Holland's Albert Zoer scored a resounding victory at the third leg of the 2005/2006 FEI World Cup Jumping series in Verona, Italy today. Riding the nine year old Oki Doki the flying Dutchman secured pole position with a super-fast round in the ten-horse jump-off.
The track set by Italian course-designer Giovanni Bussu created some surprising problems in the opening round with two falls, a total of four eliminations and retirement for both Tina Lund from Denmark riding Andante and for the experienced German partnership of Lars Nieberg and Loreana.
The twisting 12-fence course included a treble with a tight distance and it was here that Markus Beerbaum bit the dirt when Constantin tried to take the final element, an oxer that stood 1.50m high and wide, on just one stride instead of two while Holland's Judy-Ann Melchior parted company with Caridor Z when the pair got into a muddle at the second fence.
The remaining 34 starters managed to complete the course but just 10 left all the poles in place to qualify for the second-round jump-off.
The stadium was sold out for today's feature event which attracted six of the top-10 riders in the world and Markus Fuchs and La Toya were first to go against the clock before the 4,500 excited spectators. The veteran Swiss rider set a strong target when clear once again and his time of 39.72 seconds was always going to be competitive.
Belgium's Ludo Philippaerts and Kira 111 failed to challenge when leaving one on the floor in 42.88 seconds but Italy's Juan Carlos Garcia and the brilliant Loro Piana Albin re-set the parameters when breaking the beam without fault in 39.34. Reigning European Champion, Marco Kutscher from Germany, left two on the floor with Controe but the home supporters were rightly impressed when Beatrice Patrese steered Loro Piana Fanix de Rol to a second clear performance. The 20 year old Italian, a former European Junior gold medalist, is still competing at Young Rider level and is showing enormous promise, having established a firm partnership with her horse Fanix de Rol. Beatrice's father is a former Formula 1 motor racing driver so speed holds no fear for this young lady. However she was trailing fellow-countryman Garcia by more than two seconds when she cleared the line. Steve Guerdat squeezed into runner-up spot when stopping the clock in 39.53 seconds with Tijl Van Het Pallieterland but the Swiss rider's position was only temporary as Zoer's tour of the track was about to alter the leaderboard once more.
Fourth-last to go, and fully aware that he had Jean-Marc Nicolas, Ludger Beerbaum and Rodrigo Pessoa breathing down his neck, Zoer knew it was a case of all or nothing. His confidence already high after victory in Saturday's main event riding his other horse, Lincoln, the 30 year old rider from Echten in Holland decided to give it a shot. "I thought I could do it" he said afterwards. "I was not so surprised because Oki has a big stride and can go very, very fast". And fast he certainly was, racing around the ring in 39.11 seconds to really put it up to the final three.
Frenchman Nicolas picked up four faults with JPC Modesto Equifoam, the German duo of Beerbaum and Gladdys S collected eight faults and Brazil's Olympic champion Pessoa, who topped Friday's FEI World Cup preliminary competition with Richmond Park, also faulted with one down for Carlot. So it was to be the Dutchman's day and he was justifiably proud of his horse's performance. "Oki Doki is nine years old and I have had him for three years now. This has been a good year for us" Zoer said. "We've been placed in a lot of Grand Prix classes and we won the Grand Prix in Linkoping in Sweden in September and we were fourth in the Grand Prix at Zuidlaren" he added.
Today's result moves the Dutch rider into joint-third place on the FEI World Cup Jumping leaderboard which is still jointly-headed by Denmark's Linea Ericsson and Thomas Velin and the next leg of the series will take place in Stuttgart, Germany on Sunday 20 November.
Meanwhile the French leg of the series scheduled to take place in Paris on 4/5 March 2006 has been cancelled.
