WEG Wrapup: Historic Day for Vaulting
It’s the final day of vaulting, but the drivers are just revving up.
Top photo of Chester Weber (USA) by Marie de Ronde-Oudemans/FEI
VAULTING
- Jacques Ferrari and POIVRE VERT (France)
- Nicolas Andreani and JUST A KISS (France)
- Erik Oese and CALVADOR 5 (Germany)
- Joanne Eccles and W H BENTLEY (Great Britain)
- Anna Cavallaro and HARLEY (Italy)
- Simone Jäiser and LUK (Switzerland)
- Germany–8.724
- Switzerland–8.503
- France–8.315
- Jasmin Lindner and Lukas Wacha on BRAM (Austria)
- Pie Engelberty and Torben Jacobs on DANNY BOY 25 (Germany)
- Joanne Eccles and Hannah Eccles on W H BENTLEY (Great Britain)
France takes home gold and silver medals in the same event: French vaulters Jacques Ferrari and Nicolas Andreani have been in a tight race all week with Erik Oese (who topped the leaderboard yesterday). Today the French won out, with Ferrari achieving the highest individual score so far of the competition–9.166.
Pas de deux–also known as “flinging each other around artistically on horseback.” See exhibit A, below.
DRIVING-DRESSAGE
- Chester Weber–79.9 (USA)
- Boyd Exell–77.8 (Australia)
- Theo Timmerman–76.7 (Netherlands)
Team (provisional)
- Netherlands–79.40
- USA–88.31
- Hungary–94.62
No ladies in the top 10: I have to admit, I was hoping for female drivers to school the boys in dressage today, but it wasn’t to be. At least the USA, one of the teams with a female driver, is currently in second–we’ll see if they can hold on to it!
Is the driving marathon too easy? This 16km distance phase of the driving competition, which is roughly the equivalent of eventing’s cross-country phase, looks a lot more tame than many were expecting. Reigning WEG and World champion Boyd Excell is actually going to use his indoor wheels for the carefully manicured course–but other drivers expressed concern about the carriages sliding and the speed of the course.
“[It’s] A good course, but very different. We’ll have to go fast to make points,” said British driver Wilf Bowman-Ripley, “And nothing is easy when you have to go at it with four horses. It might look easy but it is not because it invites speed and mistakes come from that.”
Tomorrow: Driving marathon, Showjumping 3rd qualifier, polo demonstration
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