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Happiness and heartache as Engemann sets the pace
Friday, April 25th, 2008
It was sheer delight for Germany's Heinrich-Hermann Engemann and heart-break for
fellow-countryman Marcus Ehning in the first leg of the 2007/2008 Rolex FEI
World Cup™ Jumping final in Gothenburg, Sweden this evening where the former
headed the line-up with Aboyeur W while the 2006 champion was eliminated with
Sandro Boy.
Engemann's sizzling ride over Rolf Ludi's speed track just
before the half-way stage really put it up to the rest of them, and he goes into
tomorrow's Jump-Off class with the edge. But he will have to work hard to
maintain his two-point lead over Switzerland's Steve Guerdat who lies second and
the three-point lead he has established over third-placed Jessica Kuerten from
Ireland. The big test has only just begun, and there is an army of top names
breathing down his neck.....
Britain's Michael Whitaker had the
unenviable task of guiding the 39 starters around the 13-fence track presented
by Swiss course-designer Rolf Ludi when first into the ring, but his lovely
clear with Suncal Portofino proved a little too careful. His time of 75.05
seconds proved very beatable and, third to go, the home side's Malin
Baryard-Johnsson and the veteran Butterfly Flip shaved almost four seconds off
that to reset the parameters.
Then America's Peter Wylde and Esplanade
took the lead when crossing the line in 71.31 seconds but the picture changed
even more dramatically when Engemann set about his business. Always
extra-competitive in speed classes Aboyeur set off at a cracking pace and,
keeping the pressure on the whole way round, Engemann asked for a huge stand-off
at the penultimate vertical before galloping down to the final oxer and through
the beam in a staggering 68.37 seconds.
"My horse was really concentrated
- he was fantastic!" the 48 year old rider said afterwards.
Three horses
later however, Switzerland's Steve Guerdat also finished inside the 70-second
zone when clearing the line in 69.88 with Tresor and that was always going to
guarantee a strong finishing spot. Marcus Ehning was next to go with Sandro Boy
and was looking good over the early part of the track. He had successfully
negotiated the triple combination at fence nine and the following vertical but
as he turned right-handed toward the double at fence 11 the horse suddenly stuck
in his toes and resisted his rider's instructions to go forward. Ehning circled
and re-presented, but the stallion was determined he was not going to jump and
the man who claimed the title in Las Vegas in 2003 and again in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia two years ago had to accept elimination to the astonishment of the
crowd.
Then one of the other favourites fell by the wayside when the
great Oki Doki left two fences on the floor for Holland's Albert Zoer. With time
added for fences down, mistakes were penalised heavily, but things brightened up
again with a lovely clear round from Germany's Ludger Beerbaum and his new star
All Inclusive NRW. Their time of 71.31 was no challenge to the leader
however.
Switzerland's defending champions, Beat Mandli and Ideo du Thot,
ensured a prominent position when registering a fault-free performance in 70.99
and Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum did likewise when her 2005 champion,
Shutterfly, made it all look fairly academic as he cruised effortlessly round
the track in 70.49 seconds but nobody seemed prepared to take the risk that
might oust Engemann from pole postion until the final two contenders came into
the arena.
America's Rich Fellars was riding the only Irish-bred horse
in the competition and the Cruising stallion, Flexible, gave him a superb run to
break the beam in 70.40 leaving just Ireland's Jessica Kuerten to take her
chance. She had been watching the drama unfold and knew that the target the
leader had set would be near-impossible to beat. "I saw Heinrich's round and
then I saw what happened to Marcus Ehning and I thought to myself - I will be
really good or else I'll mess it up!" she said, "but I got a great shot to the
second fence and I decided to just let Libertina do her job. I knew, even before
I went in, that I couldn't beat Heinrich's time. That was an amazing round he
jumped today" she added.
In a round that oozed class and confidence
Castle Forbes Libertina stopped the clock on 70.31 seconds and that was good
enough for third spot behind Guerdat while Engemann reigned supreme.
