The countdown is on for the 108th edition of CSIO Barcelona. The competition, which is Spain’s oldest international sport event, welcomes for the seventh time in a row the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final with the participation of the eighteen best nations in the world.
There are only two weeks left until the most prominent teams of the moment – Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and Spain – fight for world supremacy. Besides, this year, the competition has an added incentive that will undoubtedly give even more thrill to the Nations Cup Final. At the gates of the greatest sporting event, the Nations Cup Final of CSIO Barcelona has in its hands the last ticket for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Colombia, Egypt and Spain will have to fight to get the last pass for Tokyo 2020. With such an objective, the suspense remains absolute until the last second of the competition.
CSIO Barcelona will begin on Thursday, October 3, with the first qualifying round. The eight best teams will go directly to the final on Sunday, October 6, while the remaining teams will play the Longines Challenge Cup on Saturday night, October 5.
In addition to the competitions of the world team final, CSIO Barcelona will count with five other individual competitions, including the Queen’s Cup – Segura Viudas Trophy and the Hyundai Cup of the City of Barcelona on the night of Friday, coinciding with one of the gala dinners.
The elite of national vaulting at CSIO Barcelona
The thrill of the sport at the highest level will alternate with the classic equestrian show, presented this year by the best athletes of our country. Throughout the four days of competition, the National Team and the Champions of Spain 2019 have merged to offer five amazing shows of this equestrian discipline on the Olympic arena. It is a sport in which vaulters perform acrobatics on the horseback guided by a lunger. The national team just obtained an extraordinary ninth place in the Junior European Championships this summer in Ermelo, Holland.
The sisters Layla and Lucy Fraser, are one of the main protagonists of the exhibition. They won the silver medal at the Junior European Vaulting Championship in Le Mans, France, in 2016 in the “pas de deux” category on the back of their Simbal horse and by the hand of their mother and trainer Diane Fraser.
Layla and Lucy have also reaped other important successes. They were first in “pas de deux” in the CVI of Bern – Switzerland in 2016 and Layla was first in the individual category two years later, being currently the only Spanish in the maximum individual category of 3 * being able to participate in competitions such as the CHIO of Aachen
Lucy Fraser, meanwhile, is Champion of Absolute Spain 2019, and has been Champion of Absolute Spain for several consecutive years. Another member of the national team, Lucia Schonvandt, is currently Champion of Spain in the Youth category.
PoloPark by Mesoestetic
And in keeping with the festive atmosphere that CSIO Barcelona awakens in our city, the Real Club de Polo once again yields 20,000 m2 of its polo field to the PoloPark by mesoestetic. A space dedicated to the family with all kinds of activities that go through a complete Foodie Fest, in which we can find all kinds of international cuisine, a wide market, the Brand Villade and the Kids Park destined for the little ones where we can find among other areas the traditional Pony Park.
In this edition the sports show can also be alternated with small format shows and several daily musical concerts that will take place on the polo field, the largest green space in Barcelona.
In addition, repeating the experience of the last edition, the pet food brand “Affinity” will offer an incredible agility show with several dogs in a space specially created for it and the Urban Guard Mounted Unit will star in its traditional exhibition. Vaulting initiation classes will also be offered.
Cabalgando la Vida, the great solidarity challenge
CSIO Barcelona will also actively collaborate with Cabalgando la Vida, the first solidarity project with a positive social impact in Barcelona: Born from the RCPB Foundation in which all sports sections of the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona are involved, the project chosen for this first edition is a study of hippotherapy in children who have undergone cancer treatment. The objective is to evaluate if the therapy program assisted with horses can relieve and minimize the alterations of those affected.
The study will take place over a year and the results will be announced at the end of 2020. To do this, children between 7 and 12 years will undergo weekly sessions of hippotherapy at the Federica Cerdá Foundation Center in Sant Cugat del Vallés.
The project has the support of the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Gimbernat University Schools that will evaluate the study.
During the CSIO Barcelona, merchandising products related to the project will be put on sale and various raffles will be organized whose benefits will be used for this beautiful cause.
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