GB TAKE 4TH IN ROTTERDAM WITH UP & COMING TEAM
Friday 21 June 2013
The fourth Western European Division 1 leg of the Furusiyya FEI 5* Nations Cup took place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands this afternoon on the All Weather surface at Kralingseweg.
With this particular Nations Cup not being a league point qualifier for Great Britain, it gave World Class Showjumping Performance Manager, Rob Hoekstra, an opportunity to give three of the country’s most up and coming talented combinations an experience of top level team competition.
The team were fronted by Laura Renwick from Maldon, Essex with David Berry’s 11 year-old chestnut gelding Oz de Breve. Laura, who secured Great Britain a win at the third leg of the series at St Gallen took the role of pathfinder for the team. Jumping clear across all obstacles, she broke the finish line just 0.25seconds slower than the time allowed to receive a time penalty much to her all too evident dissapointment as there can't be anything worse having jumped such a big course clear. Time however, proved to be critical for all teams with a high number of riders all incurring time penalties despite looking like they were keeping the pace up.
The format for Nations Cup competitions is one where only the three best scores count with all four riders jumping two rounds each in the same order as their first appearance. Next to go was Dan Neilson from Billericay, Essex with Varo M an 11 year-old chestnut gelding owned by Stacey Willsone. With both Dan, aged 23 years and Varo M, making their first appearance on a top level Nations Cups team, incurring two fences down and a time penalty it was hoped that the two team mates to follow him would put in performances which would allow for his 9 penalties accrued to become the drop score.
Louise Saywell, also 23 years old from Nottingham with her father's (Michael) 10 year-old grey mare Winner IV only made their debut on senior teams this year and this was their first in the 5* league. Putting in a solid performance they were unlucky to incur a pole down and time penalty to finish on 5 penalties. A score that was matched by fourth team member William Whitaker, aged 23 years, from Yorkshire with Elizabeth Fedlund’s 10 year-old bay gelding Fandango when the last fence came down and just outside the time allowed.
With Great Britain sitting in 7th position on a total of 11 points, the young team representing us didn’t look as if they would move too far up the leaderboard. However, the primary focus for Rob Hoekstra was that the team gained experience and learnt from them which is something he reiterated to them. For Dan, Louise and William all of whom would have regularly competed together on youth teams the opportunity for them to compete at this level is a tremendous one and can only serve well for the future of the sport at international level.
Spending time discussing the course amongst themselves and with Rob, they looked confident coming into the second round. And so they should have, as their performances secured a climb up the board that spectators wouldn’t have expected.
With nations all notching up faults across the technical course designed by Louis Konickx of The Netherlands the team placings were continually changing as each rider finished. Laura Renwick was dissapointed to accrue 8 penalties around the course with two fences being lowered. However, Dan Neilson and Varo came out and put in a much improved performance than their first round coming through the finish on just 4 penalties.
It was next to go Louise Saywell that produced the sole clear round for the team within the time allowed. An extremely stylish rider, Louise drew comments from the commentators during her round on the tremendous talent that she is. She justified their comments by putting in an effortless clear within the time allowed and zero penalty score. This then put Great Britain into a much more solid position of obtaining a midway placing rather than finishing towards the latter end of the line up. With all eyes on William Whitaker, the team were delighted with his round that saw him within the time and just one pole rolling from the cups and 4 penalties incurred. This then gave Great Britain a finish score of 19 penalties and a wait to see how the other teams following them fared.
It was Germany who finally fought their way to win the first place with just 4 penalties, 1 penalty ahead of the United States who took 2nd place. France, slotted into 3rd place on 9 penalties with Great Britain coming 4th some 3 penalties ahead of Switzerland.
Further information and full results on the event can be found by visiting www.chio.nl. The Grand Prix takes place on Sunday 23rd June at 13:30 hrs local time.
The British Showjumping Teams are strongly supported by the UK Sport Lottery funded BEF World Class Programme.
Results:
1. Germany (4)
2. United States (5)
3. France (9)
4. Great Britain (19)
5. Switzerland (22)
6. Netherlands (26)
7. Belgium (26)
8. Spain (33)
.JPG "Sophia Rogers makes a winning return and Rachel Proudley claims a championship double at Pony of the Year Show")
