Samsung Super League: Switzerland takes the lead

Switzerland came out on top in a super-tight finish to the Dutch leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League series in Rotterdam today and now stands top of the league table.It would be difficult to imagine a more exciting conclusion to any show jumping competition with last man in, Pius Schwizer, running into trouble at the end of the course but still managing to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

At the end of the day the scoreboard showed Switzerland with just a one-point advantage over the joint-runners-up from Germany and Belgium while the Irish at last scraped off the bottom of the leaderboard when slotting into fourth with a much-improved performance, but the French were struggling when having to settle for fifth while luck still evades the Dutch who were sixth. The British finished a disappointing seventh while the inexperience of the new rotation of American riders showed as they wound up last. However, after the superb run from their predecessors, the USA still lies only 0.5 points behind Switzerland at the head of the league table and it is still all to play for.

There were four double-clear rounds during the day - two each from the winning team and from Germany - and Switzerland's Markus Fuchs produced one of these with La Toya. Fuchs described Linda Allen's track as "not really tough but very, very clever and a little bit sharp because you had to be 100% correct with your turns - if you got them wrong you had big problems - it was a little bit different" he said.

He got his line just right all the way however and when Steve Guerdat (Tijl Van Het Pallieterland) and Fabio Crotta (Mme Pompadour) did the same then Pius Schwizer and the aptly-named Unique did not have to jump as they could not improve on their side's zero score.

Germany lay second at the halfway stage following clears from both Christian Ahlmann (Coster) and Marcus Ehning (Gitania) while both Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Checkmate) and Lars Nieberg (Lucie) collected just four faults each. Joining them on a first-round four-fault score were the surprising Irish who had a shaky start when Billy Twomey and Anastasia arrived home with 10 faults on the board but who rallied with clears from both Harry Marshall (Ado Annie) and Clem McMahon (Gelvin Clover) while Jessica Kurten ensured Twomey's score could be discounted when bringing Castle Forbes Maike home with just one fence on the floor.

The French and Belgians were tied on eight faults after round one while Great Britain carried nine and the Dutch and Americans had already clocked up 12 faults apiece.

Another 24 faults in round two put paid to American chances however - Aaron Vale's total of 20 faults proving expensive - while the British were only marginally better when adding 21 to their tally as Ellen Whitaker failed to maintain the good form she showed in the earlier rounds of the series.

The Dutch were hampered by a second-round 16-fault result for Leon Thijssen (Nairobi) while Frenchman Philippe Leoni (Cyrenaike FRH) collected a colossal personal total of 36 faults to do his side no favours so the real battle was waged in the closing stages between the remaining four nations.

The Belgians were really impressive this time out. Dirk Demeersman (Clinton) produced their only first-round clear but both Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe (Osta Rugs Tresor) and Jos Lansink (Cavalor Cumano) left the second-round course intact and with just a single mistake from Ludo Philippaerts (Parco) they completed with 12 faults.

Ahlmann and Ehning went clear again for Germany but Lars Nieberg's mare Lucie picked up a total of 19 faults over the two rounds and when Meredith's Checkmate had a foot in the water in round one and then two more fences down next time out they had to make do with a 12-fault total also.

The Irish waned a little in the second round with double-errors for both Marshall and McMahon following a much-improved four-fault result for Twomey but they relied heavily on their last rider Jessica Kurten who, fortunately, managed to bring her mare home without incident to leave her side on a 16-fault total.

Despite foot-perfect runs from both Fuchs and Guerdat, Swiss supremacy was threatened when Crotta and Mme Pompadour came home with 16 second-round faults and that piled the pressure on their final partnership.

Going last for your side is never an easy thing and going last in a nations cup competition with everything depending on your performance is even more daunting - Pius Schwizer knows all about that after today.

Its difficult to work out if it's best to run a horse in the first round even if he doesn't have to jump in order to ensure that he has seen the fences before the second round commences, and perhaps this may have had some bearing on the drama that ensued when Unique came into the ring to decide the final result.

Clear all the way to the second-last fence he slammed on the brakes there however but somehow Pius managed to maintain his composure, bring the horse round again, clear the fence and continue to the final double where he took out the first element but left the second element up. The clock showed three time penalties, they had collected eight jumping faults but their total of 11 faults still left Switzerland one fault ahead of the Germans and Belgians and it was all over.

"I've been competing now for almost 35 years but I've never seen such a funny finish to a nations cup class!" said a bemused Markus Fuchs afterwards.

He believes his country has joined the Samsung Super League series at just the right time "because until now we were not ready to compete at this level - now we have several good horse and rider partnerships and we are much stronger" he pointed out.

However he has no illusions about the place his team finds itself at the halfway stage of the 2005 series - "the first five teams are grouped so closely together, we may be ahead but only slightly" he said.

