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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
Magical
Malin Jumps To Glory In Goteborg.........
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Malin
Baryard raised the roof off the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg
today when sweeping to a superb victory in the last qualifying
leg of the 2003/2004 FEI World Cup Jumping season.
In
front of her proud and loud home crowd, the 29 year old rider
from Norrkoping in central Sweden galloped home with H&M Butterfly
Flip to secure maximum points and a total of 350,000 Swedish Kroner
in prizemoney while confirming her place at the series Final which
kicks off in Milan in 10 days time.
Course
designer Olaf Petersen set them a tough first-round track which
Malin described as "tricky and big with a couple of very
difficult turn-backs particularly to the last fence"
but ten horse-and-rider combinations left all the fences intact
to go through to the jump-off.
Americas
Peter Wylde was pathfinder against the clock but left the door
wide open when his 10 year old gelding Melvin collected eight
faults in a slow time and Denmarks Tina Lund left three
fences on the floor with Andante when next into the ring.
Rodrigo
Pessoa, who missed out on the previous qualifying leg in sHertogenbosch
following a nasty fall while competing on the Spanish Sunshine
circuit, has bounced back from his shoulder injury and was in
flying form throughout the weekend. However a single mistake from
Baloubet du Rouet in todays jump-off kept him down the line,
while Germanys Marco Kutscher with Montender who collected
12 faults and Swedens Peter Eriksson with VDL Cardento who
put eight faults on the board, also failed to present a significant
challenge in the closing stages.
Christophe
Barbeau has been a real find for the Swiss this season, but he
too dropped three fences with Qerly Chin and it was beginning
to look like a fault-free round might not be achieved until Germanys
Soren Von Ronne at last found the key, steering Cantaro to a cautious
clear in 45.73 seconds to put it up to the last three runners.
Markus
Fuchs, already assured of a place in Milan as he has been awarded
a wildcard, was next into the ring with Tinkas Boy who lowered
just one fence to leave Soren still holding the advantage but
that proved short-lived when Malin strolled through the in-gate
with the 13 year old Robin Z mare H&M Butterfly Flip.
Rider-injuries
have been the order of the day in recent months with Markus Fuchs
struggling with a leg problem, Rodrigo looking like a doubtful
starter in Milan for some weeks due to his tumble in Spain and
World Champion Dermott Lennon, just 12 months after suffering
a serious break to his shoulder, back on the sidelines after breaking
his ankle in a schooling fall from a youngster at his yard in
Holland just over a week ago.
Malin
too has been hampered by an injury sustained during the Paris
leg of the FEI World Cup series earlier last month. She took a
crashing fall from her speed mare in the warm-up ring at the French
fixture and has been battling with pain in her shoulder and collarbone
but she reported yesterday that she is "completely recovered"
and she was showing no ill-effects as she threw down the gauntlet
with a scorching performance when second-last to go.
"I
knew Soren had been slow" she said afterwards "but I
also knew that Meredith was coming in behind me with Shutterfly
and you know how fast they can be! So I decided to go as quickly
as possible and although the jump-off track wasnt easy everything
went perfectly my horse jumped brilliantly and I rode really
well".
Malins
target-time was 37.70 seconds but Meredith Michaels-Beerbaums
ride Shutterfly has an amazing turn of foot as they showed when
winning the Dutch round of the series in Amsterdam earlier in
the season, and the crowd watched tensely as the German partnership
set off, last to go.
They
left all the fences standing but the clock showed 39.01 seconds
as they broke the beam and Malins colossal fan-club went
wild with jubilation when they realised their home-grown heroine
had come out on top.
"This
is what always make it special for me at home" Malin said
afterwards. "The Swedish crowds love show jumping and they
are fantastic to me they went crazy when I won!" The
gate-numbers alone 19,532 people attended the final day
of jumping at the Scandinavium Arena today are proof of
the huge popularity of the sport in this part of Europe.
Malin
has her year mapped out ahead of her, with Athens a major priority
"with this mare, she is definitely my Olympic ride"
but before that she intends to make her mark in Milan.
