Young guns on the road to Riyadh
With the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final 2024 now only just around the corner, a talented bunch of younger riders are already preparing to step onto the big stage alongside the superstars of the sport.
The definite entries list of 35 athletes from 19 countries has been confirmed and it’s all-systems-go.
Oldest
The oldest of the younger generation is 25-year-old Khaled Almobty who will be flying the host-nation flag of Saudi Arabia after firmly claiming his place at the Final with victory in the Middle East Sub-League of the Arab League 2023/2024.
He made a big impression when a member of the winning team at the Group F Olympic qualifier for teams from Africa and the Middle East staged in Doha, Qatar in February last year.
Picking up just five faults in the first round, he steadied the Saudi ship when round two got off to a shaky restart with nine faults from pathfinders Abdulrahman Alrajhi and Babalou. A lovely clear from Almobty and the former Ellen Whitaker ride Spacecake, with which he had only been partnered for a month, put his team back on course and it was left to WEG 2010 silver medallist Abdullah Alsharbatly to wrap it up for the win.
Almobty brings the 12-year-old mare Spacecake to Riyadh along with the 10-year-old KWPN gelding Jaguar King WD which he started riding in October 2023 and which was formerly ridden by Germany’s Zoe Osterhoff.
Three 22-year-olds
Egypt’s Abdelrahman Shousha has qualified from the North African Sub-League in which he finished second. This 22-year-old brings the 14-year-old bay gelding Quincy 230 which has been competed by a number of different riders over the last few years, including Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Alsharbatly who steered the horse to three CSI3*-W wins in Kuwait in February this year.
With Shousha in the saddle Quincy also competed at the CSI4*-W and CSI5*-W in Riyadh in December 2023, so both the horse and rider will be familiar with their surroundings when they canter into the arena for the first competition of the Final on April 17.
USA’s Sophia Siegel from Portola Valley in California turns 22 on 9 April and will ride the 2010 Swedish Warmblood mare A-Girl. She qualified as one of top three in the North American League West USA, finishing second in Sacramento, California last October and twenty-first at the qualifier in Las Vegas in November. This year she has been busy campaigning at 3* and 4* level at Thermal in California throughout February and March.
With A-Girl she made her mark when finishing second to Ireland’s Conor Swail and Vital Chance de la Roque at the 4* Marshall and Sterling GP on the Desert Circuit in Thermal, California 12 months ago.
Jeanne Sadran from Toulouse in France is also 22 years old and enjoyed a consistently successful career in ponies during which she gained a lot of experience.
She had a series of strong results in 2023 and made a big impact on the Western European League qualifying series in 2023/2024.
Along the way she has been supported by giants of the French sport including Julien Epaillard and, most recently, Simon Delestre. She competed in her first CSI5* in Doha (QAT) in 2018 and finished fifth in the CSI4*-W World Cup in Riyadh in 2020 riding Vannan. With the 11-year-old French stallion Dexter de Kerglenn she has risen up the ranks and she finished second at the WEL qualifier in Bordeaux (FRA) in early February having shown great maturity at top level this season.
Twenty-one
Sara Vingralkova from the Czech Republic was leading the Northern Sub-League of the Central European League series before the Central European League Final in Krakow (POL) in February. She finished second overall in the League standings.
The 21-year-old athlete was a consistent performer at Junior and Young Rider European Championships since 2017. She brings the 12-year-old British-bred gelding How Easy with which she finished fourth in the CSI5*-W Grand Prix in Amsterdam (NED) in January to the Final in Riyadh along with the 14-year-old Belgian-bred gelding Kas-Sini DC with which she finished fifth in the CSI3*-W Gold Tour World Cup Grand Prix in Samorin (SVK) last September.
Youngest competitors
The youngest competitors lining out in this year’s much-anticipated Final are Egypt’s Zain Shady Samir and America’s Skylar Wireman who are both just 19 years old.
Zain will partner the 10-year-old chestnut gelding London Eye which has also been competed by both his father, Shady Samir, and fellow-countryman Mouda Zeyada who was winner of the 2023/2024 North African Sub-League in which Zain finished third behind young compatriot Abdelrahman Shousha.
With London Eye, Zain claimed top-20 placings at the CSI4*-W World Cup qualifier in Abu Dhabi (UAE) in December and at the Longines Al Shira’aa World Cup in January.
America’s Wireman, who together with her mother, Shayne, runs Chestnut Hills Equestrian in Bonsall, California finished second of the three qualified riders from the North American League West USA this season.
Riding the 10-year-old Swedish-bred Tornado she finished ninth at the first leg of the North American League in Sacramento, California last October, and eighth in Las Vegas, Nevada in November before claiming maximum points for a big win at Fort Worth in Texas in December.
She started riding as a very small child and rose to prominence in 2020 when, at the age of 15, she won the USEF Showjumping Talent Search Final and finished sixth at the Maclay National Championship. She’s a busy young lady, riding between 10 and 20 horses a day between her own horses and liveries stabled at her busy yard.
She was only having her tenth start with Tornado, who was sent to her as a sales horse but which she bought with the help of some family friends, when she posted the win at Fort Worth three months ago. Her mother is her principle trainer, and she also gets help from time to time from 2004 Olympic team gold medallist Peter Wylde.
Skylar normally doesn’t have a groom, preferring to do everything for her horses herself, but at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final 2024 she will be supported by groom Alicia Thompson.
The record
Canada’s Mario Deslauriers holds the record as the youngest-ever winner of the FEI Jumping World Cup™ title. He set that record with Aramis in Gothenburg (SWE) in 1984 at the age of 19, and it has never been beaten.
The Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final 2024 in Riyadh (KSA) kicks off with the horse inspection on 15 April.