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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
FEI
World Cup Jumping : Pessoa Makes It A Double In Paris................
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Rodrigo
Pessoa galloped away with his second victory in the FEI World
Cup 2003/2004 series in Paris-Bercy tonight and rocketed from
equal-11th position to take over runner-up spot on the leaderboard
with just two more qualifying rounds remaining before the Final
in Milan next month.
"I
was lucky to be last in the jump-off" the Brazilian rider
said afterwards, "I could see the others go first and that’s
always a big advantage – it minimises the amount of work
I have to do" he added.
He
had the best of the draw in both rounds of the competition after
sharing victory with Patrice Deleveau in Friday’s Preliminary
competition and was clearly on form at the French fixture when
placed consistently on each day of the show.
Only
six riders found the key to French course-designer Serge Houtmann’s
13-fence track in the FEI World Cup qualifier which was sponsored
by Grand Prix Rolex. With 33,000 Euro going to the winner there
was a lot at stake along with those valuable FEI World Cup points,
but the upright coming out of the tricky combination at fence
five and the oxers at fences three and seven which had to be jumped
off a wide bend caught out a good number of runners with a total
of 15 starters returning home with a frustrating four faults on
the board to leave them all sharing seventh position and collecting
just 555 Euros for their efforts.
Included
in this group was German ace Ludger Beerbaum who is struggling
to make any real impression on this series and the home side’s
Eugenie Angot who took everyone by surprise when heading the line-up
at the previous leg in Vigo, Spain.
Switzerland’s
Markus Fuchs, back in action again after resting the leg which
has been giving him some considerable cause for concern in recent
months, was amongst the bunch of five riders who collected eight
faults but, first into the ring in the opening round, Malin Baryard
was forced to retire with H&M Butterfly Flip.
The
Swedish star took a very heavy fall in the warm-up arena on Friday
and was suffering such pain in her shoulder that she just rode
into the ring and then left again in the Preliminary competition,
and today the discomfort was still so significant that she decided
to abandon her tour of the track at an early stage.
Jean-Marc
Nicolas also suffered a back-injury on Friday but the Frenchman
carried the hopes of the Parisian crowd into the six-horse jump-off
after making easy work of the first-round track. A single mistake
at his second attempt saw him set the early target at four faults
in 41.57 seconds but a smart clear from 2002 FEI World Cup Champion
Otto Becker and Dobel’s Fiala put Germany out in front.
Belgium’s
Ludo Philippaerts and Parco raised the temperature however when
shaving almost a second off Becker’s time as they crossed
the line without penalty in 37.52 seconds and when the other two
German contenders Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst (Diamonds Daylight)
and Marcus Ehning (For Pleasure) faulted once, Ludo was still
in control until Rodrigo cantered into the ring.
When
the Brazilian rider says Baloubet du Rouet is "in good form,
in very good form" then the other riders have to take note,
and as Pessoa increased the pressure the 15 year old stallion
simply switched into a cruise mode that was always going to bring
them home quicker than the rest. When asked afterward how he planned
his course so that he would cut almost one second off Ludo’s
target to clinch the win Rodrigo replied "I just went a little
faster everywhere and when the horse is in this kind of form I
know I can do it. As it happened the design of the jump-off course
was good for me – it suited my horse" he said.
Ludo
may have been disappointed at having to settle for second place
but this result was good enough to promote him from ninth to pole
position on the leaderboard with Rodrigo in second while former
joint-leaders Jos Lansink and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum have
been pushed down to third.
Just
two more qualifying rounds remain – at s’Hertogenbosch
in Holland in three weeks’ time and in Gothenberg, Sweden
early next month. Qualification is still within reach for many
of those outside the current top-20 but it’s time to pull
out all the stops as the heat is turned up at the Dutch fixture.
