Swiss Victory in Rotterdam
With just three legs of the series remaining the league table is taking shape, and the gap between those struggling for survival at the bottom of the order and those fighting for supremacy at the top of the leaderboard is widening all the time.
Despite an equal-fifth finishing spot along with the British who endured some extremely quirky moments today the Germans continue to control things, but their six-point league table advantage over the USA seems increasingly vulnerable and they will want to sharpen up at the next leg of the series at Hickstead in five weeks time if they intend to stay ahead. They failed to follow through on their first-round clears from Pia-Luise Aufrecht, Franke Sloothaak and Marcus Ehning and the Swiss won the day by doing the reverse -producing their best results in the second round.
Clear rounds are what matters but today they were not easily achieved, and many riders had to work very hard indeed. It was difficult to understand exactly what was creating the level of discomfort the horses seemed to be experiencing, but even veteran campaigners seemed taken aback by Rob Jansen's 12-fence track. In bright sunlight there was a lot of glare off the new white-sand arena but the sparsely decorated fences looked not over-big and fairly straight-forward. Many spectators remarked however that horses seemed to be finding it difficult to get off the ground and were reaching madly for the back bars of the oxers as a result, but riders insisted the going was not a problem.
Bengtsson and the attractive chestnut Ninja La Silla providing the only double-clear performance of the competition in the best of style and a total of four fault-free Swedish rounds guaranteeing a strong finishing position. Lovely second-round clears from Stephane Lafouge riding Gabelou des Ores and that consummate horseman Michel Robert with Galet d'Auzay helped the French to share runner-up spot with the Swedes while the USA was only two faults further adrift in fourth.
Right from the beginning of the first-round track Arko impressive in recent months really didn't seem to want to go to work today and, having stopped at the narrow vertical at fence six, he was all wrong at the combination three fences later when Nick pulled him out at the final element. When the combination returned to the ring for the 2nd round, Arko seemed much happier and popped around until it came to the final double. Skelton slightly over-shot the left-hand curve here after a strong run to the penultimate water jump and Arko suddenly went back into “no thanks” mode and used it as an excuse to throw down the landing gear again for another surprise stop. The resulting eight faults forced the British to add 16 to their first-round score and this left them on level-pegging with the Germans on a total of 20.
There was a nasty surprise for the Irish too when Billy Twomey's stallion, Luidam, failed to live up to expectations accumulating a total of 34 points.
For Switzerland it was a great day and Chef d'Equipe Rolf Grass has every right to feel full of confidence ahead of the World Equestrian Games in August. Willi Melliger, Niklaus Schurtenberger and Werner Muff were highly impressive when each faulting just once in the first round and then coming back to record excellent clears – Werner Muff's lovely stallion Plot Blue proving a real show-stealer with his knees tucked up under his chin over every fence and looking like he was enjoying every minute of his outing. At nine years old this is definitely a rising star of the show jumping world and Muff could hardly hide his excitement about what he knows is a truly exceptional jumper – “he's famous!” he said with delight after the competition – fabulous was probably the word he was looking for but famous is probably what this son of Mr Blue will turn out to be.
Results (23.06.06)
CSIO Rotterdam, Holland
Event 6 – Nations Cup
1º Switzerland – 12 points
Willi Melliger (Sui) / Lea C / 4 / 0
Niklaus Schurtenberger (Sui) / Cantus / 4 / 0
Werner Muff (Sui) / Plot Blue / 4 / 0
Pius Schwizer (Sui) / Unique X Ch / R/NP
2º Sweden – 16
Malin Baryard-Johnsson (Sue) / Butterfly Flip / 16 / 0
Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Sue) / Ninja La Silla / 0 / 0
Royne Zetterman (Sue) / Isaac / 12 / 4
Maria Gretzer (Sue) / Spender S / 0 / 4
2º France – 16
Pierre Jarry (Fra) / Haxelle Dampiere / 4/8
Simon Delestre (Fra) / Inedite De Balme / 8/4
Stephane Lafouge (Fra) / Gabelou des Ores / 4/0
Michel Robert (Fra) / Galet d'Auzay / 4/0
4º USA – 18
Margie Engle (USA) / Quervo Gold / 4/0
Candice King (USA) / Tarco / 9/8
Molly Ashe (USA) / Neuville / 9/1
Laura Kraut (USA) / Miss Independent / 0/4
5º Germany – 20
Lars Nieberg (Ale) / Lucie / 19/13
Pia-Luise Aufrecht (Ale) / Abrisca / 0/4
Franke Sloothaak (Ale) / Legurio / 0/12
Marcus Ehning (Ale) / Gitania / 0/4
5º Great Britain – 20
Michael Whitaker (Gbr) / Portofino / 4/4
John Whitaker (Gbr) / Peppermill / 0/8
William Funnell (Gbr) / Mondriaan / 0/4
Nick Skelton (Gbr) / Arko III / E/8
7º Ireland – 33
Shane Breen (Irl) / World Cruise / 4/12
Shane Carey (Irl) / Killossery / 4/5
Cian O’Connor (Irl) / Echo Beach / 4/4
Billy Twomey (Irl) / Luidam / 17/17
8º Holland – 34
Jeroen Dubbeldam (Hol) / Nassau / 20/1
Harrie Smolders (Hol) / Oliver Q / 1/0
Albert Zoer (Hol) / Okidoki / 12/8
Gerco Schröder (Hol) / Milano / 12/8
Samsung Super League Standings After Round 5 At Rotterdam
1. Germany – 34.125
2. USA – 27.5
3. Switzerland – 26.125
4. France – 24
5. Sweden – 16.125
6. Great Britain – 16
7. Netherlands – 9.625
8. Ireland – 9