A new queen of Endurance has been crowned, as Spain’s Maria Alvarez Ponton clenched individual gold at the 12th FEI World Endurance Championship, while the United Arab Emirates were awarded team gold.
This World Championship set two new endurance statistics as it was the first to be ridden at night and the first to be held in Asia. It was hosted by Malaysia at the Terengganu International Endurance Park in Bidong, situated 25km north of the coastal town of Kuala Terengganu.
The opening ceremony took place in the newly constructed Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium were the King of Malaysia, Yand di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin official opened the FEI World Endurance Championship. The 48,000 enthusiastic spectators watched the teams parade before a spectacular light and sound show, a bare back riding performance by Lorenzo from France and fireworks. The enthusiasm of the local population continued as 10,000 spectators watched the start at 17.30 the next day.
On a pleasantly warm afternoon, 126 riders from 32 countries set out to ride the first loop of 28.8km in daylight. The next five stages of 27-28.8-27-23 and 15.1km were all ridden in the dark with dawn breaking as the leader started on the final loop of 10km. The course was basically flat over sandy or fine quarry dust tracks. An enormous amount of work had been done on the surface since the trial ride here last November to eliminate the very boggy areas and provide a sound footing throughout. The marking was excellent with each route colour coded, and every marker also having the route number. In addition 1200 LED lights, the same colour as the route, were used at night. The riders also wore these colour coded LED lights to assist the check points on course.
There was only one crew point on each loop but there were manned water points every 3.5 kilometres that offered iced-water for cooling, plus drinking water for horse and rider.
Alvarez set the standard from the start wining her title of FEI World Champion wire to wire, having ridden the first leg at 20.45kph she went on to finish with an average speed of 18.16 kph a ride time of 08hr 48min 06 sec on her thirteen year old bay gelding Nobby who was bred in France.
In silver medal position 08hr 57min.55sec (17.82kph) was Argentinean Augustin Vita riding Baraka Ibn Al Tamah with the UAE’s Sultan Bin Sulayem taking the Bronze medal on Tazoul El Parry 09hr 09min 31 sec (17.45kph).
The UAE team of Sh Mayed Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum (4th) Mohammed Ahmad Ali Subose (5th) Mubarak Khalifa Bin Shafya (6th) and Abdulla Thani Bin Huzaim (7th) had also led from start to finish. They were unchallenged as they finished (27hr 57min 59sec) with almost an hours advantage over second placed Qatar (28hr 47min17sec) who were two hours ahead of Bahrain (30hr 54min 22sec)which made a clean sweep for the Middle East in the Team Medals.
Having endured torrential rain, thunder and lightening, high humidity and hours of darkness, the completion rate was just under 40% which proved that under the right management and the ability of riders to acknowledge the conditions, Endurance has a future in this climate.
Individual – Top 5
1. Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton / Nobby (ESP) – 08:48:06 18.16kph
2. Augustin Vita / BarakaIbn Al Tamah (ARG) – 08:57:55 17.82kph
3. Sultan Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem / Tazoul El Parry (UAE) -09:09:31 17.45kph
4. Sh Mayed Bin Mohd Al Maktoum / Spenda Crest Kamouflage(UAE) – 09:14:42 17.29kph
5. Mohd Ahmad Ali Subose / Koum Des Jamets (UAE) – 09:21:38 17.07kph
Teams – Top 5
1. United Arab Emirates – 25:57:59
2. Qatar – 28:47: 17
3. Bahrain – 30:54:22
4. Portugal – 30:58:52
5. Spain – 31:25:25