Le Mans, France – On the second day of competition at the FEI World Vaulting Championship, the U.S. vaulters had a day of strong performances. Gabe Aniello (Redwood City, CA) leads the U.S. vaulters in the Individual Male Championships, currently sitting in ninth place with a total score of 7.277. Aniello partnered with Forrest Cump and lunger Agnes Forst.
“I had a rough beginning but I pulled it together at the end,” Aniello commented on his performance. “It is very humbling to compete at the World Championship and I am learning a lot from the experience. We all are so appreciative of the great horses that we have and of the owners who have loaned them to us. Many, many, many thanks!”
Kristian Roberts (Moss Beach, CA) has a total score of 6.991, putting him in 12th place. Vaulting on Forrest Cump and lunged by Forst, Roberts put forth a strong effort in his Free Test performance today. Patrick Stevens (Martinez, CA) sits in 13th place with a total score of 6.988, after vaulting on Maxwell and being lunged by Anouk Dory.
In the Individual Female Championship, Alicen Divita (Redwood City, CA) sits in 12th place overall with a total score of 7.765 after yesterday’s Compulsories and today’s Free Test. Vaulting on Pino del Rio and lunged by Elke Schlep-Lansing, Divita had an impressive Free Test performance.
Divita was thrilled with her performance, saying, “It was so much fun; it was so much fun! My goal was to have the audience understand the story I was telling and I truly felt part of the music.”
Mary McCormick (Woodside, CA) is currently in 14th place overall with a total score of 7.721, after her Free Test with Anyway 54 and lunger Lasse Kristensen. Katharine Wick (Hillsborough, CA) is in 20th place overall with a total score of 7.392. Vaulting on Luk and lunged by Rita Bileske, Wick had a solid first round Free Test at her first World Championship.
After the first round Team Compulsories, the Woodside Vaulters of Woodside, CA currently sit in fifth place with a score of 6.942. Vaulting on Stanford lunged by Julie Divita, the team of Tessa Divita (Emerald Hills, CA), Kalyn Geisler (Redwood City, CA), Kathryn Jaggers (Portola Valley, CA), Siddartha Kreaden (Sunnyvale, CA), Samantha Matson (Los Gatos, CA), and Katherine Salisbury (Atherton, CA) put together a solid first round Compulsory.
Competition continues tomorrow with the Technical Test for the Individual Females at 10:30am local time and for the Individual Males at 12:00pm. The first round Free Test for the Pas de Deux division begins at 2:30pm and the first round Free Test for the Team division starts at 3:45pm.
FEI TV will be providing a live broadcast of the FEI World Vaulting Championship on their website. To see the broadcast schedule and watch, click here: http://www.feitv.org/page/Live.
For start lists and results, click here.
Follow the 2012 U.S. Vaulting Team here: http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/2012Vaulting/.