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ROTTERDAM NATIONS CUP GIVES SELECTORS EVEN MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Friday 22 June 2012
Today (Friday) saw the fourth leg of the Top Level Nations Cup competitions take place at the Kralingsbos in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The Kralingsbos is a beautiful public park in the heart of The Netherlands most modern city which is widely renowned for staging top-class international sporting events.
Torrential rain yesterday had meant that some of the jumping had to be cancelled. With everyone hoping the rain would ease off and be replaced by better weather today, they were sadly disappointed as the weather continued being interchangeable throughout the competition with downpours one minute and bright blue sky the next.
Great Britain, drawn fourth to go in the first round of the competition which see’s eight nations competing against each other, started the competition as holding the record for the most wins in the Dutch Nations Cup having won 14 in total since it was first held in 1948. However, this winning tally was matched by Germany in their securing pole position at the end of the Nations Cup today having relegated Sweden to 2nd place by just 1 penalty in the final round of the competition.
A Nations Cup which saw fortunes changing by the minute with many teams leaping up and down the leaderboard after each round it was just Germany and Sweden which dominated throughout with little movement on the board so solid was their performance with teams which many were speculating are their prospective Olypmic teams.
Finishing in 6th position Great Britain retain their 5th position on the competitions league table and now look ahead to Aachen in two weeks time.
First Round
Tim Stockdale from Northamptonshire with Colin Garratt’s 11 year-old bay gelding Kalico Bay were the pathfinders for the team. Returning home with an unfortunate 17 penalties meant the became the drop score as only three of the teams scores count in each round.
Tina Fletcher from Faringdon, Oxon with Lady Pauline Harris’ 13 year-old bay gelding Hello Sailor were next to go and produced a solid round until accruing a fence down in the second half of the course. Coming through the finish slightly behind the time allowed also saw them incur a time fault and finish on a total of 5 penalties.
Scott Brash from Peebleshire with Hello Sanctos a 10 year-old bay gelding owned jointly owned by Lady Pauline Kirkham and Lady Pauline Harris were the next for the team. Just touching a vertical on the last line saw a pole fall and 4 penalties being accrued. Managing to come through the finish within the extremely tight 75seconds allowed meant that Scott was relieved to not be also incurring the time fault that so many of the other competitors had accrued before him.
Peter Charles, from Alton, took the role of anchorman with Murka’s Vindicat W, a 10 year-old gelding owned by Olga White, Tara Charles and Team Murka Ltd. Producing an effortless and foot-perfect clear round within the time allowed saw Peter return with zero penalties and pull Great Britain up into joint 3rd position after the first round on 9 penalties alongside the Netherlands. Germany were heading the table on 2 penalties and Sweden in 2nd place on 5 penalties.
The first round saw almost all combinations in the series incur faults with only four competitors, one of whom was Peter Charles, jumping clear. The last line of course proved particularly tricky with riders having to select whether to jump on either four or five strides whilst also having the pressure of ensuring that they kept moving on a forward stride throughout due to the tight time they were asked to complete in.
Second Round
Putting the first round behind him Tim Stockdale and Fresh Direct Kalico Bay produced a much better second round. However a pole down going into the combination and the going into the double on the final line saw them come through the finish with 8 penalties within the time allowed.
Putting the first round behind him Tim Stockdale and Fresh Direct Kalico Bay produced a much better second round. However a pole down going into the combination and the going into the double on the final line saw them come through the finish with 8 penalties within the time allowed.
Tina Fletcher and Hello Sailor mirrored their performance just one fence down and a time fault leaving them on a finish score of 5 penalties.
Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos came into the second round keeping up the pace shown in the first. This time a faultless performance throughout including the last line that had caught them out before produced an perfect clear and a zero penalty score.
Peter Charles and Murka’s Vindicat W incurred an unfortunate 4 penalties early on in the course however having then jumped clear to the last some confusion ensued when the bell was rung just as Peter approached the last meaning Peter had to pull up and circle whilst the last fence was checked. As unsettling as that may have been they returned to the fence clearing it and coming through the finish in the time allowed on a score of 4 penalties.
Will Connell, World Class Performance Director commented from Rotterdam “It’s been a day of mixed fortunes with some very good rounds, along with some other good rounds, which will I’m sure give the selectors much to think about”.
Rob Hoekstra, World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping further commented “It’s been a very interesting day for us and it’s given us a few ‘good’ headaches from a selectors point of view. We’ve seen our riders competing under extreme pressure and we’ve seen some good performances. It was always our intention to give riders the opportunity to show us what they can do in the ring and we are now extremely close to putting together a very strong team for the Olympics. We have a number of riders that weren’t here that are also in strong contention and as Selectors we will now look at all them collectively.
Results.
1st Germany 4 penalties
2nd Sweden 5 penalties
3rd France 10 penalties
4th Ireland 15 penalties
5th Switzerland 17 penalties
6th Great Britain 18 penalties
7th Netherlands 21 penalties
8th Belgium 35 penalties
1st Germany 4 penalties
2nd Sweden 5 penalties
3rd France 10 penalties
4th Ireland 15 penalties
5th Switzerland 17 penalties
6th Great Britain 18 penalties
7th Netherlands 21 penalties
8th Belgium 35 penalties
Standings after Leg 4 of the 2012 series
1st. Germany (30)
2nd Netherlands (22.5)
3rd Belgium (21)
4th Switzerland (20.5)
5th Sweden (16)
Great Britain (16)
7th France (14)
8th Ireland (12)
*the numbers in brackets denote total league points
1st. Germany (30)
2nd Netherlands (22.5)
3rd Belgium (21)
4th Switzerland (20.5)
5th Sweden (16)
Great Britain (16)
7th France (14)
8th Ireland (12)
*the numbers in brackets denote total league points
The Grand Prix will take place on Sunday where each of the British squad riders will be contesting the winners position for the lion share of the prize money on offer. For further information and full results from the event please visit www.chio.nl .
For those that missed the live streaming of the event at www.feitv.org it will be available on both Eurosport and Horse & Country TV so you can still catch up with the action. Please visit the British Showjumping website at www.britishshowjumping.co.uk and click on ‘whats on tv’ to obtain an up-to-date schedule of broadcast times.
The British Showjumping Teams are supported by Exchequer and National Lottery funding via UK Sport.
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