Part of press release
In less than three months, one of the major events of the French international sports season will be taking place in the new AccorHotels Arena in Paris: the FEI Jumping and Dressage World Cup Finals. A rare event in France! Indeed, it will only be the third time in history that France will be playing host to these competitions since they were created in 1979 and 1985. The world elite in these two disciplines will be in Paris from 11th to 15th April, after a long and tough qualifying circuit.
Dressage: will Isabell Werth succeed herself?
Three-time winner of the FEI Dressage World Cup and the titleholder, the legendary German rider Isabell Werth is capable of holding on to her title in Paris. The rider, who is automatically qualified, is bound to be the star of the AccorHotels Arena in April. She is the most titled dressage rider ever, and each of her performances is a lesson in riding.
Nevertheless, competition will be particularly fierce this year with Sweden’s Patrick Kittel who has gone into first place in the European League, with the constant progression of his horse Delaunay, who was awarded a score of over 80% after his performances in Stockholm last December.
The French public will probably be taken with Franco-Spanish rider Morgan Barbançon Mestre, third in the provisional rankings. In this discipline, where eighteen finalists are expected, the Fédération Française d’Equitation will also be able to award a wild card to a national rider, probably Ludovic Henry, fourteenth in the current rankings. In the three other leagues, the most serious competition will come from North America, with Canada’s Brittany Fraser and Jacqueline Brooks, but they’ll struggle to undermine the domination of Europe and in particular that of Germany, in a sport which combines performance and artistic sensitivity.
The definitive list of finalists of the FEI World Cup Dressage will be revealed after the Dutch Masters, the leg in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, on 10th March.
Note from H2R
World Cup (European league) events to come:
- This weekend Amsterdam
- Neumünster 15-18 February
- Gothenburg 21-25 February
- s´Hertogenbosch 8-11 March