With two wins already giving them a significant advantage at the top of
the leaderboard, the German team goes for a hat-trick of Samsung Super
League with FEI victories when lining out at the Piazza di Siena in
Rome, Italy on Friday afternoon.
Such is the efficiency of the German show jumping machine that they
have been able to maintain their Super League profile without any great
effort since the series' inception in 2003 by occasionally sending out
their top guns and then substituting them with second-order riders, and
newly-crowned FEI World Cup champion Marcus Ehning has only had to go
into the ring once during the first two legs this season because his
team-mates had it all sewn up without his assistance.
The challenge of fielding four teams over a five-week period at the
beginning of the 2006 series has proved colossal to some of the smaller
nations, but this week's new-look German squad still looks strong with
Eva Bitter, Mylene Diederichsmeier, Heinrich Hermann Engemann, Ulrich
Kirchhoff and Franke Sloothaak flying the flag.
However under the management of show jumping legend George Morris. the
reigning Super League champions from America are getting stronger all
the time and despite last Friday's repeat success in Aachen, German
Chef d'Equipe, Kurt Gravemeier, expressed his concern about the US
threat. A close second at both the opening round in La Baule and again
last week the US riders looks confident and focused and it seems that
it is only a matter of time before things go their way.
Margie Goldstein-Engle, who had just a single fence error at last
week's German fixture, is the only remaining representative from the
first
group of US riders to line out again this time, and it may augur well
that she is joined by an all-female foursome including Molly Ashe,
Candice King, Laura Kraut and Christine McCrea. It was an all-girl
side that set the ball rolling for the US when winning the opening leg
in La Baule last season.
Lying third on the leaderboard at this early stage are the Swiss, and
veteran performer Markus Fuchs will be lining out once more, this time
joined by Daniel Etter, Willi Melliger, Werner Muff and Hansueli
Sprunger. The British and French are on level pegging in fourth spot
and while Jean-Maurice Bonneau chooses from Simon Delestre, Pierre
Jarry, Stephan Lafouge, Ludovic Leygue and Nicolas Paillot, the
British, defending champions in Rome, look particularly strong this
time out with new star Tim Gredley called up once again alongside Nick
Skelton, Robert Smith, Michael Whitaker and Mark Armstrong.
The Dutch, lying sixth, have only four points on the leaderboard to
date and will be looking for a good result from Wim Schroder, Harry
Smolders, Wout-Jan Van der Schans and Vincent Voorn to boost their
position and to edge them away from the Swedes who have just a
half-point less in seventh place. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson provided a
steadying influence to the Swedish effort last time out and is back in
action along with Svante Johansson, Johan Lundh, Lotta Schultz and
Peder Fredricson and they will be hoping that Sweden's nightmare
opening-round performance in La Baule was just a one-off glitch in an
otherwise smooth passage to the final in Barcelona in September.
The ones under most pressure this week are the Irish who, despite a
valiant effort in Aachen, are bottom of the table with just two points
under their belts to date. Not even second-round clears from both Capt
Shane Carey and Shane Breen could save them from finishing bottom of
the pile at last week's fixture and with the half-way stage of the
series looming in Lucerne next week they know they need to get to grips
with the 2006 Samsung Super League with FEI challenge as soon as
possible.
Relegation from the ranks of the elite show jumping nations in the
world is the penalty for finishing the series in eighth place, a fate
escaped only by the smallest of margins and thanks to a supreme effort
at the end of the 2005 season, and Irish team manager Robert Splaine
will be hoping to avoid the desperate struggle endured by the Irish
side at last year's Spanish finale this time around.
Splaine will choose the four Irish team members from a fresh squad that
includes Peter Charles, Ryan Crumley, Cameron Hanley, Marion Hughes and
Harry Marshall and they will have few illusions about what is expected
of them when they ride into the arena at the Piazza di Siena on Friday
afternoon.
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE WITH FEI 2006 : LEADERBOARD AFTER ROUND 2 AT
AACHEN:
1. GERMANY - 20
2. USA - 14
3. SWITZERLAND - 7.5
4. GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE - 7
6. THE NETHERLANDS- 4
7. SWEDEN - 3.5
8. IRELAND - 2
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE - NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!
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