Belgium wins fourth leg of Nations Cup

Belgium has won the fourth leg of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping Europe division one at St Gallen.

Fought back

The team fought back from third place after round one, with three clears to win their first Nations Cup on Swiss soil in 81 years.

It was the Irish who led at the halfway mark, with a zero score, following clears from Shane Breen (Golden Hawk), Greg Broderick (MHS Going Global) and Bertram Allen (Romanov). However, they dropped to third place after Shane and Bertram had two down, while Cian O’Connor (Good Luck) gained five faults.

Just one point ahead of them in second place was the Swiss home team, who was chasing its first Furusiyya points of the season.

Germany was also competing for points for the first time and fielded their top riders. However, the team had to settle for fourth place.

Out of contention

Following a great run in the FEI Nations Cup series, the British team put themselves out of contention after knocking up a tally of 29 faults. Holly Gillot (Dougie Douglas) had five faults in the first round and nine in the second, while Robert Whitaker (Catwalk IV) had an uncharacteristic 14 in round one and a further two down second time out.

William Whitaker (Fandango) also had one down in each round, while Jessica Mendoza (Spirit T) produced the only clear in round one but went on to have two down.

Belgium’s result sees them at the top of the Europe division one leaderboard, with just one more opportunity to win points, at Hickstead at the end of July. Britain will be aiming to gather points at Rotterdam, Hickstead and Dublin.