Australia in the Challenge Cup at the 2016 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final

Australia will contest the consolation final of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final after finishing Thursday's qualifying round in 18th position. The team of Edwina Tops-Alexander (Ego Van Orti), Julia Hargreaves (Vedor), Evie Buller (Stanley 151) and James Paterson-Robinson (Amarillo) finished on 37 penalties.

In 2015, Australia finished equal second in the Challenge Cup, sharing the podium with Brazil and France (after all three teams finished on 12 penalties) and will be looking for another strong performance in 2016. 

There were plenty of surprises in the first round of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping 2016 Final at the Real Club de Polo in Barcelona (ESP) today when Belgium, Germany and USA shared top spot on a zero score and the newly-crowned Olympic champions from France disappeared from the reckoning.

Only eight of the 18 participating sides could qualify for Saturday night’s spectacular finale, and the French missed out when slotting into eleventh place. However Switzerland, Great Britain and Italy have made the cut after finishing with four faults each, and the last two places went to The Netherlands and Ireland. The remaining nations - Brazil, Qatar, Spain, Austria, Egypt, Colombia, Mexico, Sweden and Australia - will now join the French in tomorrow night’s Longines Challenge Cup. 

The 80-seconds time-allowed over the track set by Spain’s Santiago Varela proved fairly easy to get, but his course certainly tested the 72 horse-and-rider partnerships that took it on. The bogey of the day was the final line from the oxer at fence 11 to the triple combination at 12 on a right-hand bend, and then the final planks at fence 13. Time and again horses either stood off or got too close to the oxer and had that down, and many were off-balance for the triple combination. “I think I gave them enough to do today” Varela said this evening. “I wanted to see how they would react to the arena because it has only been built since July and it takes time to be perfect, but the horses jumped very well on it and I think it was a great class!”

Result: 

1.    Germany 0 faults: Taloubet Z (Christian Ahlmann) 0, Pret a Tout (Marcus Ehning) 0, First Class van Eeckelghem (Daniel Deusser) 0, Casello (Ludger Beerbaum) 4.

1.    USA 0 faults: Ohlala (Lauren Hough) 0, Capital Colorado (Audrey Coulter) 8, Barron (Lucy Davis) 0, Zeremonie (Laura Kraut) 0.

1.    Belgium 0 faults: Bisquet Balou C (Nicola Philippaerts) 4, Cas de Liberte (Niels Bruynseels) 0, Grand Cru van de Rozenberg (Jerome Guery) 0, Coree (Gregory Wathelet) 0.

4.    Switzerland 4 faults: Quorida de Treho (Romain Duguet) 8, Corbinian (Steve Guerdat) 0, Lord Pepsi (Paul Estermann) 4, Clooney (Martin Fuchs) 0.

4.    Great Britain 4 faults: Big Star (Nick Skelton) 0, Viking (Michael Whitaker) 0, Ursula (Scott Brash) 4, Ornellaia (John Whitaker) 8.

4.    Italy 4 faults: Casallo Z (Piergiorgio Bucci) 0, Ensor de Litrange (Lorenzo de Luca) 0, Antonio (Gianni Govoni) 4, Tower Mouche (Bruno Chimirri) 4.

7.    Netherlands 8 faults: Emerald NOP (Harrie Smolders) 0, VDL Groep Arera C (Maikel van der Vleuten) 8, Caruso LS La Silla (Jeroen Dubbeldam) 8, Glock’s London NOP (Gerco Schroder) 0.

7.    Ireland 8 faults: Golden Hawk (Shane Breen) 8, Go Easy de Muze (Darragh Kenny) 4,, All Star (Denis Lynch) 4, MHS Going Global (Greg Broderick) 0.

Full result here 

Watch the competition live on feitv.org :

• Longines Challenge Cup : Saturday at 5am AEST
• Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Final, Final competition : Sunday at 5am AEST

‪#‎GoAUS‬ ‪#‎SupportYourNation‬ in the consolation final, the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Final – Longines Challenge Cup, live on feitv.org Saturday morning at 4:45am AEST.

Related News

• 22/09/2016 : Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping Final 2016 – Draw

• 18/09/2016 : 2016 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final Australian Team Announcement

• 26/09/2015 : Australia shares podium in the Challenge Cup 

• 25/09/2015 Australia to contest consolation round of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final