The New Zealand eventing team has finished second in the ninth and final leg of the Nations Cup at Boekelo. The British team won by a clear margin (36.2), and the New Zealanders put in a good performance in the final phase to move up from third. The overall series win went to Germany, with Britain second.
The British team was Oliver Townend (Cooley SRS, third individually), Laura Collett (Mr Bass, fifth), Izzy Taylor (Trevidden, seventh) and Flora Harris (Bayano, who fell in the cross country).
Individually, Sir Mark Todd was the best of the New Zealand riders, finishing sixth on Kiltubrid Rhapsody after four faults in the difficult show jumping.
Daniel Jocelyn also had one rail and finished in 16th place. Blyth Tait on Xanthus II put in yet another clear showjumping round and has finished in 27th place. Xanthus has now jumped 15 clear rounds in a row at FEI events – some record!
Megan Heath and Camelot also had four faults and finished in 28th place. Blyth didn’t have such a good show jumping round on Leo Distinction, with 12 faults, finishing 52nd.
There were only a dozen clear show jumping rounds and one of these was from the winner, Germany’s Stephanie Böhe on Haytom. Andreas Dibowski, also from Germany, on FRH Butts Avedon and Oliver Townend on Cooley SRS also jumped clear to finish second and third respectively.
Series Win for Germany
While Great Britain may have won the last leg, it was the Germans who won the series by 20 points, their third FEI Nations Cup Eventing title in five years. The two countries have been close rivals since the competition started in 2012, with Britain heading the final leaderboard in 2013 and 2015. Both teams have scored three wins each this season, and although Germany could only manage fourth at Boekelo, the best seven scores in the series count.
The French, who’ve shown great consistency and won at Vairano (Italy) last month, finished third in the table. The Dutch were fourth, and the Australians, who scored a memorable win in Aachen (Germany), were fifth.
Results at Boekelo
1 Great Britain, 150.6
Oliver Townend/Cooley SRS, 47.6; Izzy Taylor/Trevidden, 52.3; Laura Collett/Mr Bass, 50.7 [Flora Harris/Bayano, EL XC]
2 New Zealand, 186.8
Mark Todd/Kiltubrid Rhapsody, 50.7; Blyth Tait/Xanthus lll, 74.9; Dan Jocelyn/Beaucatcher, 61.2 [Jesse Campbell/Amsterdam 21, EL XC]
3 Netherlands, 191.2
Elaine Pen/Dostowjeski, 70.6; Tim Lips/Keyflow, 66.7; Alice Naber-Lozeman/Coral Estate Harry Belafonte, 53.9; [Theo van der Vendel/Zindane, 79.4]
4 Germany, 193.5
Stephanie Böhe/Haytom, 43.9; Andreas Dibowski/FRH Butts Avedon, 45.4; Ben Leuwer/NZB Port Royal, 104.2; [Anna Siemer/Chloe 21, EL XC]
5 France, 217.4
Sidney Dufresne/Tresor Mail, 58.4; Thibault Fournier/Siniani de Lathus, 80.3; Gwendolen Fer/Traumprinz, 78.7; [Matthieu Vanlangdeghem/Safran de Chanois ENE HN, 94.7]
6 Italy, 298.4
Eleanora Boschi/Hotchkiss McManus, 135.9; Susanna Bordone/Portphilip Jones, 94.0; Giovanni Ugolotti/Cult Rewind, 68.5; [Pietro Sandei/Rubis de Priere, EL XC]
7 USA, 1,119.9
8 Australia, 1,144.6
9 Ireland, 1,158.8
10 Belgium, 1,164.3
11 Norway, 1,167.7
12 Sweden, 1,191.5
Full results on www.rechenstelle.de
FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2016 Final standings
1 Germany 620 points
2 Great Britain 600
3 France 535
4 Netherlands 345
5 Australia 305
6 Ireland 290
7 Italy 275
8 USA 255
9 Sweden 230
10 New Zealand 220
9 Belgium 215
12 Switzerland 125
13 Norway 90
14 Canada 90
