FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing: Germany closes the gap
Sweden’s premier Eventing site at Malmö is proving a lucky venue for Germany. Having swept the medals table at last year’s FEI European Eventing Championships, Germany triumphed impressively in the sixth leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2014 held there this weekend.
It was Germany’s third consecutive win this season, following victories in Strzegom (POL) and Aachen (GER). As a result, they are closing in on series leader Great Britain, who were absent for the first time this year. Germany now lies in third place in the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2014, two points behind France and three adrift of Great Britain, with three more legs to come.
A gallant French quartet made the long journey to southern Sweden worthwhile when finishing second, with their best rider Didier Dhennin (Opi de Saint Leo) in fourth place. France is now just one point behind Britain on the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2014 leaderboard.
Sweden, the host nation, finished third, with British-based Anna Hilton paying a welcome visit to her home country and finishing best of the quartet in 11th place on Matrix W. Denmark was fourth, with the experienced Peter Flarup the highest-placed team member in 15th on Calista E.
The German team included a couple of new names, but they still dominated proceedings, filling first, second, third and sixth places. Andreas Dibowski topped the individual leaderboard on Hans Dampf, and was third on his team horse FRH Butts Avedon; Peter Thomsen was second on Horseware’s Cayenne, and young Claas Hermann Romeike, son of the 2008 Olympic champion Hinrich Romeike, was sixth on Cato 60.
Newcomer Anna-Maria Rieke had a refusal at the second element of the combination at fence 22b on Petite Dame, but overall course designer Lars Christensson’s Cross Country track jumped extremely well, with a big crowd coming to enjoy the sunshine and sea views.
There were 21 clear rounds from the 32 starters, but only Thomsen, Romeike and France’s fifth-placed Francois Lemiere (Ogustin du Terroir) achieved the optimum time of six minutes 58 seconds.
“The course was a little bit easier than at the Europeans last year, but had enough questions to be difficult enough, and the optimum time was hard to get,” commented Andreas Dibowski. “It was easy to lose time in the beginning of the course, and I was a little bit surprised that my young horse (Hans Dampf) was faster (by six seconds) than the older one.”
Malmö is the northernmost of the nine legs in the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2014 and next month the action moves to the southernmost leg in Montelibretti in Italy (19-21 September).
Results from Malmö
1 Germany 152.0
Andreas Dibowski/FRH Butts Avedon, 49.4; Peter Thomsen/Horseware’s Cayenne, 49.4; Claas Hermann Romeike/Cato 60, 53.2; (Anna-Maria Rieke/Petite Dame, 82.4)
2 France 163.0
Didier Dhennin/Opi de Saint Leo, 52.2; Francois Lemiere/Ogustin du Terroir, 53.0; Gilles Bordes/Orion de Cavalhac, 57.8; (Thibault Vallette CNE/Qing du Briot ENE HN, 113.8);
3 Sweden 215.4
Anna Hilton/Matrix W, 64.6; Louise Svensson Jähde/Wieloch’s Utah Sun, 65.2; Victoria Carlerbäck/Volt af Källstorp, 85.6; (Anna Nilsson/Luron, 1,000)
4 Denmark 219.4
Peter Flarup/Calista E, 66.6; Hanna Wind Ramsgaard/Vestervangs Arami, 74.0; Irene Mia Hastrup/Constantin M, 78.8; (Merete Thøgerson/Salsa, 87.2)
FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing Leaderboard (after 6 of 9 events)
1 Great Britain 45 points
2 France 44
3 Germany 42
4 Netherlands 20
5 New Zealand 18
6 Ireland 14
6 Denmark 14
8 Italy 13
8 Sweden 13
10 Spain 6
11 Poland 5
12 Australia 4