RESULT:
1, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 0/0 36.66; 2, Parco
(Ludo Philippaerts) Bel 0/0 37.52; 3, Dobel’s Fiala (Otto
Becker) Ger 0/38.23; 4, For Pleasure (Marcus Ehning) Ger 0/4 39.53;
5, JPC Modesto Equifoam (Jean Marc Nicolas) Fra 0/4 41.57; 6,
Diamonds Daylight (Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst) Ger 0/4 43.74;
equal 7, Querly Chin (Christophe Barbeau) Sui, Eurocommerce Montreal
(Wim Schroder) Ned, VDL Groep Eve des Etisses (Hubert Bourdy)
Fra, Cyrenaika FRH (Philippe Leoni) Fra, Dileme de Cephe (Bruno
Broucqsault) Fra, Quibell (Jessica Kurten) Irl, Hofgut Liederbach’s
Abrisca (Pia-Luise Aufrecht) Ger, Fidji D’Evordes (Robert
Breul) Fra, Luc (Richard Davenport) GB, Envoye Special (Patrice
Deleveau) Fra, Quilano de Kalvarie (Michel Hecart) Fra, Cigale
du Tallis (Eugenie Angot) Fra, Lauriston (Peter Wylde) USA, Goldfever
(Ludger Beerbaum) Ger, Equest Carnute (Thomas Velin) Den 4 faults;
22, ET Royal Volo (Tony Andre Hansen) Nor 5 faults; 23, Cinderella
(Maria Gretzer) Swe, Le Coup C (Maurice Van Roosbroeck) Bel, Pro
Pilot 11 (Edouard Couperie) Fra, Portofino (Michael Whitaker)
GB, La Toya (Markus Fuchs) Sui 8 faults; 28, VDL Groep Roofs (Jan
Tops) Ned, Meurer’s Le Patron (Toni Hassmann) Ger, Marius
Claudius (Robert Smith) GB, Rockmount Flight (Gerfried Puck) Aut,
Galet D’Auzay (Michel Robert) Fra 12 faults; 33, H&M
Butterfly Flip (Malin Baryard) Swe, VDL Groep Innovation (Steve
Guerdat) Sui, Taylor Made (Gianni Govoni) Ita Ret.<ep> hAh
FEI
WORLD CUP JUMPING LEADERBOARD AFTER ROUND 12 IN PARIS-BERCY:
Ludo
Philippaerts - 63
Rodrigo Pessoa - 58
Jos Lansink, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum - 57
Thomas Velin - 56
Helena Weinberg - 53
Otto Becker, Toni Hassmann - 52
Eric Van der Vleuten - 51
Marco Kutscher, Marcus Ehning - 50.
12. Michael Whitaker - 49
Rolf-Goran
Bengtsson - 46.
Hubert Bourdy - 43
Peter Wylde - 42
Bruno Broucqsault, Christophe Barbeau - 40.
18. Wim Schroder - 39
Pia-Luise
Aufrecht, Jeroen Dubbeldam - 37.
All results from Paris-Bercy are available on Sports Computer
Graphics website: www.scg-nl.nl and at www.paris-horse-show.com.
The
next leg of the series takes place in s’Hertogenbosch, The
Netherlands on 28 March.
2003/2004
FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING SERIES – CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
1,
Helsinki - 19 October; 2, Oslo - 26 October; 3, Verona - 9 November;
4, Berlin - 16 November; 5, Geneva - 7 December; 6, Olympia, London
- 21 December; 7, Mechelen - 30 December; 8, Leipzig - 25 January;
9, Amsterdam - 1 February; 10, Bordeaux - 7 February; 11, Vigo
- 14 February; 12, Paris - 6 March; 13, s'Hertogenbosch - 28 March;
14, Gothenburg - 11 April. Final in Milan - 21-25 April.
BIOGRAPHIES on riders competing in the FEI World Cup series are
available at http://bios.horsesport.org.
YOU
CAN DOWNLOAD THE NEWLY REVISED RULES for the World Cup for Jumping
Riders from FEI website: www.horsesport.org.
FEI
World Cup jumping has entered its 26th year. The series, created
in 1978, today comprises 12 leagues on all continents. The best
riders from over 100 World Cup preliminary competitions will qualify
for the Final in Milan (ITA) from 21 to 25 April 2004. The title-holder
is Markus Ehning (GER). The Federation Equestre Internationale
(FEI), founded in 1921, is the international body governing equestrian
sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
and includes 130 National Federations.
Equestrian
sport has been on the Olympic programme since 1912 with three
disciplines - Jumping, Dressage and Eventing. It is one of the
very few sports in which men and women compete on equal terms.
It is also the only sport which involves two athletes - horse
and rider - and the FEI has relentlessly concerned itself with
the welfare of the horse.
www.horsesport.org
.
