British Showjumping’s Team NAF win Vejer CSIO3* Nations Cup
Friday 29 October 2021
The British team excelled in Vejer, Spain today when they won the CSIO3* Nations Cup competing under the sponsor banner of Team NAF.
It was an incredibly large field with twenty nations coming forward to contest the title but it was Great Britain that secured the win with just a two time penalty finish score. Brazil were their closest rivals who finished in 2nd place on 4 penalties whilst Sweden and Switzerland had to be satisfied with joint 3rd on a 9 penalty tally.
Joe Clayton from Huddersfield, South Yorkshire with the 15 year-old bay gelding Gentleman VH Veldhof owned by Unex Competition Yard took the role of pathfinder. Two fences caught them out in both he first and second round with a time penalty also needing to be added to the latter. Despite touching a couple of fences each time their rounds were good ones with the big bay jumping positively on what was his first team appearance with Joe.
Alex Thompson from Cropwell Butler, Nottinghamshire with his own 12 year-old chestnut mare Cathalina S was next to go for the team. Their foot perfect clear in the first round looked set to be matched in the second as they headed for the finish line with all fences having been left untouched. However, the clock managed to catch them when they crossed the line just outside the time allowed to pick up a single time penalty. This was Alex’s second appearance on a senior Nations Cup team with their first being earlier this year in Drammen.
Karl Robins from Gawcott, Buckinghamshire with his own 10 year-old bay mare G Camille HBF was also making his only second appearance today having also made his debut at Drammen on the same team as Alex. Mirroring exactly what delivered in Drammen, he posted another double round clear to return home with nothing to add and putting Great Britain into strong contention for a possible win.
The pressure was then piled onto the shoulders of Matthew Sampson from Aston, Sheffield with his own 10 year-old bay gelding Geneve R . If we were to secure a win Matt need to ensure he came home with 3 penalties or less and having produced a flawless first round all eyes were on him knowing that he was more than capable of delivering it again. Taking his time to set Geneve R as best he could at each fence, he rode an equally impressive round to finish clear to the finish line where he picked up just a single time penalty to assure GBR of the win.
Di Lampard, World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping said “We had such fantastic team spirit here today which saw them all work so well together. There was some outstanding performances; Karl at only his second Nations Cup produced his second double clear. Alex and Matt were both unfortunate to get a second round time penalty apiece in what was otherwise a great two rounds for each of them. I’d also like to add that Matt showed great maturity in the way he approached the final round as our anchor rider to clinch the win. It’s been a superb afternoon for British Showjumping today and we now look ahead to the Grand Prix.”
The Grand Prix will take place on Sunday 31 October. The Chef d’Equipe for the team is Di Lampard, the World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping.
For further information on the show and full results visit https://www.sunshinetour.net/
British Showjumping would like to thank NAF, title sponsors of the Senior Nations Cup Teams along with the Pony, Children, Junior, Young Rider and Veteran teams.
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