Germans Win Convincingly on Home Turf in Fifth Leg of Samsung Super League
RELEASE: July 6, 2007
AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: Joanie Morris
Germans Win Convincingly on Home Turf in Fifth Leg of Samsung Super League
From an FEI Press Release by Louise Parkes
Aachen, Germany - There's nothing quite like winning in front of the home crowd, and the host team from Germany did it in style on July 5 when topping the Mercedes-Benz sponsored fifth leg of the 2007 Samsung Super League with FEI series.
Neck-and-neck with Switzerland on a score of zero at the end of the first round, they stood firm while their neighbors faltered and slipped to second place. On a testing night of jumping, the Swedish team made a gritty recovery after a difficult opening round to finish joint-third with France while young Patrick McEntee produced a spectacular double-clear to secure fifth place for Belgium.
The USA slotted into sixth ahead of the surprisingly high-scoring Dutch in seventh while British Chef d'Equipe Derek Ricketts lived to rue his prediction of the previous evening as his side finished a resounding last when the pendulum swung in the wrong direction once again during this erratic season for the his contingent.
There was an extra edge to the German jubilation as Ludger Beerbaum celebrated his 100th Nations Cup competition with a first-round clear from Goldfever, and such was the strength of the German performance that he did not need to jump again in the second round.
Frank Rothenberger's track looked deceptively easy as the competition got underway although the time-allowed was changed from 84 to 86 seconds when the first three riders into the ring - Britain's Nick Skelton with Russel, Switzerland's Werner Muff with Plot Blue and America's Richard Spooner with Cristallo - all accumulated time penalties. As it turned out however it was more a case of these three being slow than that the time was tight because few others struggled with the clock, and The Netherlands' Albert Zoer made a nonsense of it when breaking the beam with Oki Doki in 79.78 seconds having just put a toe in the water in an otherwise copybook round.
Bogey fence of the day was the last obstacle on the track, a treble which opened with a triple bar leading to an oxer and finishing with a vertical. And if it was tricky first time out it was even more so at the second attempt as many performances disintegrated.
The British were vulnerable from the start, finishing round one with 14 faults on the board and trailed only by the Swedes with 16 after single errors from Helena Lundback (Madick) and Royne Zetterman (Isaac) and eight faults from Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Ninja la Silla) - Lotta Schultz's 12 with Calibra providing the discount this time out.
The Dutch collected nine faults despite a clear from anchorman Gerco Schroder with Eurocommerce Berlin and were lying sixth behind the USA, Belgium and France who all shared third place with eight faults at the half-way stage. At the head of affairs the Germans and Swiss were locked in combat - Muff, now on a zero score after his time faults were removed and Markus Fuchs and La Toya and Niklaus Schurtenberger with Cantus also fault-free, thus making it possible for fourth man Pius Schwizer to stand down with Nobless M this time out. Clears from Marcus Ehning and Noltes Kuchengirl, Christian Ahlmann and Coster and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum with Shutterfly meant there was no pressure at all on Ludger Beerbaum as he cantered into the ring. He didn't have to jump if he didn't want to, but he wasn't going to let this special moment slip away from him and the spectators went wild when their hero returned with a clean sheet and a very big smile on his face. "Ludger - We Love You" read a banner waving madly in the crowd.
First into the ring in round the two, Sweden's Helena Lundback was foot-perfect all the way to the bogey triple combination and the crowd groaned when she lowered just the final element for four faults, but when Zetterman and Bengtsson stayed clear Swedish prospects improved dramatically. The Br