Jessica Mendoza makes her presence known in Helsinki World Cup
Tuesday 27 October 2015
The second leg of the FEI World Cup qualifiers (Western European League) took place in Helsinki on Sunday and 19 year-old Jessica Mendoza, making her World Cup debut, illustrated her determination and talent once again when she finished in 2nd place after an incredibly hard fought jump off.
Riding the 14 year-old brown mare Spirit T, who is owned by her mother Sarah, she was one of thirteen combinations, from a field of almost forty, to jump clear and secure their place in the jump off. Early to come forward, she laid the gauntlet down by jumping clear within an incredibly fast time of 36.96 seconds. Watching from the grandstands, it had looked like she had set a time that would be fast enough to secure a win, however a clear by Romain Duguet for Switzerland with Quorida de Treho some 11/100’ths faster saw her nudged into second place.
Daniel Duesser for Germany took 3rd place with Cornet d’Amour with a clear in a time of 37.13 seconds whilst Steve Guerdet and Nino des Buissonnets took 4th with a clear in 37.61 seconds.
The 1.60m course certainly delivered an exciting class for those watching from the grandstands. With the majority of the field jumping clear in the jump off, spectators were on the edge of the seats trying to watch the clock as closely as they were following the action within the arena. To see Jessica draw a line in the sand with such inimitable style amongst a field that contained many of the world’s best riders was both incredible and immensely satisfying to see.
Talking afterwards Jessica said “I’m very happy with second place. Spirit always wants to do well for me, she was just fantastic!”. This year has certainly been a year to remember for Jessica. Making her debut on Senior Nations Cup teams, she hit the ground running by producing some fantastic performances which culminated in her being selected for the Senior European Championships team. Her final round at the Championships saw Jess play a pivotal role in delivering the much needed qualifying ticket for Rio 2016 before she then headed out to Barcelona for the FEI Furusiyya Nations Cup Final where the GB team finished 2nd.
The World Cup series will now head to Lyon,France this weekend (28th October -1st November)
For full results: http://eventcontent.hippoonline.de/1098/sta_erg/10_ergENG.htm?style=longines
