With two wins already giving them a significant advantage at the top of the leaderboard, the German team goes for a hat-trick of Samsung Super League with FEI victories when lining out at the Piazza di Siena in Rome, Italy on Friday afternoon.
Such is the efficiency of the German show jumping machine that they have been able to maintain their Super League profile without any great effort since the series’ inception in 2003 by occasionally sending out their top guns and then substituting them with second-order riders, and newly-crowned FEI World Cup champion Marcus Ehning has only had to go into the ring once during the first two legs this season because his team-mates had it all sewn up without his assistance.
The challenge of fielding four teams over a five-week period at the beginning of the 2006 series has proved colossal to some of the smaller nations, but this week’s new-look German squad still looks strong with Eva Bitter, Mylene Diederichsmeier, Heinrich Hermann Engemann, Ulrich Kirchhoff and Franke Sloothaak flying the flag.
However under the management of show jumping legend George Morris. the reigning Super League champions from America are getting stronger all the time and despite last Friday’s repeat success in Aachen, German Chef d’Equipe, Kurt Gravemeier, expressed his concern about the US threat. A close second at both the opening round in La Baule and again last week the US riders looks confident and focused and it seems that it is only a matter of time before things go their way.
Margie Goldstein-Engle, who had just a single fence error at last week’s German fixture, is the only remaining representative from the first goup of US riders to line out again this time, and it may augur well that she is joined by an all-female foursome including Molly Ashe, Candice King, Laura Kraut and Christine McCrea. It was an all-girl side that set the ball rolling for the US when winning the opening leg in La Baule last season.
Lying third on the leaderboard at this early stage are the Swiss, and veteran performer Markus Fuchs will be lining out once more, this time joined by Daniel Etter, Willi Melliger, Werner Muff and Hansueli Sprunger. The British and French are on level pegging in fourth spot and while Jean-Maurice Bonneau chooses from Simon Delestre, Pierre Jarry, Stephan Lafouge, Ludovic Leygue and Nicolas Paillot, the British, defending champions in Rome, look particularly strong this time out with new star Tim Gredley called up once again aongside Nick Skelton, Robert Smith, Michael Whitaker and Mark Armstrong.
The Dutch, lying sixth, have only four points on the leaderboard to date and will be looking for a good result from Wim Schroder, Harry Smolders, Wout-Jan Van der Schans and Vincent Voorn to boost their position and to edge them away from the Swedes who have just a half-point less in seventh place. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson provided a steadying influence to the Swedish effort last time out and is back in action along with Svante Johansson, Johan Lundh, Lotta Schultz and Peder Fredricson and they will be hoping that Sweden’s nightmare opening-round performance in La Baule was just a one-off glitch in an otherwise smooth passage to the final in Barcelona in September.
The ones under most pressure this week are the Irish who, despite a valiant effort in Aachen, are bottom of the table with just two points under their belts to date. Not even second-round clears from both Capt Shane Carey and Shane Breen could save them from finishing bottom of the pile at last week’s fixture and with the half-way stage of the series looming in Lucerne next week they know they need to get to grips with the 2006 Samsung Super League with FEI challenge as soon as possible.
Relegation from the ranks of the elite show jumping nations in the world is the penalty for finishing the series in eighth place, a fate escaped only by the smallest of margins and thanks to a supreme effort at the end of the 2005 season, and Irish team manager Robert Splaine will be hoping to avoid the desperate struggle endured by the Irish side at last year’s Spanish finale this time around.
Splaine will choose the four Irish team members from a fresh squad that includes Peter Charles, Ryan Crumley, Cameron Hanley, Marion Hughes and Harry Marshall and they will have few illusions about what is expected of them when they ride into the arena at the Piazza di Siena on Friday afternoon.
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE WITH FEI 2006 : LEADERBOARD AFTER ROUND 2 AT
AACHEN:
1. GERMANY - 20
2. USA - 14
3. SWITZERLAND - 7.5
4. GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE - 7
6. THE NETHERLANDS- 4
7. SWEDEN - 3.5
8. IRELAND - 2
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE - NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!
For all information about the next leg of the series at the Piazza di
Siena in Rome, Italy on Friday 26 May check out WEBSITE www.fise.it or
contact Press Officer Caterina Vagnozzi at email [email protected] or
Tel: +39 0636858321.
SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE WITH FEI : 2006 CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
ROUND 1 - La Baule (Fra) 4-7 May; ROUND 2 - Aachen (Ger) 17-21 May;
ROUND 3, Rome (Ita) 25-28 May; ROUND 4 - Lucerne (Sui) 1-4 June; ROUND
5 - Rotterdam (Ned) 22-25 June; ROUND 6 - Hickstead (GBR) 26-30 July;
ROUND 7 - Dublin (Irl) 9-13 August; ROUND 8 and FINAL - Barcelona (Esp)
14-17 September.
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