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Championships, Endurance Riding, FEI, FEI

Bulgaria Wins Individual and Team Gold at FEI Balkan Endurance Championships

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Zrinka Bilen on Sally. (FEI/Bosko Milivojevic)

Lausanne (SUI), 9 October 2016 – After a second place finish on the podium in 2015, Bulgaria’s Denis Furlanski captured individual gold riding Moz in the 100km FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2016 at Velika Pisanica in eastern Croatia.

Furlanski, who last year won team gold and individual silver at the 90km Balkan Championships, headed Moz into the cold morning fog through the forest trails coming into the first vet check just behind top Croatian athlete Zrinka Bilen on the 10-year-old mare Sally.

They left for the second loop at the same time, but Furlanski and the 10 year-old Shagya gelding pulled ahead and completed the ride in the afternoon sun in 04:54:28 with an average speed of 20:376 km/h.

Fellow Bulgarian Desislava Aleksieva, finishing five minutes later on the 9-year-old Arabian, Pompey, scored individual silver with the ride time of 04:59:37, and bronze was won by Zrinka who arrived three minutes later over the finish line.

Team spirit

With Bulgaria’s one-two finish, the team had a leg up on the top podium spot, and thanks to the sixth-place finish of third team member Ruz Nedkova-Ivanova on Morfey the team’s combined ride time of 15:11:53 secured the gold medal.

Croatia, with Bilen’s individual bronze in the bag, narrowly missed team gold with Stefano Osip on the 8-year-old Shagya gelding Hajna finishing fourth and Iva Lipovac taking fifth place with 9-year-old mare Hita. They completed in a combined ride time of 15:18:15.

Greece took home team bronze finishing in 21:53:53 with Viktoria Schoina on Koheilan XIII 16 SALA, Irini Mitona on Aphroditi and Sotirios Patisouras on Sheikh, who finished 10th, 11th and 12th, in that order.

A total of 30 rider/horse combinations from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Turkey started out at 07:00 on the FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2016 trail, which left from the Kukavica sports centre in Velika Pisanica into a forested area with excellent horse trails.

Timer and member of the Organising Committee Antun Baković said of the day: “Everything connected to facilitating the event went smoothly thanks to enthusiastic athletes and supporting crew, and the experience of Technical Delegate and Foreign Judge Anita Goedl and officials led by Teodora Kostova, President of the Ground Jury.”

*Full results will be available in the FEI results database in due course: https://data.fei.org/Calendar/Search.aspx.

By Pamela Burton

FEI Media Contact:

Ruth Grundy
Manager Press Relations
Email: ruth.grundy@fei.org
Tel: +41 787 506 145

Championships, Competitions, Endurance Riding, FEI

Croatia Steals the Show at FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2014

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Members of the Croatian team which won the gold medal at the recent FEI Balkan Endurance Championships held in Belgrade (SRB)

Lausanne (SUI), 25 September 2014 – The FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2014 took place on 20 September in Meljak in the Barajevo municipality of the Serbian capital Belgrade. Seven National Federations were represented with Croatia stealing the show and scooping two of the three individual medals as well as team gold.

The Championship was run over an 80km course made up of four loops consisting of 28km, 20km, 16km and a final 16km. The area of Meljak lies south of the city of Belgrade and is nestled between the two major mountains of the region: the Avala Mountain found to the south east of Belgrade and the Kosmaj Mountain to the south west. The beautiful backdrop of rolling, rural hills provided a technical and testing course for this relatively new FEI Endurance event.

In line with the ever-increasing popularity of the Endurance discipline, this Championship has seen a huge growth in numbers since its inception in 2008. The first official FEI Balkan Endurance Championships took place in Sancrai (ROU) and had a total of 19 entrants, from which 10 successfully completed the 60km course. 2011 saw the event move to Koprivstitsa (BUL) with a similar starting field but a higher completion rate across the 90km course. Finally this year the starting field grew by 50% with 30 starters representing Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Turkey and, of course, the home nation of Serbia. Alongside a higher number of entrants, this year also saw the event’s highest ever completion rate of nearly 65% indicating the much more advanced level of competition now seen in this part of Europe.

