The Netherlands' Merel Blom and Ceda N.O.P
The team from the Netherlands leads the FEI Nations Cup in Strzegom, Poland after the dressage and jumping phases on a score of 85.1. Germany lies second (93.1), Austria in third (95.3), the home team, Poland lies in fourth place (105) and Italy in fifth place (119.2) with just five teams competing
Merel Blom with Ceda N.O.P, Laura Hoogeveen with Wicro Quibus N.O.P, Raf Kooremans with Dimitri N.O.P and Jordy Wilken with Burry Spirit took the team lead after dressage. The best result in the team and third position in the class individually belongs to Merel Blom but it is Germany’s Ingrid Klimke riding SAP Hale Bob who leads the individual rankings
The German rider, who is returning to competition after injury, kept her lead after dressage, even with four additional penalty points in the jumping.
“I was very happy, especially with Bobby. He remembered what he has done here three years ago, so he did a wonderful job in the dressage. He was quite excited in the jumping and a little bit fresh, so he’s ready for the cross-country. Asha was quite tense in the dressage in the beginning, but then she became calm and did a wonderful round in the jumping today”
The second place after a great dressage and a clear show jumping round belongs to Mateusz Kiempa riding Lassban Radovix, just 1.1 penalty points off the leaders.
“Dressage and jumping are Lassban’s strong suits, so I was counting on him today. It went 100% according to our plan. You always have to be fully motivated for the cross-country trial. I hope everything goes as well as it did today” said the Polish rider.
New Zealand's Tim Price, who currently leads the CCI4*-L on Wesko, is in sixth place on Falco
Friday was the last day of the dressage tests in the short 3* and 2 * classes. Dirk Schrade has the lead in both with Casino 80 and La Duma.
The 2* class for juniors and 3* class for young riders were dominated by German rider Greta Busacker with Scrabble 15 and Coco Maurice 2.
Today was also a showjumping day for the 1* Intro class. The best result belongs to Sophie Leube (GER) riding Skyjacker 3.
On Saturday and Sunday, the riders will compete in the cross-country and show jumping trials with an updated schedule of the Nations Cup cross country starting at 2:15pm and the CCI4*-L starting at 4:20pm
Check out a bit of the coursewalk of the cross country track in the CCI4*-S Nations Cup class with Italian rider Andrea Cinncinati.
Strzegom live coverage begins on Friday on Facebook and YouTube, with Saturday's cross-country to be shown on FEI TV.