"Two
years ago I competed in my first World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur and I finished
tenth so when I came here this weekend I wanted to do better than that" Engemann
said after his celebration gallop around the Scandinavium Arena. "Aboyeur is a
14 year old Westphalian and I have him since he was five years old so we have
been together now for nine years. He is a great competitor - he has a brave
heart and he is always a fighter for me" he added.
He will need to
continue fighting because with riders of the calibre of Guerdat and Kuerten
snapping at his heels he has no room for complacency and going into tomorrow's
second leg Fellars lies fourth ahead of Michaels-Beerbaum in fifth and Mandli in
sixth. Wylde, Baryard-Johnsson and Ludger Beerbaum fill the next three places
and with the tension building at a rapid rate the stage is set for a right royal
battle to decide the fate of 2007/2008 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping
title.....
RESULT: (FINAL FIGURE IS POINTS CALCULATION AFTER FIRST FINAL
COMPETITION): 1, Aboyeur (Heinrich-Hermann Engemann) Ger 68.37 - 40; 2, Tresor V
(Steve Guerdat) Sui 69.88 - 38; 3, Castle Forbes Libertina (Jessica Kuerten) Irl
70.31 - 37; 4, Flexible (Rich Fellars) USA 70.40 - 36; 5, Shutterfly (Meredith
Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 70.49 - 35; 6, Ideo du Thot (Beat Mandli) Sui 70.99 - 34;
7, Esplanade (Peter Wylde) USA 71.31 - 33; 8, Butterfly Flip (Malin
Baryard-Johnsson) Swe 71.33 - 32; 9, All Inclusive NRW (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger
71.51 - 31; 10, Summer (Mandy Porter) USA 72.46 - 30; 11, Ilostra Dark (Eugenie
Angot) Fra 72.96 - 29; 12, Exquis Oliver Q (Harrie Smolders) Ned 73.75 - 28; 13,
Eurocommerce Milano (Gerco Schroder) Ned 74.78 - 27; 14, Suncal Portofino
(Michael Whitaker) GBR 75.05 - 26; 15, Olinda (Todd Minikus) USA 75.15 - 25; 16,
Onira (Brianne Goutal) USA 75.48 - 24; 17, Up Chiqui (Kent Farrington) USA 77.65
- 23; 18, Guarana Champeix (Rutherford Latham) Esp 77.84 - 22; 19, Ninja la
Silla (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe 78.02 - 21; 20, Madick (Helena Lundback) Swe
78.08 - 20; 21, Isaac (Royne Zetterman) Swe 79.08 - 19; 22, Quick Study (Lauren
Hough) USA 79.11 - 18; 23, Ever Mury Marais Z (Patrick McEntee) Bel 79.54 - 17;
24, Oki Doki (Albert Zoer) Ned 79.78 - 16; 25, Isaac du Jonquet (Mikael Forsten)
Fin 79.84 - 15; 26, Ace (Richard Spooner) USA 80.40 - 14; 27, Levisto Z
(Judy-Ann Melchior) Bel 80.72 - 13; 28, Black Ice (Jill Henselwood) Can 81.49 -
12; 29, Carino (Guy Thomas) NZL 84.03 - 11; 30, Ritus (Lukasz Jonczyk) Pol 85.07
- 10; 31, Common Sense (Mikhail Safronov) Rus 85.58 - 9; 32, Hidden Creek's
Quervo Gold (Margie Engle) USA 86.00 - 8; 33, Vancouver d'Auvrey (Danielle
Torano) USA 86.86 7; 34, Top Gear (Takamichi Mashiyama) Jpn 87.26 - 6; 35,
Poncorde (Henno Ellermann) Est 88.78 - 5; 36, Catwalk (Darrin Dlin) Can 91.69 -
4; 37, Arielle (Abdullah Mohd Al Marri) UAE 93.57 - 3; 38, Clarence (Shaun
Neill) RSA 101.05 - 2; 39, Sandro Boy (Marcus Ehning) Ger Elim.
