German gun Marcus Ehning confirmed in Geneva that he is the ultimate international competitor by winning his 3rd World Cup Final on his 2 horses Noltes Kuchengirl & Plot Blue. 1,000 congratulations!
He also celebrated his 36th birthday yesterday April 19th along with his 2010 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping crown. In the Palexpo arena in Geneva, Switzerland on April 18th he kept the coolest head despite an early mistake & won through when those ahead of him faltered. This was his 3rd time to take the prestigious Rolex title & he said "it's really unbelievable - I thought I was too far behind going into the last round but this is how it works out - I am so happy!"
Germany dominated the winner’s podium when Ludger Beerbaum produced 1 of just 4 double-clear performances in the final competition to finish joint-runner-up with Switzerland's Pius Schwizer. And the thrilling class highlighted some great characters & new arrivals, but shattered the dream of America's Mario Deslauriers who seemed like he was about to re-take the title he first claimed 26 years ago in Gothenburg, only to see it slip from his grasp in the fading moments.
CLASSIC TESTS:
Course designer Rolf Ludi presented 2 more classic tests, but only 7 of the 29 starters got it right in the first round & when Deslauriers & his brilliant 9 year old Dutch gelding Urico were amongst them, it further bolstered their position at the top of the leaderboard after the first 2 legs. The flimsy planks at fence 4, the vertical following a tight left-hand bend at 7 & the water-tray oxer at fence 10, ridden on a 3-stride distance from the previous 1.60m FEI vertical, proved the bogeys here - but when Ehning's Plot Blue clipped the very last - a wall with beautifully-carved Swiss cows decorating the top of it - it seemed his chances were scuppered. With only 4 points separating the top 4 riders going into the final day every mistake was critical, but third-placed Schwizer lowered the bogey planks while fourth-placed Patrice Deleveau of France kicked out the oxer at fence 2, so Ehning only slipped 1 place to third at the end of the opening round of jumping.
Ahead of him now was Portugal's Luciana Diniz who set the opening competition alight with a super speed round from Winningmood last Thursday and whose grey stallion showed fantastic form again during the final when effortlessly clearing the first-round track to rocket up the order. She was lying 5 points off Deslauriers' lead as the second round began over a completely new course, with Ehning in third, and Schwizer sharing fourth with Beerbaum whose mare, Gotha, made it all look elementary first time out.
LEVEL PEGGING:
It fell apart for Deleveau when Katchina Mail had 2 down over the final track, but clears from both Beerbaum's Gotha & Schwizer's Carlina, who is also only a 9 year old, left them on level pegging & piled the pressure on the remaining 3.
Ehning's 13 year old stallion was rock solid this time out however & when they crossed the line with nothing to add they threw down the gauntlet for the top 2. Diniz had little room for error with only a single-point advantage over the German 2-time World Cup title-holder & although she survived a good rattle at the opening vertical, her luck ran out when Winningmood hit the vertical at fence 10, just 2 from home. Like Diniz, who changed from Brazilian nationality to ride for Portugal in recent years, Deslauriers recently opted to ride for the USA instead of his native Canada. And the 45 year old rider was hoping to bring home the coveted Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping title to the US for the first time in 22 years. But the 9 year old Urico, who had been so consistent all week, seemed to lose his rhythm halfway round the track & 3 fences down dashed the dream of reclaiming the title he previously won a full 26 years ago. In the final analysis he had to settle for sixth place while Dermott Lennon enjoyed a meteoric rise up the leaderboard from joint-14th to finish fifth after 2 stunning rounds with Hallmark Elite who seems set to return the quiet Irishman to the top end of the sport after a long absence since his World Championship title win 8 years ago.
Diniz slotted into fourth behind Schwizer & Beerbaum in joint-second place. The champion's glory all belonged to Ehning once again.
