Team Great Britain Gallops to Gold in Victoria Beer Nations Cup CSIO 3* at Vejer de La Frontera

By on 2021-10-30

Vejer de La Frontera, Spain – October 29, 2021 – The British Nations Cup team consisted of Joseph Clayton (GBR) riding Gentleman VH Veldhof; Alex Thompson (GBR) riding Cathalina S; Karl Robins (GBR) riding Equine America G Camille HBF and Matthew Sampson (GBR) riding Geneve R. This was the winning team in today’s Nations Cup CSIO 3*, finishing on a final score of just 2 faults, held here at Dehesa Montenmedio showground. Eight teams moved on to the second round from the 20 that started. The British team went through to the second round on a team score of zero, with Joe Clayton (GBR) having the difficult task of jumping first for his team in the first round, and just touching two poles, ending up with the discard score.

In the second round the team continued to impress but with three riders having jumped, they were sitting on an overall score of 10 points and needed to discard Joe Clayton’s unlucky second round score of 9 penalty-points. This meant the last rider Matt Sampson (GBR) went into the arena, knowing he needed either a clear, or minimal time points for the team to take the top of the podium. This he did with a fabulous round and riding with a very clear head under great pressure. In the end he clocked up just one time fault. With three team members jumping three rounds in each leg of the event, where not a pole was touched, they were the much deserved winners of today’s Nations Cup which was sponsored by Victoria beer. The chef d’equipe for the British team is Mrs. Di Lampard, was here directing the team and we would like to congratulation them all on a very well deserved win in a hotly contested event. This is a great result for the British and comes just after their win in the Nations Challenge Cup in the Finals that were also held here in Spain at the beginning of this month in Barcelona.

Brazil took second place ending up with a overall score of 4 points, 2 from each round. The Brazilian chef d’equipe is Pedro Paulo Lacerda and he did a great job today along with his team made up of; Felipe Amaral (BRA) riding Androide 3K who had two immaculate clears; Karina Johannpeter (BRA) riding Escape-Adventure with just 2 time faults, one in each round and Matheus Correa (BRA) with Zeusz who also had 2 time faults, one in each round. This was a great achievement again with not one pole touched between them, and they well deserved second place today.

There was a tie for third place between Switzerland and Sweden with both countries ending up on an overall score of 9 points. At the beginning of the second round both these two teams and Ireland and Italy were neck and neck on 9 points. So it was all to play for and very clear that any faults accumulated in this second round were going to be decisive. After some exciting rounds it was clear that the Switzerland and Sweden were moving up the leaderboard as other teams clocked up faults.

In this second round the first three riders from the Swiss team went clear in the time Barbara Schnieper (SUI) with Quick Fire; Edouard Schmitz (SUI) with Quno and Alain Jufer (SUI) with Dante MM, meaning Niklaus Schurtenberger (SUI) with Lireu did not need to jump again. The Swiss chef d’equipe was Mr Andy Kistler.

The Swedish rider Linda Heed (SWE) with Laurien van Orshof went clear, but Alexander Zetterman (SWE) and “Triton Hastak” had a few fences and it was left to the remaining two riders to go clear in order to stay in equal third place. Stepping up to the challenge was Antonia Pettersson (SWE) riding Chaccatara with a clear in the time, followed by Wilma Hellström (SWE) and Cicci BJN who also finished on zero. Their chef d’equipe is Mr Henrik Ankarcrona. These teams received their trophies from Sergio Ragel, who is the external relations manager of Victoria beers and from José Villalobos, who is their marketing manager.

Spain, who went in to the second round on a zero as one of the favourites to win, ended up in fifth place on a total of 13 faults. Their chef d’equipe was Carolo López Quesada and the team members were Manuel Fernández Saro (ESP) with Jarlin de Torres; Santiago Núñez Riva (ESP) with Valentino de Hus Z; Ismael García Roque (ESP) with La Costa and Sergio Álvarez Moya (ESP) with Malibu de Muze.