The individual competition was tightly fought with the top three finishing within just three minutes of one another. Right from the first vet gate all three of the final medallists were within grasp of taking the top spot. In the end it was the consistent presentation times of the eye-catching 10 year old chestnut mare, 130 Sally, that gave Croatian Milan Palcic a six minute lead heading out onto the final loop of 16km. Despite the very best efforts of his compatriot Stefano Osip aboard the striking and talented 848 Wolf and home rider Ariana Ilic partnering her eight year old gelding Natalos, Palcic crossed the finish line with a two minute advantage securing the individual gold.

Individual silver went to the home nation as well. Ilic (SRB) completed the final loop in one hour and three minutes, some two minutes faster than 16 year old Osip pushing him into individual bronze medal position.

The final line up was certainly a mix of old and new. The top combination was competing in their fourth FEI event whereas the event was an FEI debut for Ariana Ilic aboard Natalos. Finally, the talented 17 year old 848 Wolf, one of the oldest horses in the event, is no stranger to this championship having completed in fifth position in 2011 with Petra Sebelic (CRO).

Croatia was also dominant in the team competition finishing more than two hours ahead of silver medal placed team Bulgaria. Turkey claimed the bronze a further 30 minutes behind. All five of Croatia’s entrants crossed the finish line in the top six but unfortunately one of horses, Sonik, ridden by Karla Sebalj was spun at the final vetting resulting in them taking first, third, fourth and fifth individual positions and securing the top team podium place with a rider to spare.

Second placed Bulgaria came home with a clean sheet, five finishers from five starters. Their top rider was Katina Lyutova with her grey Shagya Arab Shraf, both of whom were competing in their first FEI event. Just nine minutes later Lyutova’s team mates Vanya Lazarova and Zhanina Ivanova crossed the finish line aboard Tahira and Zezana respectively, securing team silver.

The final podium position was taken by Turkey who put in an extremely respectable performance securing their first ever FEI medal in this discipline. All four of the remaining Turkish riders crossed the finish line together. Kadir Bustug riding Palmiye, Bekir Dilari riding Fedakarhan, Ercan Bahadir riding Alsarli and Tevfik Poyraz Arda riding Yigit Emre filled individual positions from 11th through to 14th.

By Berry Pattison

Media contact:
Malina Gueorguiev
Manager Media Relations
malina.gueorguiev@fei.org
+41 78 750 61 33

*Featured/Spotlights, Championships, Competitions, Endurance Riding, Events, FEI, FEI

FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2011 – Koprivshtitsa (BUL)

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DOUBLE GOLD FOR BRILLIANT BULGARIANS by Louise Parkes

Individual champion, Bulgaria's Miroslav Borshosh, celebrates his gold medal winning performance with Munir B. The partnership also took the Best Condition award. Photo: FEI/Radostina Genova.

Lausanne (SUI), 30 August 2011 – The host nation scooped team and individual gold at the FEI Balkan Endurance Championships 2011 staged at Koprivshtitsa in Bulgaria last weekend. The Bulgarian side was the only finishers in the three-nation team contest, while Miroslav Borshosh produced an impressive and well-judged performance with his Arab gelding, Munir B, to emphatically claim the individual title.

Koprivshtitsa, which lies on the Topolnitsa River and in the Sredna Gora mountains, is well-known for its architecture. and for the folk-music festivals that ensure it is a very popular destination for tourists.  It is also home to a National Festival of Bulgarian Folklore which takes place every five years, attracting musicians, artists and craftsmen from across the country.  So visitors to these FEI Championships experienced an authentic take on Bulgarian culture and heritage.

The horses and riders were truly tested with an 86 kilometre course that started at 1,000 feet above sea level and rose a further 400 feet.  “The competitors did a great job,” said FEI Technical Delegate Bo Kjellgren (SWE) afterwards, “and the Bulgarian Federation was very much behind the event, giving it huge support.”

VERY TOUGH
Poland’s Dr Piotr Szpotanski, a highly-experienced FEI Veterinary Delegate, described the competition trail as “very tough”, but was surprised how well the horses coped with it.  “I found it frightening when I was driving the mountain trail in my car, but the horses seemed to find it much easier!” he said.  Rumours of wild mustangs running loose through the countryside, and even the occasional wolf prowling in the wilderness, didn’t deter the competitors from the task at hand.

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