RESULT: 1, Oki Doki (Albert Zoer) Ned 0/0 39.11; 2, Loro Piana Albin (Juan Carlos Garcia) Ita 0/0 39.34; 3, Tijl Van Het Pallieterland (Steve Guerdat) Sui 0/0 39.53; 4, La Toya (Markus Fuchs) Sui 0/0 39.72; 5, Loro Piana Fanix de Rol (Beatrice Patrese) Ita 0/0 41.90; 6, Carlot (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 0/4 39.90; 7, JPC Modesto Equifoam (Jean Marc Nicolas) Fra 0/4 40.29; 8, Kira (Ludo Philippaerts) Bel 0/4 42.88; 9, Gladdys S (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger 0/8 39.89; 10, Controe (Marco Kutscher) Ger 0/8 41.74; 11, Kalusha (Robert Smith) GBR 4/67.20; 12, Checkmate (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 4/67.92; 13, Hooligan de Rosyl (Bruno Broucqsault) Fra 4/69.80; 13, VDL Groep Fleche Rouge (Leopold Van Asten) Ned 4/69.88; 15, MacKinley (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe 4/70.54; 16, Imperium (Jonella Ligresti) Ita 4/71.30; 17, Loro Piana Lemato (Roberto Arioldi) Ita 4/72.12; 18, Eurocommerce Montreal (Wim Schroder)§ Ned 6/78.98; 19, Guarana Champeix (Rutherford Latham) Esp 7/82.49; 20, Kilian (Giuseppe Rolli) Ita 8/66.79; 21, WU Equinox du Morin (Emanuele Fiorelli) Ita 8/66.92; 22, Loro Piana Lasita (Gianni Govoni) Ita 8/70.96; 23, Verelst Caracalla (Marc Van Dijck) Bel 8/71.68; 24, Osta Rugs Quintus (Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe) Bel 8/72.15; 25, Nelson Z (Richard Davenport) GBR 9/76.36; 26, Hofgut Liederbach's Ingmar (Pia-Luise Aufrecht) Ger 12/66.69; 27, Askoll Rosa (Vincenzo Chimirri) Ita 12/67.77; 28, Gitania (Markus Ehning) Ger 12/71.80; 29, Isaac du Jonquet (Mikael Forsten) Fin 12/72.73; 30, Favoritas (Nina Johnsen) Nor 13/76.54; 31, Landknecht (Bruno Chimirri) Ita 16/72.64; 32, Poncho (Conor Swail) Irl 25/74.89; 33, LP Zenzero di Santa Marta (Filippo Moyersoen) Ita 28/69.39; 34, Come On (Peter Weszits) Aut 32/70.79; Equal 35, Black Legend (Danai Tsatsou) Gre, Caridor Z (Judy-Ann Melchior) Bel, Constantin (Markus Beerbaum) Ger, Condillo (Alberto Coppari) Ita Eliminated; Equal 39, Andante (Tina Lund) Den, Loreana (Lars Nieberg) Ger Retired.
CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE - www.feiworldcup.org.
FEI WORLD CUP 2005/2006 LEADERBOARD - AFTER ROUND 3 IN VERONA:
Equal 1. Linnea Ericsson, Thomas Velin - 22
Equal 3. Gerco Schroder, Heinrich Hermann Engemann, Albert Zoer - 20
Equal 6. Beat Mandli, Piet Raymakers, Juan Carlos Garcia - 17
Equal 9. Philippe Leoni, Wim Schroder, Steve Guerdat - 15
Equal 12. Dermott Lennon, Franke Sloothaak, Markus Fuchs - 13
Equal 15. Ludo Philippaerts, Sergio Alvarez Moya, Beatrice Patrese -
12
Equal 18. Edwina Alexander, Sebastian Numminen, Tina Lund, Leopold Van
Asten, Rodrigo Pessoa - 11.
AT VERONA - Show President is Dott. Claudio Valente, Show Director is Maria Emer Agostini and Show Secretary is Roberta Agostini. Press Officer is Caterina Vagnozzi, Tel (mobile) +39 335610 7070 or email c.vagnozzi@iol.it. Website - www.veronafiere.it.
The next leg of the series takes place in Stuttgart, Germany on Sunday 20 November. Show Director is Gotthilf Riexinger - email info@handelsagentur-riexinger.de, Show Secretary is Christian Abel - email abel@pferdesport-bw.de and Press Officer is Hartmut Binder, MPS Marketing u. Presserservice GmBH, Tel. (mobile) +49172 972 2848 , email hartmut.binder@mps-agentur.de.
For all information about the FEI World Cup Jumping final in Kuala Lumpur (26-30 April) check out the website www.klworldcupfinal.com or contact Press Officer Lo Wai Fai at email waifai@asiapromote.net or Tel (mobile) +6012 209 0068 . Show Director is Peter Winton, email paw@asiapromote.net.
2005/2006 FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING SERIES - CALENDAR OF EVENTS:1, Helsinki (Finland) - 6/9 October; 2, Oslo (Norway) - 14/16 October; 3, Verona (Italy) - 4/6 November; 4, Stuttgart (Ger) - 16/20 November; 5, Geneva (Switzerland) - 8/11 December; 6, London-Olympia (Great Britain) - 13-19 December; 7, Mechelen (Belgium) - 26/30 December; 8, Leipzig (Germany) 19/22 January; 9, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) - 26/29 January; 10, Bordeaux (France) - 3/5 February; 11, Vigo (Spain) - 9/12 February; 12, 's-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands) - 23/26 March; 13, Goteborg (Sweden) - 13/16 April. Final Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 26/30 April.
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