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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
17 September 2003
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ASIA-PACIFIC
EVENTING CHAMPIONSHIP
NEW ZEALAND QUALIFY A TEAM IN EVENTING FOR ATHENS 2004
New Zealand qualified an Eventing Team for the 2004 Olympic Games
in Athens by winning the silver medal at the Asia- Pacific Eventing
Championship 3*. The Championship was organised in Blenheim (GBR)
in conjunction with the CCI 3* from 11 to 14 September and included
11 riders from Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Australian team of Philip Dutton/Nova Top, Sam Griffiths/Private
Colin, Clayton Fredericks/Dara Sass and Bill Levett/Muddy Chuddy
won the gold medal, followed by New Zealand and Japan.
Philip Dutton (AUS) won the individual Gold after having cleared
the cross country with no penalty and having performed a jumping
test without any fence down. He finished the competition with 45.60
points penalty, ahead of Sam Griffiths, who also went clear on the
cross country and the jumping course to end up with a total of 51.40.
Blyth Tait (NZL) earned the bronze, with Welton Envoy. He was in
the lead after the dressage, completed the cross with 4 time faults
but had 3 fences down at the jumping test to finish with 59.00.
The CCI 3* saw the victory of Pippa Funnel (GBR) on Jurassic Rising.
This is her fifth victory from six starts this season.
The beautiful surroundings of Blenheim will host the 2005 European
Eventing Championship.
CIA REIS (USA) WINS PAN AMERICAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Cia Reis of Pennsdale, PA (USA), won the individual Gold Medal at
the 2003 Pan American Endurance Championship which took place on
13 September 2003 in
Trout Lake, WA. A member of the USA East squad, Reis rode Catch
A Wave to the Gold and also the Championship's Best Condition Award.
A member of the US Team that competed in last year's World Equestrian
Games in Jerez de la Frontera, Reis finished the ride time of 9:14.13.
Heather Reynolds of USA Pacific South, the defending Pan Am Gold
Medalist, won the Silver Medal with a time of 9:37:40 on Aleclipse.
Vicki Crance of USA East, won the Bronze Medal on RA Jestic Diamond
in 9:43:13.
The team Gold Medal was won by the USA Pacific North team of Sharon
Westergard on MCM Phantazem "Taz", Pat Murray on CR Flash
Gordon, Michele Roush on PR Tallymark, and former World Champion
Cassandra Schuler on ELD Triton.
The team Silver went to USA Mountain and the Bronze went to Canada
West. Full results of the 2003 Pan American Endurance Championships
are available
on line at www.endurance.net/2003pac
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE
FOUR DAYS TO GO BEFORE THE FINAL TEST !
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, 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 2003, Chef d'Equipe Tommy Wade is
coming under increasing 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!
TOP TEN FINAL IN GENEVA
The FEI Gandini World Jumping Riders Rankings published on 3 November
2003 will decide on the participating field of the Top Ten Final
to be held in Geneva (SUI) on 6 December 2003 at 21.00.
The following World Rankings will be published on 8 December and
include points earned at CSI-W Geneva.
The 3rd Top Ten Final, open to the best 10 riders of the FEI Gandini
World Jumping Riders Rankings will take place in, Geneva on Saturday
6 December 2003. The first two editions of the Top Ten Final saw
the victory of Ludger Beerbaum (GER), with Goldfever in 2001 and
Gladdy'S in 2002.
www.concours-hippique.ch
2nd INTERNATIONAL IPEC COMPETITION IN JOSEFIN (POL)
7-10 August 2003
The competition was held in Aromer a large National Equestrian Centre
in Josefin, 25 km East of Warsaw.
Fifteen competitors representing 6 nations participated (3 from
Croatia, 3 from Finland, 2 from France, 2 from Italy, 1 from Hungary
and 6 from Poland)
The organization was professionally handled Jagoda Maciaszek and
supported by Marta Chilczuk. The atmosphere was very friendly
and relaxed.
All foreign riders rode good quality borrowed horses. Three were
ridden by two riders of different Grades.
The competition was covered by National Polish Television.
THE LIST OF PARTICIPANTS FOR THE FAILTE IRELAND AND IFG EUROPEAN
EVENTING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The field of competitors for European Eventing Championship, that
will take from 18 to September in Punchestown, Ireland, is now
defined. Following the deadline (11th September) for all nations
to confirm the names of their riders (each nation can enter up
to six combinations, Ireland as host nation can enter twelve)
the list of riders is now complete and it includes all the top
European riders that will try to win the 2003 continental titles.
Hot favourite is once again Pippa Funnel (GBR) who just became
the first rider in history to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing
when she rode Primmore's Pride to victory at the Burghley Horse
Trials (GBR). In Punchestown Pippa, who is the current European
champion after having won the last two editions of the continental
championships (Luhumuhlen '99, Pau 2001) will be defending her
title on Walk on Star. Strong contender in this year Eventing
European Championships will be also the current World Champion,
Jean Teulere from France, riding Hobby du Moulin.
15 nations have confirmed their participation either individually
or with a team: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Rumania, Spain,
Switzerland, Sweden.
www.sporthorseshow.com
IN MEMORIAM
Ernst Knappe (SWE) former Senior Vice President of AB Volvo died
on 7 September after a hearth failure. He was 78 years old.
During the 20 years of Volvo's sponsorship of the FEI World Cup
Jumping, Ernst Knappe was, together with Volvo President Pehr
Gyllenhammar, and Volvo's Equestrian Manager Ulf Bergqvist, its
most faithful supporter. The drastic expansion of the World Cup
in the mid to the end eighties was largely due to Ernst Knappe's
support within Volvo. In 1991, he was the first recipient of the
World Cup Gold Medal of Honour.
--
Arthur Schmid, the most faithful and dedicated owner in the history
of Swiss Show Jumping died on 3 September at the age of 87. Arthur
Schmid, a businessman, provided jumping horses for several decides.
Dozens of horses wearing the AS on the saddle cloth were ridden
by Hans Möhr, Bruno Candrian, Urs Fäh, Beat Mändli,
Lesley McNaught, Markus Fuchs and Thomas Fuchs.
--
Silvia Brenes Rojas, 40 years old FEI Steward of Costa Rica, tragically
died on 4 September 2003 when her vehicle plunged over a cliff
in Piedras Negras. Very committed to equestrian sport, Silvia
Brenes officiated as FEI Steward at the recent Pan American Games
in the Dominican Republic.
www.horsesport.org
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