Horses - Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) News - September 2001 - Equiworld

Federation Equestre Internationale News

4 September 2001

- FEI Gandini World Jumping Riders Rankings
- FEI BCM World Dressage Riders Rankings
- Eventing new Olympic format tested in Burghley
- WEG 2002 Test events
- EU Eventing Champ. For Young Riders
- SNC update
- Eventing C. Meeting
- Pan Am Endurance Champ.
- FEI Endurance Forum
- Seminars for advance officials in Endurance
- In Memoriam

FEI GANDINI WORLD JUMPING RIDERS RANKINGS: SIMON BACK IN THE TOP 10

The Top 10 riders of the FEI Gandini World Jumping Riders Rankings, as per 31 August, are automatically qualified to participate in the 1st part of the new World Cup season of the Western-European League.

The gap between the leader of the rankings, Ludger Beerbaum, and his runners-up is not diminishing a lot. Ludo Philippaerts stole 3rd place from Lars Nieberg, who is now 4th. Jos Lansink moved up two places and is now 8th with 1493 points. About 60 points behind him we find Hugo Simon, who punctually made it to the Top 10 to be automatically qualified for the new World Cup season. His 140 points won at CSI-A Valkenswaard and Redefin fairly compensated his 120 points of August 2000 to be dropped. That was not the case of Michael Whitaker, who was losing 145 points from last year and only gained 52.5 this August with his 4th place in a tie at Hickstead Derby, and consequently fell out of the Top 10. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson makes a jump up in the rankings and is now 12th, thanks to his 325 points earned in Valkenswaard and Moscow:. Marc Van Dijck also makes a spectacular move up from 24th to 15th place.

There are now 24 riders with more than 1000 points compared to only 20 last month.

FEI / BCM WORLD DRESSSAGE RANKINGS

Slight change in Top 10: Lars Petersen and Heike Kemmer exchange places (respectively 5th and 6th). The biggest movement comes from Spanish rider Rafael Soto Andrade, who makes a remarkable progression from 17th to 11th place, thanks to his 5th position (77.75%) in the Kür at the European Championship in Verden.

EVENTING NEW OLYMPIC FORMAT TESTED IN BURGHLEY (GBR)

A record crowd cheered last Sunday the winners of the 2001 Burghley Pedigree Horse Trials (CCI****), traditionally hosted on the first week end of September in Burghley (Great Britain:place>:country-region>). Event director and FEI Eventing Committee member Bill Henson offered the FEI to run this years event with the Olympic format according to the FEI Eventing Committees proposal for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. An unofficial team competition was run as part of the trials and was won by Great Britain:place>:country-region> (1) composed by Mary King, Pippa Funell, William Fox Pitt, Vere Phillipps and Graham Law. The very successful competition was won by the Kiwi trio formed by current World Champion Blyth Tait, winner on Ready Teddy, last years winning combination Andrew Nicholson on Mr Smiffy, and Daniel Jocelyn on Silence who scored an impressive third place.

The new format consists in running two separate show jumping competition after the cross country in order to determine the team classification, with the 25 best going into the final show jumping test (run on Sunday afternoon) for the individual results. The intention is for this formula to provide the best overall horse and rider combination result. Sundays show jumping test was followed with excitement by the huge public, also because it was evident that some riders would improve their performance through the final jumping test. Andrew Nicholson, who had dropped from first to third place in the first jumping round, improved his result by scoring a clear round in the final. On the other side Mary King on King Solomon III (Great Britain:place>:country-region>), who was third after the morning jumping test, dropped to fourth after she had two fences down in the final round. I am not against the proposed Olympic formula commented King in the final press conference My horse simply did not jump as well as he did in the first one.

The Chairman of the Eventing Committee, Wayne Roycroft, expressed his appreciation to Bill Henson for not only putting on this important event despite the difficult situation of renewed occurrence of the Foot and Mouth disease, but for offering the FEI the opportunity to test this format in one of world's major event. "The results today will give the Eventing Committee confidence to proceed with finalizing the format for Athens and to secure the two sets of medals on two separate tests which will reflect a team result and from that result the best combination in the world compete for the individual title, as shown in Burghley."

Complete results on www.burghley.co.uk

WEG 2002 TEST EVENTS IN JEREZ:

In order to test the competition venues and the staff , and to further improve the standard of next years event, WEG 2002 Organizing Committee has decided to run two Test Events: an International Driving competition (CAI-A) and an International Three Day Event (CCI**). Test Events will be a real test for the two competition venues: Chapin and Garapillos.

