GREAT BRITAIN PUT IN SOLID PERFORMANCES IN ROTTERDAM
Friday 20 June 2014
The fifth leg of the 2014 FEI Furusiyya Nations Cup series took place in Rotterdam this afternoon and brought with it tension and excitement from start to finish.
Culminating in a two-way jump off between France and the home team, spectators could hardly bear to watch the final rounds which would decide the winning line up. It was France who eventually came out victorious when Penelope Leprevost produced a brilliant clear with Flora de Mariposa which home rider Gerco Schroder and Glock’s London just couldn’t match when they lowered a pole to retire into 2nd place.
Great Britain Highlight Their Depth of Talent
With Rotterdam being a non-point scoring competition, Rob Hoekstra (World Class Showjumping Performance Manager) once again used it to his advantage by bringing out a team of horses still relatively new at this level in addition to including two of his younger riders.
Rob has become well known for always ensuring as many people are given an opportunity as possible to show him what they’ve got and today was no exception. Earlier in the year, he had selected 21 year-old Spencer Roe with his mothers (Sally) 11 year-old bay gelding to compete at this level. An opportunity which Spencer grasped with both hands resulting in him also being selected for the winning St Gallen team a few weeks ago where he jumped both rounds with just one time penalty apiece. Their first round this afternoon saw them notch up an uncharacteristic 12 penalties, a result which they put behind them when they reappeared for the second time to put in a brilliant foot-perfect clear returning a zero penalty score.
The commentators and media teams were very much focused on 22 year-old Jessie Drea who was not only competing on her first Top Level team but also, at her first 5* show. Jessie appeared to take it all in her stride and didn’t once show the tension she must have been feeling on making her debut at this level. Putting in a brilliant first round clear to stop the clock on a zero penalty score, she must have been gutted to have just missed out from achieving the same again in the second round when a touch of the back pole at the final fence saw her incur 4 penalties with Lynne Humphries 13 year old chesnut mare Touchable. A tremendous achievement for both horse and rider who, up until now, have never competed at any international show above 3* level!
Joe Clee, who is based in Belgium, took the role of pathfinder with Ludwig Criel’s 10 year old bay stallion Utamaro d’Ecaussines. Again, a horse who is still very much finding his feet at 5* level competition, he showed the world today exactly how talented he is by putting in two brilliant clear rounds; one of only three combinations able to do so. Utamaro and Joe made the course, which had been designed by Varela Santiago of Spain, look easy jumping each fence effortlessly and returning home through the finish line looking as relaxed as he had when crossed the start.
For Guy Williams from Kent his first round didn’t run as smoothly as he had hoped it would with Caroline Phillip’s 10 year-old bay gelding Zaire. A score of 26 penalties in the first round saw them become the drop score for the team. The second round saw Zaire look much more comfortable with them finish on 9 penalties with one fence down and a foot in the water plus a time penalty.
Tight Competition
At the end of the first round, the leaders were the home team but hot on their heels were four nations sitting just one fence behind them. With The Netherlands on a zero penalty score, it was Switzerland, Germany, France and Brazil who were closing in on them with just 4 penalties apiece. Great Britain sat in 6th place on 12 penalties with Ireland and the USA just one point behind.
The second round saw fortunes change with fences falling and for France, they must have thought their chances lost when their second rider Patrice Delaveau fell when his horse Carinjo Hdc stumbled on landing.
With each round altering the leaderboard it wasn’t until the very last rider had gone that it became clear a third and final jump off would be required. From the five nations that had been sitting in joint 2nd place at the halfway there mixed fortunes. Brazil fell by the wayside finishing on 17 penalties and in 5th place whilst Switzerland they fell further to take 6th place on 20 penalties. Germany managed to retain a top tier finish with their 12 penalty total, just one fence ahead of Great Britain.
Results:
1st France (8 penalties - 0/34.57)
2nd Netherlands (8 penalties – 4/Ret)
3rd Germany (12 penalties)
4th Great Britain (16 penalties)
Joe Clee/Utamaro D’Ecaussines 0/0
Spencer Roe/Wonder Why 12/0
Jessie Drea/Touchable 0/4
Guy Williams/Zaire 26/9
5th Brazil (17 penalties)
6th Switzerland (20 penalties)
7th Ireland (26 penalties)
8th USA (27 penalties)
Further information on the show and results please visit www.chio.nl. Full information in respect of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series can be found by visiting www.fei.org.
FEI TV will be showing live footage from the event. To access this please visit www.feitv.org. The programme will also be shown at a later date on Eurosport and Horse & Country TV. Please visit www.britishshowjumping.co.uk and click on ‘What’s on TV’ for broadcast times.
The British Showjumping Teams are supported by Exchequer and National Lottery funding via UK Sport.
