Patric Looser and his horse Record RS Von der Wintermuehle made an emotional retirement from the sport after winning the 2011/2012 FEI World Cup Vaulting Final. Photo: FEI/Christophe Bricot/Jumping International de Bordeaux.
Bordeaux (FRA), 5 February 2012 – Emotions ran high at the 2011/2012 FEI World Cup Vaulting Final in Bordeaux, France today where Switzerland’s Patric Looser made the perfect exit from the sport when taking the Male title in style, and Great Britain’s Joanne Eccles pipped her younger sister, Hannah, for the Female honours.
This first official FEI World Cup Vaulting season visited five qualifying venues over the winter months, and today’s closing stages saw the sport at its very best. Looser was determined to produce a better result than he did in yesterday’s first round. “I’m going to try to enjoy every second of my Freestyle today” he said before the competition began. “Yesterday was not my best performance – I was a bit stiff in my body although I didn’t make any mistakes, but I’m in first position by a good distance as the competition begins today and I intend to be more relaxed and just enjoy my routine and my horse!” he explained.
He succeeded in doing just that, adding this new title to the one he earned at the Final in Leipzig, Germany last April and to his career-defining gold medals at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in 2010 and last year’s FEI European Championships.
BORDEAUX (FRA), 5 February 2012 – Boyd Exell (AUS) has entered the history books by winning the FEI World Cup Driving Final for the fourth consecutive time.
Dutch drivers IJsbrand Chardon (NED) and Koos de Ronde (NED) fought like lions but were unable to beat Exell, who was simply unbeatable.
Class of his own Last starter Boyd Exell felt the pressure on his shoulders despite his 8-second head start on Chardon after the first competition on Friday evening. Boyd however proved to be in a class of his own again, cheered on by the many enthusiastic spectators. The triple FEI World Cup Driving Champion put down an amazingly fast and clear round with his solid team of horses and widened the gap further on Chardon and De Ronde, who were in second and third place.
Kevin Staut is presented with a Rolex watch by Arnaud Reverdin, Commercial Director, Rolex France. Photo: FEI/Kit Houghton.
Bordeaux (FRA), 4 February 2012 – French hero, Kevin Staut, won the eleventh qualifying round of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping 2011/2012 series on his home turf at Bordeaux tonight. Riding the 13 year old grey mare, Silvana HDC, he devastated the opposition in the ten-horse jump-off with a display of class and courage that snatched the honours from Australian runners-up Edwina Top-Alexander and Cevo Itot du Chateau. Belgium’s Rik Hemeryck slotted into third with Quarco de Kerambars, while Ireland’s Denis Lynch finished fourth with his exciting new stallion, Contifex.
But tonight’s competition was as much about the battle for positions on the Western European League leaderboard as anything else. Following the next, and last, qualifying leg at Gothenburg, Sweden, the top-18 riders will make the cut for the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping final which will take place in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands at the end of April. So the placings all the way down the line are critical at this stage, and the pressure is at boiling point.
BORDEAUX (FRA), 4 February 2012 – Triple World Cup winner Boyd Exell (AUS) has taken the lead in the FEI World Cup Driving Final in Bordeaux (FRA) after the first competition on Friday 3 February.
Many spectators attended the first competition of the FEI World Cup Driving Final despite it ending close to midnight. Boyd drove an excellent round in a thrilling competition which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. The defending World Cup champion managed to put a 15-second lead between himself and Jozsef Dobrobitz (HUN), who was leading the competition. Exell drove a clear round, using the same four-in-hand team with which he amazingly won at Mechelen (BEL) at the end of December 2011, using his best horse Bill.
Flat out Second into the arena Jozsef Dobrovitz took a risk by using a completely new horse to lead his team. The seven-year-old bay gelding Horus Alom only arrived at Dobrovitz’ stables last October. Dobrovitz drove the horse in his team at an indoor competition last weekend and got so excited that he decided to bring it to Bordeaux. Dobrovitz went flat out through the rather technical course, designed by German course designer Falk Böhnisch, setting the time to beat.
Lausanne (SUI), 31 January 2012 – Driving fans will be treated to a thrilling finale of the FEI World Cup Driving 11th season in Bordeaux (FRA) on 3 and 4 February.
Six drivers – Boyd Exell (AUS); IJsbrand Chardon (NED); Koos De Ronde (NED); Tomas Eriksson (SWE); Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN) and Zoltan Lázár (HUN) – qualified for the Final at the end of an exciting season that ran over seven events held in five European countries. They will be joined by home driver Thibault Coudry, who has received the wild card.
In Bordeaux the seven drivers all start from scratch and it will not be until the very last second of the Final on the evening of Saturday 4 February that the new FEI World Cup Driving champion will be crowned.
Switzerland’s Simone Jaïser (SUI) heads to this weekend’s FEI World Cup Vaulting Final in Bordeaux after scoring the highest points tally in the first full FEI World Cup Vaulting series. Photo: Karl-Heinz Freiler/FEI.
