Drink-drive ban for Olympic hopeful Oliver Townend
An Olympic hopeful from Shropshire who has been banned from driving for two years after admitting being drunk behind the wheel has admitted he made a mistake.
An Olympic hopeful from Shropshire who has been banned from driving for two years after admitting being drunk behind the wheel has admitted he made a mistake.
Top horse trials competitor Oliver Townend, 29, from Ellesmere, was nearly twice the drink-drive limit when stopped by police in his open-top Mercedes on the B5068 in Dudleston Heath on May 3.
But he said he believed the incident would have no bearing on his medal hopes at the London 2012 Games – as he does not expect to be picked for the British Olympic team anyway.
He said he has had to sell his best horses to fund his business – but pledged to continue competing and added he was confident about his prospects of taking part in the Olympics in 2016.
He added he did not expect his conviction to affect his lottery funding.
Mr Townend competes about four times a week and transports horses all over the UK and Europe from Gadlas Farm, Ellesmere.
In 2009 he won the Badminton and Burghley Horse Trial and was ranked in the top 16 in the world in 2010.
Mr Townend said: "My horse goes to Tattersalls next week where the selectors will watch, I'll be an outsider because I have had to sell a lot of horses in the last few years to fund my career.
"You work towards things like this all your life, as soon as you start riding, but it is not going to happen for me this year. I would love to be at the Olympics and it is a dream but I live in the real world and there is no point in having the best horses and nowhere to live.
"I am only 29 though, there are competitors that are 45, 51 and 56 years-old out there. Hopefully I will be at the next one.
"This is not going to affect the way I ride horses. From a logistics point of view it is a pain but there are ways around it, we have HGV drivers that work for us, things have to carry on.
"It was a mistake, simple as that."
He pleaded guilty to drink-driving at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court on Monday. He had 61 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit is 35.
He was ordered to pay a £110 fine, £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
