2014 LONGINES WORLD CUP FINAL, LYON – LEG 1
Friday 18 April 2014
The opening leg of the World Cup Final took place in the superb setting of the Eurexpo stadium in Lyon this evening; with forty competitors spanning twenty nations coming forward for the first of the three legs.
This evening, it was the Speed leg which stood at 1.50m. Designed by German course designer Frank Rothenberger it was a galloping course with a number of related distances. The course consisted of thirteen fences requiring sixteen jumping efforts. After twisting up and down the arena, the riders headed towards the hospitality area over a combination and an oxer before turning back towards home and the final fence, a vertical just a few strides after the turn.
The format of the Final takes in three competitions. The first a speed leg following by a Table A class set at 1.50-1.50m tomorrow evening, Saturday 19th April. This evening’s competition and the one tomorrow will see all riders allocated points. The winner of each competition receives one point more than the number of starters in the first competition, the second place gets two points less and this format continues down the field.
After the second competition these points are converted into penalties where the rider with the highest number of points will be set on zero penalties. The third and final leg of the competition takes place on Monday afternoon and is a Table A class run over a 1.50-1.60m Grand Prix course. The thirty best placed riders after Saturday’s class are invited to compete in the third and final leg on Monday. The top twenty after the first round in this final competition are then eligible to compete in the second round. Should there be equality for 1st place after this round, a further jump off may be required to decide the overall Longines FEI World Cup 2014 Champion.
Contesting his 23rd World Cup Final, Michael Whitaker and his own 12 year-old chestnut gelding Viking V had the misfortunate of being drawn 1st to go. Asked what his strategy would be, he had said that he would put in as fast a time as he dare knowing that others would need to push on behind him. An unfortunate 4 time penalties were added to his extremely fast time when the planks fell midway round the course giving him a finish time of 69.89 seconds. His strategy certainly looked to pay off as at the halfway mark two out of every three competitors had incurred faults with all of them recording times slower than his.
Scott Brash, drawn 38th to go with Lady Kirkham and Lady Harris’s 14 year-old bay mare Ursula XII put in an absolutely brilliant round and at the halfway mark on the course looked set to be fast enough to be within the top three placings and possibly take the lead. However, turning back to the final fence and the finish line saw 4 time penalties being incurred with the lowering of the last fence and 4 seconds being added to their 64.14seconds time giving them a finish time of 68.14seconds and 11th place finish with Michael finishing in 16th position.
Pius Schwizer for Switzerland with Quidam du Vivier secured pole position with his time of 63.37 seconds and Patrice Delaveau for France with Lacrimoso HDC took 2nd.
Full results can be found by visiting the following link http://eventcontent.hippoonline.de/890/890online1ENG.htm?style=longines
For further information regarding the World Cup Final in Lyon please visit http://www.feiworldcupfinals-lyon.com/homepage or www.fei.org
.jpg "NAF Bronze and Silver League Semi-Finals"){kind=icon}
14kvaj7pl3106.jpg "Jonathan Egmore and Mollie Rose Smith are winners in the Equissage Pulse British Novice Second Rounds.")
1g50u2k8dpost.JPG "Lacey-Mae Russel seizes Victory in the STX-UK Pony British Novice Second Round at Felbridge Showground")
11dtw0hmsttk0.jpg "NAF Five Star Bronze and Silver League Qualifiers get underway at Speetley Equestrian Centre")