Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Shutterfly Photograph:Kit Houghton/FEI

Mclain Ward riding Sapphire moved up to take 2nd place but couldn't negociate the second round quite as fast as Meredith and Shutterfly. Mclain commented after the final "If I would have to do it again, I would do it exactly the same way. Meredith and Shutterfly are the greatest pair in show jumping. They came up two seconds faster than me. Two seconds in three days of jumping, that’s a fine line. In sport that’s what it’s about.”

Albert Zoer from the Netherlands maintained his third position producing two superb clear rounds aboard his fighter Okidoki.

Meredith now joins other greats such as Ian Millar, Jos Lansink and Rodrigo Pessoa who have all won the Final by a clean sweep.

Results for the Final III

FEI Media

Friday 17 April

Meredith and Shutterfly narowly beat Christina Liebherr of Switzerland with a clear round and a time of 56.48sec in Final I held on Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. US rider McLain Ward aboard Sapphire took out third position in a tightly contested event where the top eight competitors all finished with clear rounds and were only separated by 3 seconds.

Australian rider Edwina Alexander was placed19th on Isovlas Itot Du Château whilst our other Australian rider Harley Brown finished in 33rd position.

All competitors who finished Final I are elegible to compete in Final II, a Table A competition not against the clock, which will be held on Friday night. The last competition, Final III , is scheduled to take place at midday on Sunday. The 2 round event will determine the overall winner of the World Cup Final.

The FEI have recently introduced a new video website www.FEITV.org where they will be screening coverage of the FEI World Cup Final competitions. The schedule of their coverage is as follows:

RESULTS