Belgium’s Verlooy drawn first in Final opener

Belgium’s Jos Verlooy and the 11-year-old Luciano van het Geinsteinde will be first into the arena when the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final 2022 kicks off tomorrow in Leipzig, Germany.

The draw for order-of-go in the first of the three competitions that will decide the title took place tonight, and a total of 35 horse-and-rider combinations from 19 countries will battle it out this week including defending champion, and three-time winner, Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat. USA’s Margie Engle is withdrawn.

Riding the 13-year-old gelding Victorio des Frotards, and starting 33rd in tomorrow’s opening Speed round, Guerdat will face stiff opposition from a star-studded field that includes compatriot Martin Fuchs who will follow him into the ring with Chaplin.

This is the 42nd Final in the history of the series that began back in 1978.  

The action gets underway at 14.35 local time, so don’t miss a hoofbeat….

Facts and Figures:

Defending Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ champion is Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat who is chasing his fourth victory in the long-running series. 

He posted wins in 2015 with Albfuehren’s Paille, in 2016 with Corbinian and at the last Final in 2019 with Alamo.  

He is one of five riders who have won the FEI World Cup™ Jumping title on three occasions. The others are Hugo Simon (AUT), Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Marcus Ehning (GER) and Rodrigo Pessoa from Brazil. Pessoa is the only rider to have won three back-to-back titles on the same horse, the stallion Baloubet du Rouet.

If Guerdat comes on top again this year he will become the first four-time champion.

The first FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final took place in Gothenburg in 1979 where Austria’s Hugo Simon won with Gladstone.

The youngest rider competing at year’s Final is Great Britain’s Jack Whitaker who is 20. His uncle, the legendary John Whitaker who with the great Milton won back-to-back titles in 1990 and 1991, is also lining out at the age of 66.

This is the third time for the Final to take place in the German city of Leipzig. Otto Becker, now Chef d’Equipe for the German Jumping team, won with Dobel’s Cento when it was first staged in Leipzig in 2002 and in 2011 another German star, Christian Ahlmann, reigned supreme with Taloubet Z.

Complete startlist here