The narrowest of margins separates the Swiss from the Americans while Germany, Great Britain and France are all close behind and the bottom of the league table is as tightly-contested as the top end with the Belgians holding a three-point lead over the Irish but the Dutch only 0.5 further adrift.

When the 2005 Samsung Super League resumes at Hickstead in six week's time the competition will be hotter than ever.

RESULTS:
1. Switzerland - 11 faults: La Toya (Markus Fuchs) 0/0, Tijl Van Het Pallieterland (Steve Guerdat) 0/0, Mme Pompadour M (Fabio Crotta) 0/16, Unique X CH (Pius Schwizer) DNS/11.
Equal 2. Germany - 12 faults: Checkmate (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) 4/8, Coster (Christian Ahlmann) 0/0, Gitania (Marcus Ehning) 0/0, Lucie (Lars Nieberg) 4/15.
Equal 2. Belgium - 12 faults: Osta Rugs Tresor (Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe) 4/0, Clinton (Dirk Demeersman) 0/8, Cavalor Cumano (Jos Lansink) 4/0, Parco (Ludo Philippaerts) 8/4.
4. Ireland - 16 faults: Anastasia (Billy Twomey) 10/4, Ado Annie (Harry Marshall) 0/8, Gelvin Clover (Clem McMahon) 0/8, Castle Forbes Maike (Jessica Kurten) 4/0.
5. France - 24 faults: First de Launay (Florian Angot) 0/4, Cyrenaika FRH (Philippe Leoni) 16/20, Hooligan de Rosyl (Bruno Broucqsault) 0/8, Crocus Graverie (Gilles Bertran de Balanda) 8/4.
6. Netherlands - 28 faults: Audi's Jikke (Eric van der Vleuten) 4/4, BMC Nassau (Jeroen Dubbeldam) 8/8, Nairobi (Leon Thijssen) 4/16, Eurocommerce Monaco (Gerco Schroder) 4/4.
7. Great Britain - 30 faults: Exploit du Roulard (John Whitaker) 5/5, AK Locarno (Ellen Whitaker) 12/9, Nicolette (Robert Whitaker) 0/8, Cortaflex Mondriaan (William Funnell) 4/8.
0/12, Vegas (Christine Tribble) 4/4, Flier (Todd Minikus) 8/8.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE LEADERBOARD (after Round 4 in Rotterdam):
1. Switzerland - 22
2. USA - 21.5
3. Germany - 21
4. Great Britain - 20.5
5. France - 20
6. Belgium - 10.5
7. Ireland - 7.5
8. Netherlands - 7.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE - NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!

For further information on the fourth leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League series in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on Friday 17 June contact Press Officer Anita Lussenburg - email anita.lussenburg@ingram.nl, tel:             +31104526729       or             +31104528900      , fax +31104531555. Show Organiser's emailaddress is info@chio.nl and WEBSITE is at www.chio.nl.

PLEASE NOTE that PRESS ACCREDITATION for the fifth leg of the Samsung Super League series at HICKSTEAD on Friday July 25th is available now by contacting jeffery.communications@btopenworld.com, tel:             +441643 831011       or fax: +441643 831040 or on the website www.hickstead.co.uk. Accommodation list is also available on website.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE 2005 CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

ROUND 1 - La Baule (Fra) 5-8 May; ROUND 2 - Rome (Ita) 26-29 May; ROUND 3 - St Gallen (Sui) 02-05 June; ROUND 4 - Rotterdam (Ned) 16-19 June; ROUND 5 - Hickstead (GBR) 28-31 July; ROUND 6 - Dublin (Irl) 03-07 August; ROUND 7 - Aachen (Ger) 23-28 August; ROUND 8 and FINAL - Barcelona (Esp) 15-18 September.

MBPtv BROADCAST SCHEDULE FOR FOURTH LEG OF THE 2005 SAMSUNG SUPER
LEAGUE SERIES IN ROTTERDAM:

NOS (Netherlands) - Fri 17 June 17.00
CNBC Asia - Check local service
CNBC Europe - Sat 9 July 17.00
Equidia (France) - Sun 19 June 21.45
espnstar (Pan Asia) - Tues 28 June 17.00, Weds 29 June 04.30, 05.00,
17.00
Eurosport - Weds 22 june 20.00, Fri 24 June 09.00
Finnish Sports TV - Mon 4 July 20.00
Fox Sports (Middle East) - Thurs 14 July 10.00
Horse TV (USA) - Check local service
M-Net (Pan Africa) - Weds 6 July 22.30, Thurs 7 July 11.30, Fri 8
July 09.00, Sat 9 July 04.30, Tues 12 July 18.00
Sport Expressen (Sweden) - Check local service
Sport TV (Portugal) - Check local service
TSI (Switzerland) - Check local service
TVE Teledeporte (Spain) - Check local service

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.