It was as though the course were jinxed: although
some 90 riders had competed in the qualifier, of which 23 of
them moved forward into the winning round, with 18 of them
having gone clear in the first round, there were only a total of
3 of them to remain clear in the winning round.
The others had their problems with the technical challenges that
course designer Rob Jansen / NED and his assitant Franz Madl /
AUT has built into the 1.40 high and difficult course.
Especially the 4th obstacle of the jump-off caused problems for
the participating riders, since the path proved too long for
many of them to keep their rhythm and correct strides. With the
exception of 8 riders, all the others had one down precisely at
that jump.
One rider, however, delivered not only a clear but also perfect
and fast round:
Tobias Meyer / GER, the former Junior European
Champion and German National Squad member found his perfect line
and combined the precisely fitting strides with persistence and
ambition. This brought him today's win in the EYCup, which is
all the more remarkable since his horse, Boris, is only 7 years
old. The stallion is by Fetiche du Pas, and completed the
winning round in the jump-off in only 35.07 sec.
With another clear round in the jump-off and 37.32 secs,
Landhut-based German rider
Stefanie Schäbel rode the Landkaiser x
Argentinus daughter Landana to 2nd place.
Croatian rider
Janka Krasovec, who is from Zagreb, had already
impressed yesterday, and today she followed suit when, in 37.83
secs., she rode her Holstein gelding Cabano (2nd place in
yesterday's competition) to 3rd place, delivering the only other
clear round in the jump-off.
Marielle Margreiter / AUT once more was
the best Austrian rider: she went clear in the first round, had
8 faults in the jump-off and thus ended up 16th overall. |