Great Britain complete hat-trick of FEI Nations Cup wins in Rotterdam

The team of Ben Maher, Joe Clee, Jessica Mendoza and Michael Whitaker delivered another British victory just when Germany looked set to cruise home effortlessly.

After confidently taking the lead with four perfect performances in the first round, it all fell apart for the Germans second time out. They had to settle for fourth place behind Sweden in third, while it was last year’s winners from France who filled the runner-up spot.

The Dutch, who despite being the reigning Furusiyya and world champions have never won the Nations Cup on home ground at Rotterdam, lined up fifth ahead of Switzerland in sixth, while Belgium and Brazil shared seventh place at the end of their relatively high-scoring day.

Of the eight nations competing, five in the shape of France, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Sweden, were chasing points towards the Furusiyya 2015 final in September.

It seemed as if victory was all Germany’s at the halfway stage when Christian Ahlmann, Patrick Stuehlmeyer, Ludger Beerbaum and Daniel Deusser all breezed around on their first tour of the track set by Louis Konickx.

However the French were not far behind them with only a single time-fault as round two began, with the Dutch next in line carrying four faults ahead of the British with five and Sweden with six faults.

Brazil began the second round with 11 faults, but dropped to joint-last place when they then had to count 17 collected by Karina Johannpeter. Belgium joined them at the bottom of the pile when they had to add nine more faults to the 18 they collected first time out.

And it was not an entirely uneventful day for the Swiss either as Pius Schwizer, called up at the last moment when Claudia Gisler was whisked off to hospital after a fall in an earlier class, produced an impressive six-fault result from his inexperienced stand-in.

Things changed suddenly and dramatically when Germany’s Ahlmann and Stuehlmeyer each left two fences on the floor. The door was now wide open for the French, and when Patrice Delaveau led the way with a second clear round and Aymeric de Ponnat followed his first-round four faults with a clean sheet it seemed they now had victory in their sights.

But although the Dutch, lying third, slipped out of contention with nine faults to add despite a double-clear from Gerco Schroder, the British also came into contention with fault-free runs from Maher, Clee and Mendoza. Michael Whitaker was under no pressure when last to go for his country because his result would make no difference as they would remain on their first-round five-fault tally.

So the British watched closely as reigning European champion Roger Yves Bost entered the ring on Pegase du Murier for France as third-line rider. If he could hold it together then he would ensure victory for his side, but the pair collected 19 faults by the time they crossed the finish-line.

So it all came down to the last Frenchman, Jerome Hurel on Quartz Rouge. They could afford a few time-penalties, but a fence down would force a jump-off with the British and any more would hand victory to them.

And that was how it turned out as they also collected two time faults to leave France on seven faults ahead of third-placed Sweden with 10, while Germany completed with 12 on the board.

The British have now moved into fifth place on the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup 2015 Europe Division 1 leaderboard with France still leading the way at the top.

The next leg of Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup 2015 Europe Division 1 competition is at Falsterbo, Sweden on Friday 10 July.

In Sunday’s feature class in Rotterdam, the Longines Grand Prix Port of Rotterdam, USA’s Lucy Davis took the honours in an equally thrilling competition.

In an exceptionally fast final jump–off round, Davis riding Barron completed the course set in a time of 39.49 seconds. Germany’s Daniel Deusser on Cornet D’Amour came in second in 39.86 seconds, with fellow German Marcus Ehning taking third on Comme Il Faut 5 coming past the line in a time of 40.78 seconds.

1. Great Britain 5 faults

2. France 7

3. Sweden 10

4. Germany 12

5. Netherlands 13

6. Switzerland 24

7. Belgium 28

Brazil 28

1. France 310

2. Belgium 250

3. Sweden 210

4. Ireland 205

5. Great Britain 200

6. Netherlands 195

7. Italy 155

8. Germany 140

9. Spain 135

10. Switzerland 90