The British are drawn first to go in today's opening round of the 2006 Samsung Super League at La Baule, France and this year's series looks set to be another real thriller with huge pressure on teams due to the intensity of the action at the early part of the season.
The draw for the opening leg is as follows - 1, Great Britain; 2, The Netherlands; 3, Switzerland; 4, USA; 5, Germany; 6, France; 7, Ireland; 8, Sweden - and the British side will include Nick Skelton, John Whitaker, Tim Gredley and Mark Armstrong.
Now in its fourth year the Samsung Super League is firmly established and has become a real battle-ground for supremacy between the elite show jumping nations in the world. Last season the Americans were victorious at La Baule on their Super League debut and then went on to head the line-up in Aachen, eventually also claiming the series title following consistently good results. They are back again with Chef d'Equipe George Morris who has selected Margie Goldstein-Engle, Lauren Hough, McLain Ward and Jeffery Welles for the task of getting the 2006 series off to the best possible start.
With the World Equestrian Games in Aachen now only a few months away, selectors from all countries are using the Samsung Super League competitions to test their potential team candidates and Mr Morris said yesterday that he is pleased with the new level of "subjectivity" that had been introduced into the US selection process. The Americans are once again fielding two separate sides during the early part of the series, with the team that is competing at the French venue also travelling to Aachen before being replaced by a second group of riders for the following three events in Rome, Lucerne and Rotterdam. German Chef d'Equipe, Kurt Gravemeier, has confirmed that he has seven riders on his World Equestrian Games short-list at the moment including Ludger Beerbaum, Marcus Ehning, Marco Kutscher, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Christian Ahlmann, Otto Becker and Lars Nieberg and Ahlmann, Beerbaum, Ehning and Kutscher are in La Baule so this will be the team to beat. By the time Hickstead takes place at the end of July the final WEG selections will have been confirmed, and then there will only be the second-last leg of the series in Dublin in early August before the Samsung Super League Final which once again will be staged in Barcelona.
The home side squad today includes Christian Hermon, Florian Angot, Herve Godignon and Michel Robert who is making his team come-back after a year's absence. The French finished sixth at the end of last season and will be hoping to do considerably better this time around. The Dutch finished one place better, in fifth, greatly assisted by their final-round victory on the day when the Irish managed to survive despite incredible odds and when the Belgians slipped to the bottom of the league table and dropped out of the Super League. The Netherlands squad field the team of Leopold Van Asten, Gerco Schroder, Jurgen Stenfert and Albert Zoer while the Irish line-up includes two of their Samsung Super League 2005 finalists Shane Breen and Capt Shane Carey who will compete alongside Conor Swail and Edward Doyle. Daniel Etter, Markus Fuchs, Gregoire Oberson and Pius Schwizer make up the Swiss selection while Swedish Chef d'Equipe Maria Gretzer demonstrates that female talent for multi-tasking by also climbing into the saddle to join Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Svante Johansson and Royne Zetterman. The Swedes will be taking the 2006 series very seriously indeed because they learned a hard lesson when filling that dreaded eighth place on the leaderboard at the end of 2004, subsequently suffering relegation to the ordinary Samsung Nations Cup series. "We didn't pay enough attention to the challenge the Super League presented at the time, but this year we have decided on our strategy and we are fully focused on what we have to do" Gretzer said today.
An improved prize-fund, offering 125,000 CHF to the winning team and a bonus of 50,000 CHF to the leading rider provide extra incentives this season and with four legs taking place over the next five weeks the 2006 Samsung Super League looks set to be a fast and furious affair. On her first official visit in her new role as FEI President, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan will be present as the 2006 Samsung Super League battle begins on French soil this afternoon....
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE - NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE 2006 CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
ROUND 1 - La Baule (Fra) 4-7 May; ROUND 2 - Aachen (Ger) 17-21 May; ROUND 3, Rome (Ita) 25-28 May; ROUND 4 - Lucerne (Sui) 1-4 June; ROUND 5 - Rotterdam (Ned) 22-25 June; ROUND 6 - Hickstead (GBR) 26-30 July; ROUND 7 - Dublin (Irl) 9-13 August; ROUND 8 and FINAL - Barcelona (Esp) 14-17 September.
You can access all the latest Samsung Super League news and information on website www.samsungsuperleague.com and don't forget that BIOGRAPHIES on all riders competing in the series are available at http://bios.horsesport.org.
Want to know more? You can check the full RULES for the Samsung Super League series on the FEI website, www.horsesport.org - section jumping/rules.
The Samsung Super league consists of the eight most prestigious horse shows at which the world's eight best national teams compare their merit. The Super League is connected to the Samsung Nations Cup series through a promotion/relegation system at the end of each season.
Samsung Electronics, one of the world's largest electronics companies, is committed to supporting international sporting events thereby returning corporate profits to the public and working towards a more harmonious and equitable society.
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