Announced the First Official List of Qualified Riders

April 1, 2004

After the second last event of the Western Europe League of the FEI World Cup tha was held in s’ Hertogenbosch, Holland, during last weekend, it is now more and more defined the list of the qualified riders who are going to compete in the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final that will be held in Milan at the Assago Forum from the 21st to the 25th of April.

The general rankings of the Western European league, in which Italy participates, sees the Belgian rider Ludo Philippaerts (66 points) leading over the German Otto Becker (63 points), former winner of the 2002 Final’s edition, and over the American born, now riding for Germany, Meredith Michaels Beerbaum (59 points).

The Top 20 riders in the league’ rankings will qualify for the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final and that will be held for the very first time in Italy. Furthermore very good news arrived in s’-Hertogenbosch for the German top rider Ludger Beerbaum, number one in the world, who can now aim to the Final with better hopes thanks to the win obtained in Holland with his Goldfever.
The German champion (now ranked 28th) will certainy try to do his best in the final event of the league that will take place in Goteborg on the Easter weekend.

In the meantime the FEI (International Equestrian Federation) has officialised a first list of participants for the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final.
The list indicates the riders who qualified in the ten leagues of the FEI World Cup 2003/2004 that have already run all qualifiers: Central Europe, USA West Coast, Canada, South America, South Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. To cmplete the list of finalists we have to wait that both the USA East Coast League (last event in Tampa, Florida, 4th of April) and the Western European one will be concluded (last event in Goteborg, Sweden, 11th of April).

It is expected that the names of the very top riders will indeed come out of these two leagues, because it is in the Europe and in the American East Coast that the best horses and riders are usually based; nevertheless in the other 10 leagues there are outstanding riders such as the Canadian Ian Millar, winner of two editions of the FEI World Cup (Goteborg ’88 and Tampa ’89) riding Big Ben. Amongst the other important names who have already confirmed their participation in the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final there are: the Americans Richard Spooner and Nicole Simposon; while among the outsiders there is the Turkish rider Sencer Can, who won the last event of the Central Europe circuit in Warsawa. Less known finalists to the European audience are coming from Australia which, along with New Zealand, is the land of successful horse breeders and eventing riders. Finally, at the Assago Forum in Milan will compete the representatives of those countries that have only recently join the international circuit even though they have ancient equestrian traditions, such as Kazakistan (Central Asia League). Some outsiders might rise to success among the South African riders or the Argentinian and Brasilian ones (South America League). Brasilian is also one of the hot favourite rider of the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final, Rodrigo Pessoa, who is the only rider ever to win three times the World Cup – Helsinki ’98, Goteborg’99, Las Vegas 2000. Pessoa has already qualified for the Sony Ericsson FEI World Cup Jumping Final thanks to his current fourth place in the general rankings of the Western Europe league.

RIDERS QUALIFIED FOR THE SONY ERICSSON FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING FINAL

Central European League (3 finalists)
186 riders who disputed 17 events
Gunnar Klettemberg (Estonia)
Sencer Can (Turkey)
Grzegorz Kubiak (Polland)
Reserve Ales Opatmy (Czeck Republic)

USA West Coast League (3 finalists)
57 riders, 19 events
Richard Spooner (USA)
Nicole Simpson (USA)
John French (USA)
Reserve: Will Simpson (USA), Susan Hutchinson (USA)

Canadian League (2 finalists)
33 riders, 6 events
Ainsley Vince (Canada)
Ian Millar (Canada)
Yann Candele (Francia)
Reserve: Elliot Stone (Canada), John Pearce (Canada).

South American League (2 finalists)
81 riders, 6 events
Marcelo Lames de Souza ( Brasil)
Lionel Collad Bovy (Argentina)
Reserve: Ricardo Kierkegaard (Argentina), Andrè Americo de Miranda (Brasil)

South African League (1 finalist)
25 riders, 5 events
Dominey Alexander (South Africa)
Reserve: Barry Tylor (South Africa)

Cenral Asian League (1 finalist)
18 riders, 4 events
Alexander Tishkov (Kazakistan)
Reserve: Gairat Nazarov (Uzbekistan)

South East Asian League (1 finalist)
6 events
Quabil Ambak (Malaysia)
Reserve: Quzier Ambak (Malaysia)

Japan League (1 finalist)
15 riders, 6 events
Takamichi Mashiyama (Japan)
Reserve: Seiji Ninomiya (Japan)

Australian League (2 finalists)
68 riders, 18 events
Chris Chrugg (Australia)
Tim Amistrano (Australia)
Reserve: Andrew Inglis (Australia)

New Zealand League (1 finalist)
23 riders, 10 events
Sally Steiner (New Zealand)
Reserve: Merran Hain (New Zealand)

Sourse: Official Website, World Cup Milano 2004.