Local Weimann Outclasses All Star Field at EQUITANA
Victorian Katja Weimann has outclassed an all-star field including Olympians Shane Rose, Sonja Johnson and Megan Jones to claim the 2014 Exhibition Eventing Equestrian Grand Final. In winning the title Weimann becomes the first female to take the coveted crown.
Weimann was cheered to victory by an enthusiastic crowd which gathered at the outdoor arena of the Melbourne Showgrounds to watch the popular modified take on traditional eventing which sees combinations perform a dressage test before completing a combined show jumping and cross country course.
Most combinations struggled with the technical course with many accumulating penalties through refusals and knocked show jumping rails but Weimann and her horse BP Cosmopolitan made the course look easy, producing a clear round which included safe passage over a joker fence (which when successfully cleared wipes four penalties from a riders’ score). It saw them leap from fifth position after the dressage phase to take the lead and title.
Weimann and her homebred BP Cosmopolitan only last week competed at the Australian International Three Day event CCI4* where they finished in fourth place. Earlier in the year the combination also won this the Melbourne Grand Final qualifying event.
“He (BP Cosmopolitan) has been there and done that kind of atmosphere before so he coped with that really well and coming off the back of Adelaide last weekend where there was a big crowd he was pretty relaxed about it all.”
“The cross country at Adelaide was a big ask as that was his first CCI4* but he pulled up super. He had couple of days off before brought him here. I tried not to warm him up too much, he is a pretty reliable jumper so I thought I would go out there and give it a go.”
A clear round for Murray Lamperd and Don Skipcello saw this pair rise to share second with Olympian Shane Rose and his 2012 Grand Final winning horse Virgil however Rose fared better in the dressage phase which saw him crowned outright runner up.
Rose and his horse Virgil were clear through the course and were on track to replicate their 2012 victory but they knocked the joker fence which cost him an additional 8 penalties to his score (knocking the joker fence adds 8 penalties to a rider’s score).
Fellow Olympians Megan Jones and Sonja Johnson competed on borrowed horses as did German Olympic and World Equestrian Games gold medallist Dirk Schrade. Jones and Johnson finished fifth and sixth respectively ahead of Tallara Barwick and Copabella Verdi who moved from 10th after the dressage phase to finish in fourth.
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