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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
World Cup dressage Final breaking records
By Joep Bartels, World Cup Director
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Ulla
Sallzgeber and her horse Rusty won a record-breaking World Cup Final
in Göteborg, Sweden on March 30. The Grand Prix in the Scandinavium
Sports arena was attended by an audience of almost 5.000, while
the B-final for the lower placed participants by a crowd of 9.000.
The final was sold out with 11.034 tickets sold. It is the first
time that a Dressage World Cup Final is attended by over 25.000
spectators. Eighteen riders from seven nations, - another record
number - competed for prizes 200.000,-- Swiss Francs, including
a high-end Volvo XC 90 for the winner.
For the first time the World Cup was divided in an A- and a B-final.
Eighteen riders competed in the Grand Prix, won by Salzgeber/Rusty
with a 77,40 % score in front of Debbie McDonald from the United
States with Brentina, 72,28 % and Isabell Werth with Anthony from
Germany, 71,60 %. Twelve riders went on to compete in the Kür
to Music for the A-final, six riders competed in the B-final. The
A-final included four riders from Germany, three from the USA, and
one rider each from Switzerland, Great Britain, Russia, Sweden and
the Netherlands. For the first time in World Cup history the judges'
panel of five consisted of different judges in the Grand Prix, the
B-final and the A-final.
The A-final started from zero, the result of the previous Grand
Prix being taken into consideration only to decide the starting
order. The President of the judges in the A-final was Vincenzo Truppa
from Italy. His comment during the press conference afterwards:
' Ulla Salzgeber was a straightforward winner today. All of us had
her in first place '. The winner, who was second during the World
Championships in September 2002, commented that her horse had recovered
very well from a minor illness which had prevented him to be in
top form last year. ' Today my horse performed without mistakes,
as a result of a successful preparation period without any interference",
Ulla Salzgeber said. Second in the final, for a prize money of 20.000,--
Swiss Francs, was Debbie McDonald. With Günter Seidel and George
Williams for the USA on place four and six, this was the biggest
success ever for American dressage. American judge Linda Zang commented:
' on the basis of our success
we would like to bring the 2005 final of the World Cup Dressage
to the United States'.
www.horsesport.org
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