Third at last years FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas after
leading for much of the tournament she has her sights set on an
even better result this time around and, on todays form,
she will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
The
list of riders (see table below) now qualified from the Western
European League promises a battle of the giants in the Forum of
Assago in Milan for the concluding phase of the 2003/2004 FEI
World Cup Jumping series which begins on Wednesday 21st April.
RESULTS:
1, H&M Butterfly Flip (Malin Baryard) Swe 0/0 37.70; 2, Shutterfly
(Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 0/0 39.01; 3, Cantaro 11 (Soren
Von Ronne) Ger 0/0 45.73; 4, Tinkas Boy (Markus Fuchs) Sui
04 38.44; 5, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 04 39.38;
6, VDL Cardento (Peter Eriksson) Swe 0/8 39.38; 7, Melvin (Peter
Wylde) USA 08 42.32; 8, Montender 2 (Marco Kutscher) Ger 0/12
39.42; 9, Qerly Chin (Christophe Barbeau) Sui 0/12 40.32; 10,
Andante (Tina Lund) Den 0/12 40.91; equal 11, Lando 126 (O Becker)
Ger, Audis Jikke (Eric Van der Vleuten) Ned, Clear Rounds
Then Party (Geir Gulliksen) Nor, Equest Carnute (Thomas Velin)
Den, Cigale du Tallis (Eugenie Angot) Fra, Sails Away (Sebastian
Numminen) Fin, Goldfever 3 (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger, Eurocommerce
Montreal (Wim Schroder) Ned, MacKinley (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson)
Swe, JPC Modesto Equifoam (Jean-Marc Nicolas) Fra, Quibell (Jessica
Kurten) Irl, Handel (Michael Whitaker) GB, Nassau (Jeroen Dubbeldam)
Ned 4 faults; 24, Kalusha (Robert Smith) GB 5 faults; equal 25,
Anka (Marcus Ehning) Ger, Fighting Alpha (Lars Nieberg) Ger 8
faults; 27, Luc (Richard Davenport) GB 9 faults; equal 28, Non
Plus Extra (Antonis Petris) Gre, Favoritas (Nina B Johnsen) Nor,
Carlot 3 (Maria Sundberg) Swe, Cinderella (Maria Gretzer) Swe
12 faults; 32, Osta Rugs Richebourg (Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe)
Bel 13 faults; equal 33, Gandini Delany (Jerry Smit) Ita, Cagliostro
(Niklas Arvidsson) Swe 16 faults; 35, Carola (Charlotte Lund)
Den 19 faults; 36, ET Royal Volo (Tony Andre Hansen) Nor Elim;
37, H&M Levantos 2 (Peder Fredricson) Swe Ret, Rockmount Flight
(Gerfried Puck) Aut.<ep>
FEI
WORLD CUP LEADERBOARD AFTER ROUND 14 AT GOTEBORG:
1.
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum - 75
2.
Rodrigo Pessoa - 70
3.
Ludo Philippaerts - 66
4.
Otto Becker - 65
5.
Rolf-Goran Bengtsson - 60
equal
6. Malin Baryard, Marco Kutscher - 59
equal
8. Thomas Velin, Jos Lansink, Bruno Broucqsault 57
11.
Peter Wylde 55
equal
12. Helena Weinberg, Eric Van der Vleuten 53
14.
Toni Hassmann 52
15.
Michael Whitaker 51
16.
Marcus Ehning 50
17.
Christophe Barbeau 48
18.
Wim Schroder 44
19.
Hubert Bourdy 43
20.
Jeroen Dubbeldam 40
21.
Eugenie Angot 39
NOTE:
Marcus
Ehning is defending FEI World Cup Jumping Champion.
Wildcard
to Marcus Fuchs
First
Reserve for Final is Lars Nieberg
Second
Reserve is Jean-Marc Nicolas.
For
full results from Gothenburg go to website www.goteborghorseshow.com.
The
FEI World Cup Jumping Final, sponsored by Sony Ericsson, takes
place in Milan, Italy from 21 to 25 April. Website is www.worldcupmilano2004.com.
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 of 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
.