ECCLES AND LOOSER MAINTAIN SUPREMACY AND GERMANY CLAIMS DOUBLE TEAM GOLD by Louise Parkes
Lausanne (SUI), 24 August 2011 – Great Britain’s Joanne Eccles and Switzerland’s Patrick Looser maintained the form that clinched their 2010 world titles when winning the Female and Male Individual gold medals at the FEI Open European Vaulting Championships 2011 at Le Mans, France last weekend. German vaulters were strong however, taking both Senior and Junior Team gold, and the Pas de Deux and Junior Male titles, while Italy’s Silvia Stoppazzine claimed the Junior Female Individual honours.
Over 200 competitors from 19 countries – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Italy, Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Republic of South Africa, Mauritius, Belgium, Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, Finland and Sweden – gathered at Le Mans for the 15th edition of these Championships. The success of the Vaulting competitions at last year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, USA has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in this sport which originally emerged from ancient Greece, where warriors were trained to ride independently of their horses as they brandished weapons. Today it is a competitive discipline, open to both men and women, in which both dynamic and static gymnastic elements are combined and performed on a catering horse. It demands outstanding physical fitness from the vaulter and a harmonious relationship with the horse and longeur.
SENIORS
Germany got off to a great start when pipping Switzerland in Thursday’s Senior Team Compulsory Test, but the result was reversed on Saturday when it was the Swiss who came out on top in the Freestyle while, once again, Austria slotted into third. And it was a close-fought affair in Sunday’s decider with the judging panel of Veronique Girard, Elzbieta Dolinska, Gaby Benz, Heddy Boelsma Den Hartog, Ute Schoenian and Anna Kull unafraid to award high marks where appropriate. The biggest score of the day came from Ute Schoenian, at E, who awarded 9.773 to the German side whose longeur Jessica Schmitz and horse Arkansas 51 rounded up a great performance. The final German total of 8.300 left them just .053 clear of the Swiss silver medallists, while Austria completed in bronze medal position with 7.980 on the board.