For
further information on the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final in Gothenburg,
Sweden check out WEBSITE www.goteborghorseshow.com Show President is Per
Lojdquist, Show Director is Tomas Torgersen, Sport Secretary is Wiveka Lundh and
Press Officer is Mayvor Thorin - contact (mobile) +46 705 828420.
MEDIA GUIDE - The
FEI is pleased to provide you with a Media Guide for the 2007/2008 season. The
Guide is filled with useful facts, figures and statistics including the list of
winners since the series began in 1978 and contact details to help you access
all the information you need. You can download it from the Media Centre on the
FEI website www.fei.org or order a hard copy from FEI Communications - Email
o.robinson@horsesport.org.
2007/2008 ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP™ JUMPING SERIES
- CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR WESTERN EUROPEAN LEAGUE: 1, Oslo (Norway) 12/14
October; 2, Helsinki (Finland) 18-21 October; 3, Verona (Italy) 8-11 November;
4, Stuttgart (Germany) 14-18 November; 5, Geneva (Switzerland) 6-9 December; 6,
London-Olympia (Great Britain) 17-22 December; 7, Mechelen (Belgium) 26-30
December; 8, Leipzig (Germany) 17-20 January; 9, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
24-27 January; 10, Bordeaux (France) 1-3 February; 11, Vigo (Spain) 8-11
February; 12, s'Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands) 27-30 March; FINAL - Gothenburg
(Sweden) 24-27 April.
YOU CAN SEE IT ON TV 2007/2008 ROLEX FEI WORLD
CUP™ JUMPING BROADCAST SCHEDULE FOR ROUND 12 AT S'HERTOGENBOSCH: Live/Delayed
Live
SVT (Sweden) - Thursday 24 April 22.00, Friday 25 April 22.00,
Sunday 27 April 13.00 NOS (The Netherlands) - Sunday 27 April 13.10 RAI
(Italy) - Sunday 27 April 23.00 Estonian Sports Channel (Estonia) - Friday 25
April 18.55, Sunday 27 April 13.55 Equidia (France) - Sunday 27 April 20.45,
Monday 28 April 18.30, Wednesday 30 April 10.00
Highlights CBC Country
(Canada) - Saturday 3 May 14.00 CNBC Asia - Saturday 3 May 15.00 CNBC
Europe - Sunday 4 May 17.00 ESPN Brazil - Check local service ESPN Star
(Pan Asia) - Wednesday 14 May 18.00, Friday 18 May 14.00, Saturday 17 May 07.00,
16.30, Sunday 18 May 02.30, Monday 19 May 07.00, Wednesday 21 May 18.00,
Thursday 22 May 18.00, Friday 23 May 04.00, 18.00, Saturday 24 May
01.00 Eurosport - Wednesday 30 April 18.25 Fox Australia - Check local
service Fox Middle East - Monday 19 May 18.00, thursday 23 April
02.00 M-Net (Pan Africa) - Thursday 15 May 17.30, Saturday 17 May 08.30,
Sunday 18 May 10.00, Monday 19 May 14.00, Tuesday 20 May 14.00, Wednesday 21 May
20.00 TSI (Switzerland) - Saturday 17 May 18.00
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE
RULES FOR FEI WORLD CUP™ JUMPING RIDERS FROM FEI WEBSITE
www.feiworldcup.org
FEI World Cup™ Jumping has entered its 30th season.
The series, created in 1978, today comprises 14 leagues on all continents. The
best riders from 132 preliminary competitions will qualify for the final in
Gothenburg, Sweden which takes place from 24-27 April 2008. The title-holder is
Switzerland's Beat Mandli.
The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI),
founded in 1921, is the international body governing equestrian sport recognised
by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and includes 133 National
Federations.
Equestrian sport has been on the Olympic programme since
1912 with three disciplines - Jumping, Dressage and Eventing. It is one of the
very few sports in which men and women compete on equal terms. It is also the
only sport which involves two athletes - horse and rider. The FEI has
relentlessly concerned itself with the welfare of the horse, which is paramount
and must never be subordinated to competitive or commercial influences.
