who celebrated her 27th birthday on 15 May, has been named for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Equestrian Events and she's tipped as one of the red-hot favourites for individual honours in Hong Kong, where she will be going for gold at venues provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
