The Swiss have the Edge as Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ comes to Rome

After the thrilling opening leg in La Baule, France 11 days ago, the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ comes to the Piazza di Siena in Rome this week with Switzerland heading Sweden at the top of the leaderboard and Ireland and Great Britain filling the last two places.

Under the newly-devised Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ rules, the two countries finishing the eight-leg series at the bottom of the table will be relegated and replaced in 2010 by the two leading nations from the 2009 Promotional League. So the battle to stay in the premiership of international jumping has been made tougher than ever this season, and the introduction of two extra teams, bringing the number of participating nations from eight to 10, has further increased the tension and pressure.  

WELL-ARMED

Swiss Chef d'Equipe, Rolf Grass, brings only one of his winning team to Rome - Steve Guerdat who will celebrate his 28th birthday in two weeks' time - but he looks well-armed with Christina Liebherr and Daniel Etter who have both been showing great recent form while the relatively untried 31 year old Clarissa Crotta will get her chance to show what she can do.

The Swedish side was the biggest surprise at the opening fixture - Svante Johansson going into a thrilling third-round head-to-head with Switzerland's Markus Fuchs to decide the result. Like the Italians, the Swedes suffered relegation during the six-year Samsung Super League with FEI series but they never stopped fighting to get back in the game and Johansson is joined by La Baule team-mate Malin-Baryard Johnsson together with Jens Fredricson and Lotta Schultz. 

Dutch team manager, Rob Ehrens, has opted for a completely new selection to the one that placed equal-third last time out. He has called up Nathalie Van Der Mei, Jur Vrieling and father-and-son Eric and Maikel Van der Vleuten. The Netherlands shared third spot with Germany, but the German squad travelling to Rome is all-new. Heinrich-Hermann Engemann replaces Otto Becker as Chef d'Equipe while the rider line-up includes Janne-Friederike Meyer, Thomas Muhlbauer, Holger Wulschner and Carsten-Otto Nagel.

The French really rose to the occasion on their return to the top end of the sport after a year's absence, and Nicolas Delmotte is the only change to the side that finished fifth as Timothee Anciaume, Penelope Leprovost and Kevin Staut are called into action once again. Belgium finished sixth in La Baule, but Niels Bruynseels is the only remaining member of that team as Chef d'Equipe, Lucien Somers, sends out Dirk Demeersman, Rik Hemeryck and Peter Postelmans to fight at his side this week.

BUZZ

The Americans always create a buzz of excitement wherever they go and team manager, George Morris, has three rotations of riders for the European summer tour - Laura Kraut, Lauren Hough, Richard Spooner and Ashlee Bond his choice from the current squad for this week's event. Kraut has nothing to prove after her superb Olympic team gold medal winning performance in Hong Kong last summer, but the big surprise in the US package has been the polished performances of 26 year old Bond.

The British and Irish come to Italy knowing they really need to step up a gear, the former pulling out all the stops as they field their most experienced trio, brothers Michael and John Whitaker along with Nick Skelton, along with the talented Ben Maher while Shane Sweetnam, Kevin Babington and Denis Lynch go back into action for Ireland along with Billy Twomey on his 2009 team debut. 

However they will need to stay sharp to keep the Italians in check. Like a rising tide, the host country has been reasserting itself in show jumping arenas all around the world over the past year or more, and with riders of the calibre of Juan Carlos Garcia, Piergiorgio Bucci, Giulia Martinengo Marquet and the on-form Gianni Govoni on call-up, new Italian Chef d'Equipe Emilio Puricelli will be keen to make his mark in front of his home crowd this Friday.

FACTS AND STATISTICS

Equestrian competitions were first held at the Piazza di Siena in 1922

The first official FEI competitions took place there in 1926

Rome CSIO was first staged in 1928

This year improvements to the show facilities include:
A temporary roof over the warm-up ring
Cooling fans in the stables
A new main-arena surface, designed to withstand even the most extreme Roman weather conditions
The defending Nations Cup champions at the Piazza di Siena are the Dutch 

MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP™ -Standings after First Leg at La Baule : 

1. Switzerland - 10 points
2. Sweden - 7 points
Eq. 3 Germany – 5.5 points
Eq. 3The Netherlands - 5.5 points
5. France - 4 points
6. Belgium - 3 points
7. USA - 2 points
8. Italy - 1 point
9. Great Britain - 0 points
10. Ireland - 0 points 

A Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ event is organised as a five-star Nations Cup, i.e. a competition in which official teams representing nations compare their merit. At each event the teams gain points according to their placing. At the end of the season the team with the highest points wins the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ and the two teams with the lowest points are relegated to the FEI Nations Cup series (Promotional League). The two best placed teams of that series following the Promotional League Final join the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ for the following year.

The World’s Best Ten Teams: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, , Ireland, USA, Switzerland, Sweden, and Italy

The World’s Best Eight Venues
La Baule (FRA); Friday 15 May; http://www.labaule-cheval.com/2009/pages/accueil.html
Rome (ITA); Friday 29 May; http://www.piazzadisiena.com/
St. Gallen (SUI); Friday 5 June; http://www.csio.ch/ 
Rotterdam (NED); Friday 19 June; http://www.chio.nl/
Aachen (GER); Thursday 2 July; http://www.chioaachen.de/
Falsterbo (SWE); Friday 17 July; http://falsterbohorseshow.se/se/valkommen/hem/
Hickstead (GBR); Friday 24 July; http://www.hickstead.co.uk/
Dublin (IRL); Friday 7 August; http://www.dublinhorseshow.com/

The complete rules, latest news, results, standings and photos are on www.meydanfeinationscup.org