First of the two scheduled Test Events will be the International Driving Competition that will take place from 14th to 16th September. Competitors from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland have announced their participation, as well as many others official delegations from National Federations all around the world.

Riders from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland are expected to take part in the International Eventing Competition (CCI**) that will take place from 28th to 30th September. As for the driving test event this will be a priceless occasion to test venues and 'tune' the organization, as well as an ideal moment for the officials to get a chance to work together before WEG.

Jerez 2002 WEG Media Department has put in place a working plan for Test Events which includes the setting up of basic media facilities, as well as a full assistance for the attending media. Media representative wishing to attend the Test event should contact Lucia Montanarella, Jerez 2002 WEG International Press Officer, e-mail: media@jerez2002weg.com, phone + 39 335 6165415

Visit www.jerez2002weg.com

EUROPEAN EVENTING CHAMPIONSHIP FOR YOUNG RIDERS IN WAREGEM (BEL)

The European Eventing Championship for Young Riders is organised for the second time by the 'Internationale Military Waregem ' from 5 to 9 September 2001.

Waregem is known for its famous race course and the Steeple Chase of Flanders. The Dressage, Steeple Chase and Show Jumping final will take place on this race course. The cross country will be held in the park of Hemsrode Castle. The cross country is recognised for being of a high level and will be demanding both in terms of speed and obstacles.

The competition starts on Wednesday, 5 September with the horse inspection. The Dressage will take place on Thursday and Friday, 6-7 September. Cross country will be on Saturday, 8 September and the Jumping test and the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, 9 September. The Belgian Championship for Seniors and a CIC**, CIC* and CNC* will be held in conjunction with the Young Riders Championship. 30.000 spectators are expected.

More information on www.equibel.be

SAMSUNG NATIONS CUPS UPDATE

France rocketed up from fifth to second position on the 2000/2001 Samsung Nations Cup leader board after a superb victory on 2 September 2001: in the drama-filled 24th leg of the series in Rotterdam, Holland:

The Netherlands need six points or more to oust the Swiss from sixth place on the Samsung leader board if they are to qualify for the Samsung World Final later this month but they showed no improvement in the rankings after today's competition and there was much discussion in the Dutch camp about the possibility of sending a team to Sofia in Bulgaria for the last qualifying round of the season in two weeks time.

That may have to be an option if they do not fare well at the penultimate leg of the series which takes place in Spruce Meadows, Calgary: next Friday.

Germany: still leads the standings with 62 points; followed by France: 53 points. Italy goes down to 3rd place with 51 points. Fourth, 5th and 6th are Ireland:, Belgium: and Switzerland: 41.

For further information about the Samsung Nations Cup Series or other sports marketing activities, visit http://www.samsungnationscup.com
results and rankings on http://www.horsesport.org/fei/consult/consult_02/con_02_01.html

Eventing Committee Meeting In Belo Horizonte (BRA.)

The Eventing Committee met for the 2nd time of the year in Belo Horizonte (BRA) after the very successful South American Eventing Championships in July 2001.

The Committee had two full meeting days to consider the concerns related to the future of the sport and its consequences. As Eventing is at a turning point in its development, it was appreciated that the Open Forums organised to date (Lexington (USA) April 2001, Luhmühlen (GER) July 2001 and Belo Horizonte (BRA) July 2001) had been very fruitful and enabled the Committee to progress in the thinking process to finalize the Working statement.

The Committee worked on the points to finalize the report emanating from the initial working statement on the future of the sport that will be presented to the FEI Executive Board on 25 September and the FEI Bureau in November 2001. This report will be published on the FEI website and sent to national federations for information as the Eventing Committee's proposal mid-September.

In connection with the proposals for the Working statement, the Committee reviewed the Olympic Eventing Format and after the very successful experience in Belo Horizonte:place>:City> of running two Show Jumping competitions the day after the Cross Country. The 1st competition determined the team classification and the second competition determined the Individual winner. The Committee decided to try this format again at CCI**** Burghley (GBR) 30 August 2 September 2001 and allow the GER NF to experiment a different format at CCIO*** Bonn Rodderberg (GER) end September. A final decision will be made after these 2 events have taken place. It was also agreed to propose a new team concept consisting of teams of 5 Members of which 3 results would count for the team result. It was felt that these numbers would be more adapted to the specific discipline of Eventing.

