Eleven Countries to Compete in the First Abu Dhabi Nations’ Cup

Abu Dhabi, UAE – “The President of the UAE Showjumping Cup”, held from February 3-6 will be the first big international show jumping competition in Abu Dhabi. The inaugural event will feature a Nations’ Cup offering plenty 100,000 Euros in prize money in addition to a 300,000 Euro Grand Prix. A total of 500,000 Euros in prize money will be distributed over the six international competitions.

A total of eleven teams are travelling to Abu Dhabi’s Ghantoot Polo Club to compete in the CSIO5* event. The German, Irish, British, Danish, Dutch, Italian and Swedish teams are each bringing four riders. They will be joined by teams from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and The United Arab Emirates.

The German quartet of Ulrich Kirchhoff, Lars Nieberg, Max Kuehner and Mario Stevens will be accompanied by Chef d’Equipe Heinrich-Hermann Engemann. Maria Gretzer will be handling Chef d’Equipe duties for the Swedish team and she will be bringing Olympic individual silver medallist Rolf-Goeran Bengtsson, Henrik von Eckermann, Jannike West and Alexander Zetterman to Abu Dhabi. Rob Ehrens will be bringing a Dutch trio with him. The national trainer who has been plagued with bad news over the past weeks – Marc Houtzager’s Opium is injured and Albert Zoer’s Okidoki has been sold – has nominated Gert-Jan Bruggink, Gerco Schroeder and Piet Raijmakers Jr. for the Nations Cup. Piergiorgio Bucci, Giuseppe D’Onofrio, Juan Carlos Garcia and Andre Sakakini will be flying in to represent Italy.

Ireland and Great Britain were quick to name their teams. Irish Chef d’Equipe Robert Splaine named his weeks ago and was quickly followed by a British announcement. Cameron Hanley, BillyTwomey, Cian O’Connor and former World Champion Dermott Lennon will be representing the Irish colours in Abu Dhabi and the British team will consist of Robert Smith, Ellen Whitaker, Ben Maher and Guy Williams.

The CSIO5* will get started Thursday, February 4th at the Ghantoot Polo Club with the Maximus Cargo Air Trophy at 12:30 p.m. local time. The Nations’ Cup will begin Friday at 4 p.m. local time and the absolute highlight of the event, The President of the UAE Showjumping Cup Grand Prix, will be starting at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Further information available at www.engarde.de

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