Individual Gold Medal 
Maria Mercedes Avarez Ponton riding Nobby
Spain ~ 8:58:06
Individual Silver Medal
Augustin Vita riding Baraka Ibn Al Tamah
Argentina ~ 9:07:55
Individual Bronze Medal
Sultan Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem riding Cal Ramon
United Arab Emirates ~ 9:19:31
Team Gold
United Arab Emirates
Team Silver
Qatar
Team Bronze
Kingdom of Bahrain
Related Links:
NST: Mercedes rides Nobby to gold
NST: Azizie, Halim do Malaysia proud
NST: Party time for participants
Bernama: King Sad As Horse Eliminated
Bernama: Spain's Maria Mercedes Sweeps Individual Title, UAE Clinch Team Honours
The Star: Malaysia's challenge swept away by thunderstorm
The Star: Mercedes rides away with crown, UAE bag team title
Pete's Blog Posts:
Victory over the Elements
A new queen of Endurance has been crowned, as Spain’s Maria Alvarez Ponton clenched individual gold at the 12th FEI World Endurance Championship, while the United Arab Emirates were awarded team gold.
This World Championship set two new endurance statistics as it was the first to be ridden at night and the first to be held in Asia. It was hosted by Malaysia at the Terengganu International Endurance Park in Bidong, situated 25km north of the coastal town of Kuala Terengganu.
The opening ceremony took place in the newly constructed Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium were the King of Malaysia, Yand di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin official opened the FEI World Endurance Championship. The 48,000 enthusiastic spectators watched the teams parade before a spectacular light and sound show, a bare back riding performance by Lorenzo from France and fireworks. The enthusiasm of the local population continued as 10,000 spectators watched the start at 17.30 the next day.
On a pleasantly warm afternoon, 126 riders from 32 countries set out to ride the first loop of 28.8km in daylight. The next five stages of 27-28.8-27-23 and 15.1km were all ridden in the dark with dawn breaking as the leader started on the final loop of 10km. The course was basically flat over sandy or fine quarry dust tracks. An enormous amount of work had been done on the surface since the trial ride here last November to eliminate the very boggy areas and provide a sound footing throughout. The marking was excellent with each route colour coded, and every marker also having the route number. In addition 1200 LED lights, the same colour as the route, were used at night. The riders also wore these colour coded LED lights to assist the check points on course.
There was only one crew point on each loop but there were manned water points every 3.5 kilometres that offered iced-water for cooling, plus drinking water for horse and rider.
Alvarez set the standard from the start wining her title of FEI World Champion wire to wire, having ridden the first leg at 20.45kph she went on to finish with an average speed of 18.16 kph a ride time of 08hr 48min 06 sec on her thirteen year old bay gelding Nobby who was bred in France.
In silver medal position 08hr 57min.55sec (17.82kph) was Argentinean Augustin Vita riding Baraka Ibn Al Tamah with the UAE’s Sultan Bin Sulayem taking the Bronze medal on Tazoul El Parry 09hr 09min 31 sec (17.45kph).
The UAE team of Sh Mayed Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum (4th) Mohammed Ahmad Ali Subose (5th) Mubarak Khalifa Bin Shafya (6th) and Abdulla Thani Bin Huzaim (7th) had also led from start to finish. They were unchallenged as they finished (27hr 57min 59sec) with almost an hours advantage over second placed Qatar (28hr 47min17sec) who were two hours ahead of Bahrain (30hr 54min 22sec)which made a clean sweep for the Middle East in the Team Medals.
Having endured torrential rain, thunder and lightening, high humidity and hours of darkness, the completion rate was just under 40% which proved that under the right management and the ability of riders to acknowledge the conditions, Endurance has a future in this climate.
Individual – Top 5
1. Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton / Nobby (ESP) - 08:48:06 18.16kph
2. Augustin Vita / BarakaIbn Al Tamah (ARG) - 08:57:55 17.82kph
3. Sultan Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem / Tazoul El Parry (UAE) -09:09:31 17.45kph
4. Sh Mayed Bin Mohd Al Maktoum / Spenda Crest Kamouflage(UAE) - 09:14:42 17.29kph
5. Mohd Ahmad Ali Subose / Koum Des Jamets (UAE) - 09:21:38 17.07kph
Teams – Top 5 Source: FEI Press News
1. United Arab Emirates - 25:57:59
2. Qatar - 28:47: 17
3. Bahrain - 30:54:22
4. Portugal - 30:58:52
5. Spain - 31:25:25
MARIA MERCEDES DRIVES AWAY WITH TWO TITLES
In a rare show of appreciation, newly crowned individual champion Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton of Spain attributed her maiden win to the support from the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Crown Prince Shaikh Mohammad Rashid Al Maktoum.
"I am standing here as the 12th World Endurance Champion is because of the support from Shaikh Mohammad who is also the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai," said the Dubai-based Maria Mercedes after the prize presentation ceremony at the Terengganu International Endurance Park in Lembah Bidong here today.
In the 160km race, Maria Mercedes riding her favourite horse, Nobby, proved that women were capable of enduring extreme weather conditions, tough terrains and in a race that was held at night for the first time.
Despite the odds, Maria Mercedes’ perseverance in winning six of the seven loops in the race that was flagged off on Friday afternoon and that lasted until Saturday morning.
Maria completed the 160km race in 8 hours 48 minutes and 06 seconds to emerge victorious in a race which saw 126 riders from 32 countries starting and also drove away with the Best Conditioned Horse title as well.
Apart from receiving the trophy and medals for emerging victorious, Maria also received a special personal gift – a watch - from Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah during the prize presentation held today.
The champion, however, said she has no plans to celebrate as she and the team would have to return to Dubai for the first open ride of the season on Nov 15.
If Maria's win made it another triumph for the women (only two men have won in the last 12 editions), Argentina's 21-year-old Vita Augustin scored South America's first ever medal in the championship with his second-place finish.
Riding Baraka Ibn Al Tamah, Vita stayed in the top five since the start and gave the South Americans much to cheer especially after an outbreak of glanders in Brazil had prevented riders from competing here.
Sultan Ahmed Sultan Sulayem of UAE finished third followed by four of his UAE team riders Shaikh Mayed Mohammad Rashid Al Maktoum, Mohammad Ahmad Ali Subose , Mubarak Khalifa Shafya and Abdullah Thani Huzaim.
UAE who won the overall title with a total riding time of 27 hours 57 minutes 59 seconds, were extremely pleased with the victory and felt the weather conditions here which were quite similar to weather conditions in the Middle East, was a big help in the win.
“We came here hoping to win the individual and team titles but nevertheless, we are happy to have won the team title,” said team member Thani Huzaim.
Qatar and Bahrain who clocked 28’47:17s and 30’54:17s respectively finished second and third in the team event to see a clean sweep of the top three places by countries from the middle east.
The next World Endurance Championship will be held in Kentucky, USA in 2010.
Source: Sultan Mizan Royal Foundation
