NINE riders will spearhead Bahrain's Royal Endurance Team at the CERA Endurance Challenge starting today in Dillingen Town, Germany.

Competition will be held in three sections - 90km, 120km and 160km - and is open to seniors and juniors.

The 160km ride is set to take place today while both the 90km and 120km sections will be held tomorrow.

The majority of the Bahraini riders will participate in today's 160km ride, which gets underway at 5am (Bahrain time), with six members in the fray.

They are Jaffer Mirza, Ahmed Abdulla, Raed Mahmood, Abdulrahman Al Saad, Ahmed Janahi and Mohammed Al Thawadi.

In tomorrow's 120km ride, starting at 7am, veteran Bahrainis Ghazi Al Dossary and Yousef Taher will compete.

Abdulrahman Al Zayed will be the only Bahraini representative in the 90km ride, which also commences at 7am.

Bahrain's participation is in line with the directives of team leader Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and backed by Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The event will be the third for the Royal Endurance team during their camp in Europe, having taken part in the Bahrain Dukeries Ride held in the UK on May 30, which was followed by the Rambouillet Endurance Horseride Championship near Paris.

In the Bahrain Dukeries Ride, Raed Mahmood was overall champion in the 120-kilometre section while Shaikh Nasser finished third.

Bahrain's impressive streak continued in France where Mirza steered French horse Raimie De Bozouls to a second-place finish in the Rambouillet Championship on June 7 at the Forest of Rambouillet.

The Bahraini team's European training camp is to prepare for this year's FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 in Kentucky Horse Park, US, from September 25 to October 10.