Lausanne (SUI), 1 February 2012 – The first full FEI World Cup Vaulting season will culminate in a hotly contested Final in Bordeaux (FRA) this weekend (4-5 February), when the sport’s top male and female vaulters will compete to secure the World Cup title.
The series has been hard fought with 10 male and 10 female vaulters competing in five qualifiers in Kiel (GER), Munich (GER), Salzburg (AUT), Paris (FRA) and Leipzig (GER).
Six male and six female vaulters will now battle it out for the honours at the FEI World Cup Vaulting 2011/2012 Final in the Bordeaux Exhibition Centre.
World number one Patric Looser (SUI), who has announced his retirement after Bordeaux, heads to the Final after securing a six-point lead over Viktor Brüsewitz (GER). They will be joined by Lukas Klouda (CZE), Yvan Nousse (FRA), Lukas Heppler (SUI) and Remy Hombecq (FRA).
Zurich (SUI), 29 January 2012 – Germany’s Marco Kutscher steered Cornet Obolensky to victory in the tenth qualifying leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping Western European League 2011/2012 series at Zurich in Switzerland this afternoon. The 13 year old stallion produced an exhibition of effortless jumping to outclass the rest of the 40-strong field on a tough day that saw six riders opting to retire in the opening round.
Course designer, Rolf Ludi, really piled on the pressure with a colossal track that quickly separated the best from the rest. But one man who was unfortunate to miss a place in the seven-horse jump-off was Belgium’s Ludo Philippaerts whose 14 year old Kassini Jac left all the fences intact, only to be penalised for crossing the finish line just outside the 69-second time limit.
Defending series champions, Germany’s Christian Ahlmann and Taloubet, won the ninth leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping 2011/2012 series in Leipzig, Germany today. Photo: FEI/Karl-Heinz Frieler.
Leipzig (GER), 22 January 2012 – Defending champion, Germany’s Christian Ahlmann, returned to the scene of his 2010/2011 triumph to win the ninth qualifying round of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping 2011/2012 series at Leipzig, Germany this afternoon.
Host-nation competitors filled the top-three places, but both the winner, and third-placed multiple champion Marcus Ehning, had to take a back seat in the aftermath as the spotlight shone brightly on rising star Katrin Eckermann who was pipped for pole position by only the narrowest of margins. The 21 year old from Muenster, who has just emerged at Senior level after a highly-successful career in Young Riders, produced a thrilling and polished performance to take runner-up spot and has put her name firmly on the German radar. She said afterwards that today’s competition will be her last indoor outing of the season as she has other plans for her lovely grey gelding Carlson. But everyone, including her German counterparts, agreed that this self-effacing young lady’s name will feature prominently in future years. A new German jumping star has announced her arrival.
Leipzig (GER), 22 January 2012 – IJsbrand Chardon (NED) won the seventh leg of the FEI World Cup Driving 2011/2012 in front of a super enthusiastic crowd in Leipzig, Germany this afternoon. Wild card driver Chardon stayed ahead of runner-up Tomas Eriksson (SWE) and second wild card driver Christoph Sandmann (GER), who placed third. With these results, Tomas Eriksson and Zoltan Lazar (HUN), who finished fourth, have secured their starting tickets for the Final in Bordeaux, France in two weeks’ time.
More training IJsbrand Chardon, who had won the Hannover qualifier earlier this season, made great use of the invitation he had received from the Leipzig organisers and put on an excellent performance with his experienced team of Lipizzan horses. Chardon stole the show in the nearly sold-out Leipzig Messe, driving fast and taking sharp turns on the tricky course, designed by Dr Wolfgang Asendorf (GER). Four-time world champion Chardon had not been pleased with his horses after the last qualifier in Mechelen (BEL) at the end of December and had trained his horses three times a week in the lead up to today’s event. Chardon used today’s competition to put his horses to the test. His training efforts paid off as Chardon was on fire in Leipzig.
Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival (NED) scored a back-to-back double when winning today’s seventh leg of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage series in Amsterdam. Photo: FEI/DigiShots.
Amsterdam (NED), 21 January 2012 – Adelinde Cornelissen and the 15 year old Jerich Parzival stamped their authority all over the seventh leg of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage 2011/2012 Western European League on home turf in Amsterdam, The Netherlands this afternoon. With a display of supreme confidence, the defending champions threw down the highest score of the season so far to make it a back-to-back double following their victory in Mechelen, Belgium last month.
But with the maximum 20 points going to the second-place rider, as the previous year’s winners do not collect points during the following season, there was a tremendous battle for the minor placings. And it was Helen Langehanenberg who came off best in a tussle with German counterpart Isabell Werth who had to settle for third place despite one of the most exciting performances of the day.
LEADERBOARD
Today’s result has moved Langehanenberg into third on the series leaderboard with just two qualifying rounds left to go. And there is a new leader, as Italy’s Valentina Truppa, who finished fifth this afternoon, has ousted Sweden’s Patrik Kittel from the top of the table.
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Lausanne (SUI), 31 January 2012 – Driving fans will be treated to a thrilling finale of the FEI World Cup Driving 11th season in Bordeaux (FRA) on 3 and 4 February.
