Great Britain's Team Audevard land second place in the Longines EEF Nations Cup of Deauville Semi Final and will make their team debut in the Final in Poland
Friday 21 June 2024
.jpg "Great Britain's Team Audevard land second place in the Longines EEF Nations Cup of Deauville Semi Final and will make their team debut in the Final in Poland")
Great Britain, jumping under the title sponsor banner of Team Audevard, pulled out all the stops to take a podium place and qualify for the Longines EEF Series Final at Deauville’s Nations Cup Semi Final in France. This is the first time Britain will contend this Final which takes place on 8 September in Warsaw, Poland.
“They were awesome. They worked well as a team with lots of advice going round over a tough course against tough, close competition with fine margins on all the scores,” said a delighted Chef d’Equipe Matt Lanni.
Ten teams came forward to bid for the coveted five finalist qualifying places over course-designer Yann Royant’s 12-fence 1.50m track with Britain drawn sixth in the original order.
The team worked hard to finish on a score of four faults at the halfway stage with Jodie Hall-McAteer on Mandy Hall’s Hardessa and anchor Robert Murphy aboard Jos Lansink Horses’ Kannem J.A. Z producing foot-perfect clears. Pathfinder Mark Edwards riding Martyn Edwards’ Dillinger NE and Adrian Whiteway with Deborah Cox’s Chacco Volo came home with just one mistake each to finish on a total of four. But it was tight, with pressure and resolve hardened for round two. Spain fielded a strong team to stand at the top of the leaderboard on a zero score with Finland, France, Sweden and Britain bunched together all on four faults and Ireland only one fault behind on five.
Mark and the Diarado nine-year-old Dillinger NE rectified their round one mistake at the vertical following the water but the late vertical before the penultimate double caught them second time out to again finish on four faults.
The pressure was now on the following three, and they upped their game. Jodie and the super-careful, big-jumping 12-year-old Berlin daughter Hardessa powered over the water and stormed home clear to keep Britain in contention.
Adrian, who was unlucky to tap out a rail at the middle element of the Longines combination in round one, pulled a superb clear out of the bag on the 11-year-old stallion Chacco Volo (Chacco-Blue x Carthago). The round clinched the qualifying place – now it was down to Robert to achieve a podium place for his team.
At this point, Spain could not be beaten as their first three riders had all supplied three clear rounds and they remained unreachable in the top spot on a zero score. But Robert justified his anchor position with a clean round well inside the time on the Kannan x Lux Z nine-year-old Kannem J.A. Z to ensure the team of second place only one fence behind to finish on a two-round total of four faults.
As other teams fell by the wayside, Ireland also jumped clear in round two to move up to third on a five-fault total. The two remaining qualifying places were decided on time between the four teams totalling 16 faults apiece with Sweden in fourth and Denmark grabbing fifth with only a 0.02 second advantage over France.
“The team got stronger in the second round and managed to keep their four-fault score. When Rob went in, we knew we’d qualified – that was our first target and getting second place was the bonus,” said Chef d’Equipe Matt. “This team have worked exceptionally hard in recent weeks to qualify in Luxembourg [for this semi-final] and [take fourth] in the 4* Nations Cup in Sopot [Poland] on the bounce and were still strong this weekend.
“It’s also great to see Rob and Jodie – who were on my pony European teams a few years ago – develop and be seen doing their stuff on senior teams.”
Longines EEF Nations Cup Deauville – Semi Final – 21 June 2024
1st Spain – 0/0
2nd Great Britain – 4/0
Mark Edwards & Dillinger NE – 4/4
Jodie Hall McAteer & Hardessa – 0/0
Adrian Whiteway & Chacco Volo – 4/0
Robert Murphy & Kannem J.A. Z – 0/0
3rd Ireland – 5/0
4th Sweden – 4/12
5th Denmark – 8/8
Image credit: Cecile Sablayrolles
