Course designer Olaf Petersen set them a tough first-round track which Malin described as "tricky and big with a couple of very difficult turn-backs – particularly to the last fence" but ten horse-and-rider combinations left all the fences intact to go through to the jump-off.

Christophe Barbeau has been a real find for the Swiss this season, but he too dropped three fences with Qerly Chin and it was beginning to look like a fault-free round might not be achieved until Germany’s Soren Von Ronne at last found the key, steering Cantaro to a cautious clear in 45.73 seconds to put it up to the last three runners.

Markus Fuchs, already assured of a place in Milan as he has been awarded a wildcard, was next into the ring with Tinka’s Boy who lowered just one fence to leave Soren still holding the advantage but that proved short-lived when Malin strolled through the in-gate with the 13 year old Robin Z mare H&M Butterfly Flip.

Rider-injuries have been the order of the day in recent months with Markus Fuchs struggling with a leg problem, Rodrigo looking like a doubtful starter in Milan for some weeks due to his tumble in Spain and World Champion Dermott Lennon, just 12 months after suffering a serious break to his shoulder, back on the sidelines after breaking his ankle in a schooling fall from a youngster at his yard in Holland just over a week ago.

Malin too has been hampered by an injury sustained during the Paris leg of the FEI World Cup series earlier last month. She took a crashing fall from her speed mare in the warm-up ring at the French fixture and has been battling with pain in her shoulder and collarbone but she reported yesterday that she is "completely recovered" and she was showing no ill-effects as she threw down the gauntlet with a scorching performance when second-last to go.

"I knew Soren had been slow" she said afterwards "but I also knew that Meredith was coming in behind me with Shutterfly and you know how fast they can be! So I decided to go as quickly as possible and although the jump-off track wasn’t easy everything went perfectly – my horse jumped brilliantly and I rode really well".

Malin’s target-time was 37.70 seconds but Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum’s ride Shutterfly has an amazing turn of foot as they showed when winning the Dutch round of the series in Amsterdam earlier in the season, and the crowd watched tensely as the German partnership set off, last to go.

They left all the fences standing but the clock showed 39.01 seconds as they broke the beam and Malin’s colossal fan-club went wild with jubilation when they realised their home-grown heroine had come out on top.

"This is what always make it special for me at home" Malin said afterwards. "The Swedish crowds love show jumping and they are fantastic to me – they went crazy when I won!" The gate-numbers alone – 19,532 people attended the final day of jumping at the Scandinavium Arena today – are proof of the huge popularity of the sport in this part of Europe.

Malin has her year mapped out ahead of her, with Athens a major priority – "with this mare, she is definitely my Olympic ride" – but before that she intends to make her mark in Milan. Third at last year’s FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas after leading for much of the tournament she has her sights set on an even better result this time around and, on today’s form, she will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

The list of riders (see table below) now qualified from the Western European League promises a battle of the giants in the Forum of Assago in Milan for the concluding phase of the 2003/2004 FEI World Cup Jumping series which begins on Wednesday 21^st April.

RESULTS:
1, H&M Butterfly Flip (Malin Baryard) Swe 0/0 37.70;
2, Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 0/0 39.01;
3, Cantaro 11 (Soren Von Ronne) Ger 0/0 45.73;
4, Tinka’s Boy (Markus Fuchs) Sui 04 38.44;
5, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 04 39.38;
6, VDL Cardento (Peter Eriksson) Swe 0/8 39.38;
7, Melvin (Peter Wylde) USA 08 42.32;
8, Montender 2 (Marco Kutscher) Ger 0/12 39.42;
9, Qerly Chin (Christophe Barbeau) Sui 0/12 40.32;
10, Andante (Tina Lund) Den 0/12 40.91;
equal 11, Lando 126 (O Becker) Ger, Audi’s Jikke (Eric Van der Vleuten) Ned, Clear Rounds Then Party (Geir Gulliksen) Nor, Equest Carnute (Thomas Velin) Den, Cigale du Tallis (Eugenie Angot) Fra, Sails Away (Sebastian Numminen) Fin, Goldfever 3 (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger, Eurocommerce Montreal (Wim Schroder) Ned, MacKinley (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe, JPC Modesto Equifoam (Jean-Marc Nicolas) Fra, Quibell (Jessica Kurten) Irl, Handel (Michael Whitaker) GB, Nassau (Jeroen Dubbeldam) Ned 4 faults; 24, Kalusha (Robert Smith) GB 5 faults;
equal 25, Anka (Marcus Ehning) Ger, Fighting Alpha (Lars Nieberg) Ger 8 faults; 27, Luc (Richard Davenport) GB 9 faults;
equal 28, Non Plus Extra (Antonis Petris) Gre, Favoritas (Nina B Johnsen) Nor, Carlot 3 (Maria Sundberg) Swe, Cinderella (Maria Gretzer) Swe 12 faults;
32, Osta Rugs Richebourg (Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe) Bel 13 faults;
equal 33, Gandini Delany (Jerry Smit) Ita, Cagliostro (Niklas Arvidsson) Swe 16 faults; 35, Carola (Charlotte Lund) Den 19 faults;
36, ET Royal Volo (Tony Andre Hansen) Nor Elim;
37, H&M Levantos 2 (Peder Fredricson) Swe Ret, Rockmount Flight (Gerfried Puck)

FEI WORLD CUP LEADERBOARD AFTER ROUND 14 AT GOTEBORG:

1. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum - 75
2. Rodrigo Pessoa - 70
3. Ludo Philippaerts - 66
4. Otto Becker - 65
5. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson - 60
equal 6. Malin Baryard, Marco Kutscher - 59
equal 8. Thomas Velin, Jos Lansink, Bruno Broucqsault – 57
11. Peter Wylde – 55
equal 12. Helena Weinberg, Eric Van der Vleuten – 53
14. Toni Hassmann – 52
15. Michael Whitaker – 51
16. Marcus Ehning – 50
17. Christophe Barbeau – 48
18. Wim Schroder – 44
19. Hubert Bourdy – 43
20. Jeroen Dubbeldam – 40
21. Eugenie Angot – 39