Photo: ROLEX/Kit Houghton.
In sport, time is often the difference between victory and defeat, and in a display of supreme individual horsemanship, the Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam today sealed a growing reputation within the sport of Show Jumping by claiming the Individual World Champion title at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy by less than half a second, the equivalent of a horse’s stride.
Going into the Final Four competition at the Stade d’Ornano in Caen on the last day of the Games, Dubbeldam was undoubtedly favourite in many impartial observers’ eyes, but Patrice Delaveau had the majority of the 20,000 crowd behind him, and many asked whether this home advantage would power the Frenchman to the title.
Unique within the sport, the Final Four competition format places the emphasis on the rider’s ability to connect within a three minute time allowance, with a horse which they have never ridden before, and then attempt to go clear over the 10 obstacles, which included a treble. It became a competition of nail-biting intensity, and the atmosphere within the stadium buzzed incessantly. The crowd was magnificent, expectant before the riders entered the stadium, but complete quiet as soon as the riders started jumping, the silence broken only by a collective intake of breath when a pole was rattled, and a huge sigh of relief as it stayed up.
Each rider initially rode his/her own horse, with only Rolf-Göran Bengtsson knocking one pole down in the treble combination, and then the first change took place. Only Dubbeldam and Delaveau, riding Cortes ‘C’ and Orient Express HDC, respectively, went clear at this stage. But it was in the third stage of jumping that Dubbeldam was shown a possible route to the Gold Medal. Delaveau riding Casall ASK went clear but was agonisingly 0.43 seconds over the allocated time, and therefore accumulated a 1 point time fault. The spotlight returned to Dubbeldam, but the cool Dutchman, riding Cortes ‘C’ this time, held his nerve and rode his third clear round. With Beezie Madden and Rolf-Göran Bengtsson both accumulating further penalty points, and thereby effectively relegating themselves to 3rd and 4th place, the final stage would be a straight shoot-out between Delaveau and Dubbeldam.
Delaveau entered the ring first on Zenith SFN and rode superbly to go clear, and was immediately followed by Dubbeldam, riding Casall ASK. Knowing that only a clear round would win him the title, the unruffled Dutchman showed once again why he is one of the coolest customers on the circuit, with his fourth clear round winning him the individual World Championship title.
Following his victory, Jeroen Dubbeldam said, “I have had an incredible week; I was already very happy with my Team Gold Medal and I did not think I had a good chance for the Individual as I thought my horse would be too inexperienced to do it the whole week for me, but he did it; he brought me into this Top Four and I’m really, really proud of him.”
Final Result from the Individual Show Jumping Competition:
Gold Medal: Jeroen Dubbeldam (NED)
Silver Medal: Patrice Delaveau (FRA)
Bronze Medal: Beezie Madden (USA)
Rolex Testimonees at The Games
Whilst individual success may have eluded them, many of the Rolex Testimonees competing at the Games made major contributions as part of a team and came away with medals. Germany’s Isabell Werth won Team Gold in Dressage riding Bella Rose 2, Zara Phillips and High Kingdom had superb clear rounds in the Eventing’s cross-country and show jumping disciplines to help Great Britain win Team Silver in Eventing, and Kevin Staut riding Reveur de Hurtebise HDC, a Silver in Show Jumping with France.
Hugely Successful Games for France and the Sport
This has been the most successful World Equestrian Games ever staged, with the number of countries competing up by 25% compared with 2010 and television audiences peaking at over 500 million viewers, a sure sign that equestrian sport continues to grow at unprecedented levels on the global stage.
Rider Quotes:
Beezie Madden (USA):
I’m very happy to come out with a medal and I thought it was really exciting sport and the horses were lovely to ride, and I’m very happy that my horse was clear every time. I do get a little nervous riding strange horses; I like to work with a horse for a while, but these are all such nice horses and they are well schooled and they have had a good week and are confident going into today so it ended up being fun.
Patrice Delaveau (FRA):
I am a little disappointed about the result, especially as it was such a small margin, and that is hard to swallow, but it is good for the horses that we did not have to have a jump-off, and Jeroen really was the best rider out there today. I have the course very clearly in my head, and it will probably stay there for a while; on the penultimate fence I wasted a little bit of time, but on the final fence I took one extra stride and that is where I lost the time.
For more information on the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and full results, please visit www.normandy2014.com.
Rolex and the World Equestrian Games
Rolex’s association with the World Equestrian Games began in 2002 in Jerez, Spain and the brand is at the forefront of the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, which takes place between 23 August and 7 September in Caen, France where a record 74 nations intend to take part.
The exceptional bond between Rolex and the World Equestrian Games has no doubt been instrumental in attracting 12 new countries to make their debut this year; a glorious achievement in the development of the sport on a global scale. Across the 15 days, approximately 1,200 media will follow 1,000 competitors as they compete across eight official disciplines including the Olympic sports of Show Jumping, Dressage and Eventing in front of over 500,000 spectators.
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