The Nations Cup competition, as part of the Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain, was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon, but had to be postponed to Saturday due to persistent showers.
Although Ireland and Egypt initially took the lead with scores of zero, the Germans came back swinging in the second round against seven other strong teams. Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann riding Chesmu KJ, Marc Bettinger riding Undercover Z, and David Will with C Vier 2 all posted clears, while Maximilian Lill with D-Cassina had the drop score (16). Their total of 4 would hold up as some teams had disappointing second rounds.
The team were delighted with their win and their chef d’equipe, Dietmar Gugler, was thrilled with the result as Germany is clearly on great form as they also won the last round of the Nations Cup that was held this autumn in Vilamoura, Portugal.
The Danish team took second with 6 pts, directed by chef d’equipe Bok Møller. Team members Zascha Nygaard Andreasen riding Chaccophanie had one time fault in the first round and jumped clear in the second; Emil Hallundbaek riding High Nitro had 4 faults in each round and was the discard score in the first round; Lars Bak Andersen with Colina 70 had one time fault in the first round and an unlucky pole plus one time in the second round resulting in them being the discard score; and finally Andreas Schou with Darc de Lux jumped two perfect clears.
Ireland were favourites to win early on as three of their team members went clear in the first round and Denis Lynch did not have to jump. The second round did not go so smoothly, however, but up to their very last rider they were poised to take on Germany in a tiebreaker jump-off. Unluckily the last to go, Denis Lynch on Cristello, jumped a foot-perfect round but popped into the water jump rather than over it and their chances were dashed. Mark Mc Auley and Jasco VD Bisschop had two perfect clears; Michael G Duffy with Lapuccino 2, had one pole in the second round, as did Cameron Hanley with ESI Toulouse. Michael Brake was the Irish chef d’equipe.
In the end Brazil had to count 5 faults from each round but Marlon Modolo Zanotelli rode two clears with VDL Edgar M and the team finally finished in fourth place on 10 points. Sweden finished in fifth place on 12 points, the star of their team today being Fredrik Jönsson with Cold Play who had a double clear. Egypt were equal fifth also on 12 points, with the wonderful rider Abdel Said jumping two of the most beautiful clear rounds of the whole event on the lovely Jumpy Van de Hermitage. Morocco was seventh with a sum of 14 and Portugal was eighth with 25.
Canada, whose members are all based in Europe, unfortunately did not make it past the first round; while Vanessa Mannix (who also acted as chef d’equipe) and Valentino D’elte had a lovely clear round, all three other members ‒ Kyle Timm/Bentley de Sury, Tim Wilks/Goldfinger Z, and Liz Bates/Chronos 31 ‒ racked up 5 points for a combined score of 10.
Watch Kyle Timm and Bentley de Sury’s round:
Complete results here: FINAL-RANKING-CUP-2020
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