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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
3 April
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WORLD
CUP DRESSAGE FINAL
RECORD
BREAKING VICTORY FOR ULLA SALZGEBER
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’.
Complete
results on www.goteborghorseshow.com
FEI
BCM DRESSAGE RIDERS WORLD RANKINGS
Ull
Salzgeber undisputed World No 1
With
an increased number of points (80.338 pts), the World Cup Champion
Ulla Salzgeber (GER) is the undisputed leader of the FEI/BCM World
Dressage Rankings.
1996
Olympic champion and 1998 World champion Isabell Werth (GER) went
up four places from 10th to 6th rank with 74.972 points.
Rafael
Soto Andrade is the second Spanish rider to enter the Top Ten
after Beatriz Ferrer Salat. He didn’t improve his points
but took advantage of Lars Petersen’s (DEN) lowered score
of 73.933, which kicked him off the Top Ten (from 8th to 13th
place).
Complete
rankings on the FEI website www.horsesport.org section consult/results/dressage
WORLD
CUP FINAL JUMPING IN LAS VEGAS
STARTING
FIELD
42
riders from 16 countries have qualified to compete at the World
Cup Final to be held from 16 to 20 April in Las Vegas, NV (USA).
The
best riders of the world qualified from 12 leagues over the past
year. USA with 14 and Germany with 10 have the greatest numbers
of competitors.
WESTERN
EUROPE - 20 qualified
BEL
Ludo Philippaerts
BRA
Rodrigo Pessoa
DEN
Thomas Velin
FRA
Edouard Couperie
GBR
Robert Smith
GER
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum
GER
Lars Nieberg
GER
Markus Ehning
GER
Ludger Beerbaum
GER
Markus Merschformann
GER
Toni Hassmann
GER
Christian Ahlmann
GER
Otto Becker
GER
Sören von Rönen
GER
Franke Sloothaak
IRL
Trevor Coyle
NED
Gerco Schröder
NED
Jan Tops
NED
Eric van der Vleuten
SUI
Markus Fuchs
USA-EAST
COAST - 8 qualified
USA
Beezie Madden-Patton
USA Candice King
USA Laura Kraut
USA Lauren Hough
USA Leslie Howard
USA Margie Goldstein-Engle
USA McLain Ward
USA
Norman dello Joio
USA-WEST
COAST - 4 qualified
USA
John French
USA
Nicole Shahinian-Simpson
USA
Richard Spooner
USA
Will Simpson
CANADA
- 2 qualified
CAN
Karen Cudmore
CAN
Melissa Brown
CENTRAL
EUROPE- 4 qualified
CZE
Petr Dolezal
CZE
Ales Opatrny
POL
Grzegorz Kubiak
USA
Robert Chelberg
AUSTRALIA
- 1 to come
AUS
Anthony Thomas
NEW
ZEALAND - 1 qualified
NZL
Molly Savill
JAPAN
- 1 qualified
JPN
Ryuma Hirota
WILD
CARD - 1 qualified
USA
Peter Wylde
FEI
GANDINI WORLD JUMPING RIDERS RANKINGS
Good
progression of the US riders
A
few weeks before the World Cup Final, the American riders are
well represented in the Top 20 of the rankings with McLain Ward
at the 12th place (last month 17th), Beezie Madden Patton 13th
(previous rank 23), and Leslie Howard 17th.
Germany
dominates the Top 10 with 6 riders, including of course World
No 1 Ludger Beerbaum who is leading the rankings with 3546 points.
The
Swiss Marcus Fuchs, 2nd of the rankings, has greatly improved
his score (2859 compared to 2577 last month) thanks to the 200
points earned in Göteborg, where he won the World Cup, and
the 75 pts gained in ‘s-Hertogenbosh.
Significant
progression of Robert Smith (GBR), who is now 11th (he was 19th
last month). Smith earned 115 pts in Göteborg, 165 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch,
where he won the Grand Prix and finished second in the World Cup
and about 50 pts in Dortmund. He just earned his ticket to teh
Las Vegas World Cup Final by finishing 18th of the Western European
standings.
WORLD
CUP DRIVING
Freund
renews World Cup Champion title in Göteborg
Germany’s
Michael Freund has renewed his World Cup title in the crowded
Scandinavium arena in Göteborg. After four wins, the World
Champion of 1994 was already certain of his victory, but he was
of course keen on winning all five events. But his fellow countryman
Christoph Sandmann claimed the first place in the last competition.
Australia’s
Boyd Exell finished 2rd in Göteborg and became the vice-World
Cup Champion of this season, ahead of Christoph Sandmann and Mark
Weusthof.
The
Australian driver Boyd Exell set a fast time (83.00 seconds),
but knocked down two cones and lost his chances for the victory.
Michael Freund, the unbeaten winner of this season, was last to
go and gave everything to beat Sandmann’s time (85.50). He
came very close to winning his fifth competition as well, but
a knocked down ball prevented that.
Christoph
Sandmann proved to be strong already during the warm up competition
where he ended on the second place. The silver medal winner of
Jerez de la Frontera started the competition before Freund and
was the only driver who managed to drive a clear and fast course.
Wild
card driver Fredrik Persson drove a fantastic round but had fifteen
penalty points added to his time. His popular fellow countryman
Tomas Eriksson was first to go but the enthusiastic crowd made
such an impression on the double World Champion that he drove
a wrong course and was eliminated. He ended on the fifth place
of the final standings.
www.horsesport.org
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