FEI World Cup Jumping Final: Meredith-Michaels Beerbaum claimed the 27th Title

Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum claimed the 27th FEI World Cup Jumping title in Las Vegas today where the closing stages kept spectators on the edges of their seats.

In the end it was a clear-cut victory but the 31 year old rider was obliged to compete under the greatest pressure and she held firm when the going got really tough.

She is the first woman to claim the trophy since Katharine Burdsall steered the Natural to success 18 years ago, in 1987, and the fourth woman ever to take the title. All the lady champions prior to this competed for the USA - Melanie Smith in 1982, Leslie Burr Lenehan in 1986 and Katharine Burdsall the following year.

Somehow today's title had Meredith's name written all over it.

Winner of the Top Ten Final last December and the first woman ever to hold the World No. 1 ranking she was feeling really at home all week as her family and friends had poured in from her home-place in California and they got exactly the result they were hoping for.

"This is my first individual title and is definitely the biggest win of my career" she said afterwards, "its a great privilege to be amongst the great names on this trophy - I'm very proud today" she added.

In the lead after the first two legs of the final on Thursday and Friday she went into today's two-round decider on a zero score but it was not all going to be plain sailing.

Course designer Guilherme Jorge produced two more masterpieces - "the first round was technical but not big" he explained, "but in the second round where there were less jumps I gave them a bigger test - I knew we now had only the best of the best left in the running and I built the track to test their scope" he pointed out.

Once again the contours of the small Las Vegas arena took their toll as riders found themselves severely punished for awkward approach lines and unbalanced turns.

Lying 10th, America's Kimberley Frey and Marlou were one of several partnerships to run into trouble at the combination placed along the ringside, hitting the front element for four faults, but next in, Germany's Ludger Beerbaum and his lovely young stallion Couleur Rubin, were foot-perfect until making a mistake at the very last of the 13 fences.

Britain's Michael Whitaker and Portofino picked up just a single time fault however and this rocketed them up the leaderboard when Markus Beerbaum (Constantin) and Marcus Ehning (Gitania) each faulted at the treble but Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet du Rouet stayed right in the contention with a classy clear.

First-day winner Ludo Philippaerts dropped out of it with three mistakes from Parco and the leaderboard was further altered when both of the Germans lying in second spot added to their scores.

Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst and Candy hit the vertical at fence six while Lars Nieberg's Lucie stopped at the first element of the treble before completing and when Meredith and Shutterfly also fell victim here, hitting the final element, it was looking wide open again going into round two.

Now Meredith was sharing pole position with Rodrigo, both carrying four faults when all rounds of jumping to date were taken into account while Michael Whitaker was just two faults further adrift in third spot ahead of Alois in fourth carrying 7 faults and Lars Nieberg, Marcus Ehning, Markus Beerbaum, Ludger Beerbaum and Nick Skelton lining up behind them in fifth spot all carrying 9 faults each.

Jorge's second round track was designed to test horses in several ways - a short-distance double of verticals at fence four, a long-distance double of big oxers at six and a difficult line from the vertical at seven to the following double at eight were always going to prove a challenge and Skelton was unseated when his stallion Arko did not make the distance between seven and eight and jammed on the brakes, throwing his rider over his head.

Constantin hit both elements of the big double at six to drop him out of it but Gitania managed to bring Marcus Ehning home clear despite rattling a number of poles along the way.

Lucie was clear for Lars Nieberg this time but Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst was demoted when Candy hit both the second element of six and front pole of eight, also picking up a time fault.

Whitaker however produced another great round from Portofino, adding just one more time fault to his tally, and under this kind of pressure that was always going to keep him in the frame so when Pessoa's Baloubet kicked out the front element of the tight double at four and then also clipped the following vertical the British rider knew he had the World Cup trophy in his hands if Meredith faltered when last into the ring.

His brother John claimed the coveted title with the great Milton in both 1990 and 1991 and this is one trophy Michael would very much like to hold for himself.

So when Meredith cantered into the arena she could afford only time penalties. Whitaker now had a total of seven faults while she carried four and there was little margin for error but Shutterfly never put a foot wrong.

Riding her lines to perfection, holding balance on her turns and both moving forward and holding back at just the right moments she steered a copybook round and the crowd rose to their feet as she galloped through the finish knowing that she now had the world at her feet.

"I was nervous after having the fence down in the first round but Shutterfly is in the best form ever and I just knew it was going to be my day today" she said afterwards.

She pointed out that placing sixth in the first speed leg seems to be opportune as the statistics show that riders have consistently won from this position. "Last year Bruno was sixth on day one and also won on the second day like I did, so there must be something in that" she pointed out. She normally relies on her husband Markus during her major competitions but it wasn't possible this time because he was competing in the same class and was drawn close to her today.

"Markus is the most supportive person to me, my success is his, but today I felt his absence" Meredith explained, but this lady rider proved that she has what it takes to make it on her own.

And there was romance in the air as the 27th World Cup Jumping final drew to a close in the Las Vegas yesterday evening. Olympic champion Anky van Grunsven, who took the FEI World Cup Dressage title just 24 hours earlier, married her long-time partner and trainer Sjef Janssen in a special Las Vegas wedding ceremony within an hour of the finish of the show jumping finale - a fitting end to a great week of sport in a city that has greeted equestrian sport with colossal enthusiasm.

"This week has been tremendous fun" Meredith concluded, "we've all really enjoyed Las Vegas, the crowds have been incredible and it has been an honor and pleasure for us all to compete here".

RESULT: (NOTE - FIRST NUMBER REFERS TO POINTS CARRIED INTO FINAL DAY - REMAINING NUMBERS RELATE TO FAULTS COLLECTED IN THIRD FINAL COMPETITION: 1, Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 0/4/0 = 4; 2, Portofino (Michael Whitaker) GBR 5/1/1 = 7; equal 3, Gitania (Marcus Ehning) Ger 5/4/0, Lucie (Lars Nieberg) Ger 3/6/0 = 9; 5, Marlou (Kimberley Frey) USA 6/4/0 = 10; 6, Isovlas Pialotta (Steve Guerdat) Sui 7/4/0 = 11; 7, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 4/0/8 = 12; 8, Cash (Marco Kutscher) Ger 6/8/1 = 15; equal 9, Parco (Ludo Philippaerts) Bel 4/12/0, Candy (Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst) Ger 3/4/9 = 16; 11, Constantin (Markus Beerbaum) Ger 5/4/8 = 17; equal 12, Ilian (Schuyler Riley) USA 14/4/0, Couleur Rubin (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger 5/4/9 = 18; 14, Quibell (Jessica Kuerten) Irl 16/0/4 = 20; 15, Hooligan de Rosyl (Bruno Broucqsault) Fra 11/5/5 = 21; equal 16, Sapphire (McLain Ward) USA 19/4/4, Tempete V/h Lindehof (Eric Lamaze) Can 13/13/1 = 27; 18, El Campeon's So Long (Nicole Simpson) USA 19/4/5 = 28; 19, Laguina (Richard Davenport) GBR 18/4/9 = 31; 20, Cyrenaika (Philippe Leoni) Fra 20/12/0 - 32; 21, Sandstone Laurin (Gabriella Salick) USA 20/12/9 = 41; 22, Arko (Nick Skelton) GBR 9/0/Elim; 23, Andante (Tina Lund) Den 21/12/ - 33.