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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
Samsung Super League News : It's Not Over Yet...............
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With
just four days to go the Final of the first Samsung Super League
series in Barcelona it seems that France must be firm favourites
to take the title but, after a season full of surprises, can we
be so sure?
Who
could have predicted at the beginning of the year that the French
would be so dominant, with three outright victories and an exceptionally
consistent run of form? It is difficult enough to put together
a team of horses and riders capable of winning one major championship
but, in the space of 12 months, the French are World Champions
and European Silver medallists, yet still managed to head the
Samsung Super League leaderboard throughout the entire series
– their strength in depth is nothing short of remarkable.
The
Irish too have been surprisingly effective although they have
faltered in the latter stages. They can always be relied upon
to put in their very best effort at the most unlikely times and
few would have expected them to head the line-up at two of the
toughest rounds of the Super League in St Gallen and Aachen. They
were snapping at the heels of the French until things went horribly
wrong for them at the penultimate leg in Rotterdam but, still
in second position and ready to pounce should the long-time leaders
find themselves in trouble, they can never be discounted.
Rotterdam,
of course, created the biggest surprise of all when the home side
won through on a day when most of the main contenders floundered
and the Dutch now find themselves comfortably placed in fourth
behind the British whose victory, also on home soil, bolstered
their position.
If
the French and Irish suffer disaster next Sunday it is still possible
that the British could win the series and their squad which includes
Richard Davenport, Andrew Davies, Scott Smith and Michael Whitaker
will be fully aware of that. Double-points are on offer so the
top three teams are all in contention for the title and the 200,000
Euro winning prize, but it would take a very poor performance
from the French and a third-placing or lower for the Irish to
allow the British take the spoils.
The
Dutch send Gert Jan and Peter Bruggink, Jan Tops, Albert Zoer
and Eric Van der Vleuten but they will be jumping fences a great
deal bigger than the modest track at Rotterdam and will do well
to retain their position on the league table because the Germans,
lying one place further behind in fifth, are sending their big
guns including newly-crowned European individual and team champion
Christian Ahlmann and European individual silver and team gold
medallist Ludger Beerbaum along with Marco Kutscher, Caroline
Muller and Lars Nieberg.
Ludo
Philippaerts will be hoping to break the run of bad luck he has
endured in recent weeks when lining out alongside Jos Lansink,
Stanny Van Paesschen, Jean Claude Vangeenberghe and Maurice Van
Roosebroeck and the Belgians, currently sixth, will be acutely
aware that they need to finish ahead of the remaining two teams.
Malin
Baryard, Maria Gretzer, Helena Lundback, Helena Persson and Royne
Zetterman will be flying the Swedish flag with determination to
finish in front of the Italians but Roberto Arioldi, Bruno and
Vincenzo Chimirri, Roberto Christofoletti and Massimo Grossato
will have been well-primed by Italian Chef d’Equipe Duccio
Bartalucci and will fight long and hard to avoid relegation. The
battle for positions at the bottom of the league table promises
to be just as fierce as it is at the very top when the action
begins on Sunday.
The
French seem to hold all the aces. Florian Angot, Bruno Broucqsault,
Hubert Bourdy, Laurent Goffinet and Christian Hermon have been
designated the task of securing this first-ever Samsung Super
League trophy which Chef d’Equipe, Jean-Maurice Bonneau,
has had clearly in his sights from the very start. The fact that
this is not the most experienced team the French can muster is
an indication of the enviable wealth of talent from which their
selectors can now choose.
The
Irish, on the other hand, having lost the services of Kevin Babington
who has returned to home to America and both Peter Charles and
Billy Twomey due to horse injuries, are considerably weaker. Robert
Splaine has had an exceptional season with his stallion Coolcorron
Cool Diamond but Cian O’Connor’s Waterford Crystal has
not been showing form of late. Lieutenant Shane Carey was on the
winning Irish squad at Gijon recently along with Harry Marshall
who also won the Grand Prix there so they have earned their stripes
along with fifth team member, Marie Burke, but she will be really
thrown in at the deep end if she is called up with her stallion
Chippison as neither horse, nor rider, have ever competed in Nations
Cup at any level before. Despite four Nations Cup wins and qualification
for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, Chef d’Equipe Tommy
Wade is coming under increasing pressure from a variety of quarters
at home and will be under pressure to produce the best possible
result for Ireland this weekend.
The
organisers have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the Samsung
Super League final will be something special and, as host country,
a Spanish team including Christophe Francois, Jesus Garmedia Echevarria,
Rutherford Latham, Cayetano Martinez de Irujo and Pascal Levy
join the eight Super League teams at the Real Club de Polo de
Barcelona. It will be a glittering and glamorous occasion in the
city that hosted the much-celebrated Olympic Games in 1992 and
the FEI has ensured that journalists covering the European Eventing
Championships are kept fully up-to-date as a live TV-link will
be provided to the Press Room at Punchestown next Sunday showing
the second round of the competition.
Barcelona
promises to provide a nail-biting finale and none will be watching
the competition closer than the Swiss, the current leaders of
the ordinary Samsung Nations Cup series who are hungry to take
the place of the team that will suffer relegation when finishing
last on the Samsung Super League leaderboard after this final
leg of the series which has brought Nations Cup show jumping to
a whole new level…
The
website for the SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE FINAL IN BARCELONA is www.csiobarcelona.com.
SAMSUNG
SUPER LEAGUE LEADERBOARD
1.
France – 52.30 points
2.
Ireland – 41.75 points
3.
Great Britain – 36.00 points
4.
Holland – 25.00 points
5.
Germany – 23.75 points
6.
Belgium – 18.50 points
7.
Sweden – 16.30 points
8.
Italy – 13.80 points.
SAMSUNG
SUPER LEAGUE – NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!
EIGHT
SUPER TEAMS, EIGHT SUPER VENUES BUT ONLY ONE SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE
TITLE!
You
can access all the latest Samsung Super League news and information
on website www.samsungsuperleague.com and don’t forget that
Biographies on all Riders competing in the series are available
at http://bios.horsesport.org.
Want
to know more? You can check the full rules for the Samsung Super
League Series on the FEI website, section reference – rules
http://www.horsesport.org/fei/reference_03/ref_03_02.html.
The
Samsung Super League consists of the eight most prestigious horse
shows at which the world’s eight best national teams compare
their merit. The Super League is connected to the Samsung Nations
Cup Series through a promotion/relegation system at the end of
each season.
Samsung
Electronics, one of the world’s largest electronics companies,
is committed to supporting international sporting events thereby
returning corporate profits to the public and working towards
a more harmonious and equitable society.
www.horsesport.org
.