MOTIVATED:
"After the first round I thought it was all over" he said afterwards, "but I motivated myself again and decided to fight back. I would have been very happy to have finished second and I feel very sorry for Mario who had such a great show" he added graciously. Ehning is the first-ever rider to win the World Cup title having jumped 2 different horses - Noltes Kuchengirl jumping in the first day's speed class & Plot Blue completing the job on Friday & again in the final.
Ludger Beerbaum was well-pleased with his result with Gotha, a daughter of Goldfever, and he too was pleasantly surprised when finding himself so high up the order. "I was hoping for a top-5 place, so this is fantastic" he said. And he was highly complementary of Rolf Ludi's course-design skills. "It is a difficult job when you have so many good riders & horses - when you try to challenge them things can easily go wrong but he got the balance right with nice courses, some new obstacles & plenty of drama right to the end - it was a perfect result" he pointed out.
This 32nd Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping final put the spotlight on many great characters of the sport including 46 year old Chris Chugg of Australia who, despite lying 267th in the world rankings, produced a series of brilliant performances from his 11 year old stallion Vivant & furthermore, who was a crowd-pleaser everytime he came in the ring. Deslauriers too won his way into the hearts of the Swiss spectators who enjoyed a feast of fabulous jumping over the last 5 days but the star was eventually Ehning who now joins Austria's Hugo Simon, Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa & fellow-German Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum as a 3-time World Cup champion.
RESULT (After 3 legs of final):
1, Noltes Kuchengirl/Plot Blue (Marcus Ehning) Ger 6; Equal 2, Gotha (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger, Carlina/Ulysse (Pius Schwizer) Sui 7; 4, Winningmood (Luciana Diniz) Por 9; 5, Hallmark Elite (Dermott Lennon) Irl 10; 6, Urico (Mario Deslauriers) USA 13; Equal 7, Silvana (Kevin Staut) Fra, Cristallo (Richard Spooner) USA, Vivant (Chris Chugg) Aus 14; 10, Quintero la Silla (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe
15. Full results at www.scg-nl.nl
QUOTES:
- Sophie Mottu, Geneva Show Director - "we have spent 2 years planning for this Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping final and have given it all of our hearts and our passion - there have been great moments and difficult ones but we have come up with a wonderful result"
- Pius Schwizer - "it has been a pleasure to compete here at home in Switzerland - I'm very proud of this wonderful show"
- Ludger Beerbaum talking about Gotha - "I've had her since she was 4 years old - her breeder asked me to look at her because she is by Goldfever, and I took her to compete when she was 6 years old. She was second in the Youngster class at her first international show in La Baule & she grows stronger all the time. In the last year she has been very consistent".
FACTS & FIGURES:
- 29 riders from 12 nations started in today's final competition.
- The USA had the largest numbers of starters, 7 in total
- Four riders jumped double-clear
- One of these was Switzerland's Jane Richard who only got the wild-card call-up 11 days ago
- There were 7 first-round clears
- One rider retired - Great Britain's Michael Whitaker with GIG Amai
- This was Marcus Ehning's third victory in the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series. He previously won with Anka in Las Vegas in 2003 & with Sandro Boy at Kuala Lumpur in 2006
For further information check, http://www.worldcupgeneva.com/
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR WESTERN EUROPEAN LEAGUE:
1. Oslo (Norway) 9-11 October
2. Helsinki (Finland) 15-18 October
3. Lyon (FRA) 28 Oct-1 November
4. Verona (Italy) 5-8 November
5. Stuttgart (Germany) 15-22 November
6. London-Olympia (Great Britain) 15-21 December
7. Mechelen (Belgium) 26-30 December
8. Leipzig (Germany) 21-24 January
9. Zurich (SUI) 28-31 January
10. Bordeaux (France) 5-7 February
11. Vigo (Spain) 11-14 February
12. Gothenburg (Sweden) 25-28 February
13. s'Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands) 25-28 March
FINAL - Geneva (Switzerland) 14-18 April