The Committee also reviewed a new Qualification procedure integrating all the concerns which have been raised in the past months. This new procedure will be published in the near future and will be based on an overall qualification result by the rider and the horse on the Dressage, Cross Country and Jumping results and will be implemented 1st January 2002

In regard to the FEI World Event Rider rankings, the point system will remain unchanged for the 2001 Rankings with the exception of lining the points allocated for a CCIO of a certain level up with the CCI of the same level. (To date the points allocated for CCIOs were the same as for a CCI of a higher level.) A new point system taking into account the number of starters at the events will be developed for implementation in 2002.

An Eventing Rules Revision Sub-Committee was formed and is chaired by the former Chairman of the Eventing Committee, Mr Hugh Thomas (GBR) in order to rewrite the Rules for Eventing in a more consistent format, taking into account all the modifications necessitated by the new format of the Eventing Competitions and Safety aspects.

The 2002 Dressage Tests were reviewed and a set of new Dressage tests for all three Categories of CICs developed by Mr Jack Le Goff were finalized and would be available with the new set of CCI Dressage Tests end October 2001.

The next meeting of the Eventing Committee will take place in Pau (FRA) during the European Eventing Championships 11-12 October 2001. Two additional Open Forums will be organised, in Pau on Thursday 12 October and in Adelaide (AUS) in conjunction with the CCI**** on 1 November 2001.

NEWS FROM THE USA PAN AM ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

USA Equestrian (formerly AHSA) announced the results of the 2001 FEI Pan American Endurance Championship, which took place at Green:Place Mountain Horse Association: Equestrian Center, South Woodstock, VT: on August 25, 2001. There were 87 starters and 58 finishers over the 160 km course which traversed the countryside of central Vermont:.

Individual:
Gold: Heather Bergantz (Crystals Charm); time 10:39
Silver: Melissa Crain (Charbiel); time 11:00
Bronze: Rita Swift (Just Cass); time 11:48:time

Team:
Gold: USA East: Brenda Baird (Bells Snitzel); Time -14:24.03, Stagg Newman (Jayel Super); 11:48.16, Dinah Rojek (Phoenix) (pull), Meg Sleeper (Shyrocco Troilus); 12:12.04
Team Total: 38:24.23
Silver: Central: Shelley Bridges (Windswift Pharrah); 12:41.45, Roberta Harms (Sha-Win); 13:06.21, Tracy Webb-Hoskins (Flight Leader); 14:14.53, Janice Worthington (LM Mastermind); 16:04.33
Team Total: 40:02.59
Bronze: Pacific North: Marie Mallon (Zahin Al-Din); 16:00.33, Dennis Summers (Raymond Blur); 14:14.12, Karen Vilander (NYR Crown Royal); 13:45.24, Jazon Wonders (Ravi Das); 13:45.23
Team Total:41:44.59

Best Condition - Crystals Charm.

FEI ENDURANCE FOURM IN VERMONT (USA)

A very successful forum was held in conjunction with the FEI Pan American Endurance Championships in Vermont (USA). Over 100 endurance riders and officials attended the forum organised by USA Equestrian (USA NF) and presented by FEI Assistant Secretary General Michael Stone.

The main topic of the forum was the recent introduction of a Star system for FEI Endurance events. This system classifies international rides into 4 star levels with a variety of criteria for each. This has caused considerable controversy in the US due to the different nature of Endurance courses in America.

The forum addressed this issue directly and proposals developed by the US Endurance community to solve the difficulties were welcomed by the Assistant Secretary General and will be put to the FEI Endurance Committee at its next meeting in September.

Other issues covered were changes to the format of Endurance and the difficulties experienced by organisers in the US in putting on FEI Rides.

SEMINAR FOR ADVANCE OFFICIALS IN ENDURANCE (USA)

The Vice Chairman of the FEI Endurance Committee Prof. Jerry Gillespie assisted by FEI Assistant Secretary General, gave a seminar for advanced officials on 20 and 21 August 2001, prior to the FEI Pan American Endurance Championships in Vermont (USA).

Forty-six of the top officials from the Americas attended the two-day course, which was designed to continue the development of the leading Endurance officials and to ensure a worldwide consistency in the application of FEI Rules and Regulations. FEI Endurance rides have grown from 43 in 1998 to over 130 this year and the need for officials has grown accordingly.

IN MEMORIAM

Klaus Wagner, four-time Olympic Eventing rider for Germany, died on 16 August 2001, aged 79. Wagner, who was also very successful as a breeder and trainer, rode in the 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1968 Olympic Games, winning two team silver medals in 1952 and 1956. In 1972, aged 50, Wagner was reserve rider. At the second European Eventing Championship in 1954 in Basel (SUI), Wagner was a member of the German silver medal team.

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