World Cup Jumping Leagues Wrapped Up Around the Globe

Final competition

The final competition of the eight-leg North American League took place last Sunday at Ocala in Florida, USA with victory for Ireland’s Daniel Coyle which confirmed his place at the top of the League table after a spectacular run of form on both sides of the Atlantic.

The 29-year-old who rides for Canada’s Lothlorien Farm collected his first points in Toronto in November, but it was his decision to take in some of the Western European League events that sent him on his way to racking up a total of 75 which left him well clear of Israel’s Daniel Bluman in second spot on 43.

Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam finished third ahead of Great Britain’s Jessica Mendoza in fourth while America’s Jill Humphrey slotted into fifth in the final League standings and was the highest-placed West USA athlete with good results in Las Vegas and Fort Worth in November and December. Yet another Irishman, Conor Swail, finished sixth.

Coyle’s pathway to success really opened up when he finished third with the great mare Legacy in London, Great Britain in December following a mighty battle with home athletes Ben Maher and Scott Brash. And he then got into top gear with wins at the following two Western European legs in Leipzig, Germany and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

On Sunday he partnered his new ride, the aptly-named 11-year-old grey gelding Incredible, to pin US star Kent Farrington into runner-up spot in Ocala to make it three successive Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ victories, and he will definitely be one to watch out for at the Longines 2024 Final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in four weeks’ time.

Smallest

The South East Asian League was the smallest numerically, with a total of nine Indonesian competitors chasing points over three legs on home soil in Jakarta-Pulomas and Cinere-Depok in November and December. League winner was 35-year-old Ferry Wahyu Hadiyanto who topped the line-up twice with the 10-year-old mare Cascadella de Revel G. Runner-up was Marcho Alexandro and Erwin Yoga finished third.

It was an all-Kiwi affair in the five-leg New Zealand League which kicked off in Hastings in October and concluded at Woodhill Sands in Auckland in early January where Brooke Edgecombe was crowned champion. It was a first-ever title success for the 43-year-old rider who twice won the series final and twice finished second on the League table. Jake Lambert and Alaid de Chez Nous won the final leg this time around, but after a strong run of form Edgecombe’s third-place finish with LT Holst Andrea was enough to give her a one-point advantage over Sophie Scott in the final league standings while Julie Davey finished third ahead of Maurice Beatson in fourth place. A total of 17 athletes competed in this League.

On top

The Japan League ran from April to December last year attracting 22 participants and Shinichiro Sugiyama came out on top after competing in all seven legs. The action took place in Osaka, Kakegawa, Nasu, Fuji and Miki, and  the 44-year-old rider partnered the 13-year-old Hannoverian gelding Rising Sun throughout the series, picking up points at every outing and posting a double of wins at Osaka in October and Miki in December.

Runner-up was Yugo Mori with the 16-year-old gelding Kay Em Bambalou while Kazuki Takizawa finished third and Daijiro Mashiyama fourth.

The South African League took place from May to October 2023, visiting venues at Midrand, Kromdraai, Shongweni and Brits. Bronwyn Meredith dos Santos won the six-leg League ahead of Ashlee Healy in second and Lisa Williams and Jeanne Korber in third and fourth places.

The League champion rode both the 14-year-old Polish-bred mare Bibisi and the 13-year-old grey stallion Capital Levubu, Bibisi giving Meredith dos Santos a great start with the win at Midrand last May where they pipped Korber and Callaho Lexington for pole position. Ashlee Healy and Eldo won round two in Kromdraai, Williams steered Campbell to victory in Shongweni in June and Ronnie Healy came out on top with Capital Magic Boy at Brits in July. Oliver Bishop and Gaucho claimed the main honours at the penultimate leg in Shongweni and George Coutlis and Callaho Lord Cris won the last round at Brits in October where Meredith dos Santos had to settle for ninth but with a total of 61 points was confirmed League champion. A total of 32 athletes competed in this League.

Clinched the title

The Central European League came to an exciting climax at the Final in Krakow, Poland last month where Latvia’s Kristaps Neretnieks clinched the title ahead of Czech Republic’s Sara Vingralkova while Angelos Toulopis from Greece finished third.

Toulopis was one of just two contenders from the CEL Southern Sub-League, the remainder of the 15 starters all emerging from the CEL Northern Sub-League. And the form-book held true.

Vingralkova had won the Northern League while Neretnieks finished second in the same Sub-League. Meanwhile Toulopis was always a major contender after topping the Southern Sub-league leaderboard.

Carrying their five best results from their respective Sub-Leagues, the 15 finalists faced three further competitions in Krakow to decide the CEL title, and Neretnieks finished best of the three who eventually landed on the podium when ninth in the opening Speed leg with Tender van de Kleiberg Z which added eight points to his tally.

Victory with Quintes in the second class added 20 more, and with 34 in the final competition the 34-year-old rider completed on a total of 126 for a clear victory over 21-year-old Vingralkova who, however, finished just a single point ahead of Touloupis in third. A total of 126 athletes lined out in the Central European League.

Arab League

The Arab League consists of two Sub-Leagues, and Egyptian riders dominated the North-African Sub-League while riders from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claimed first and second places in the Middle-East division.

Tokyo Olympian Mouda Zeyada headed Abdelrahman Shousha and Zain Shady Samir to make it an Egyptian one-two-three in the final rankings of the North-African Sub-League, while Morocco’s El Ghali Boukaa and Vincent Zacharias Bourguignon finished fourth and fifth here.

Zeyada picked up points in the first two legs in Tetouan and Rabat in Morocco last October with If Looks Could Kill OH and then finished second in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in early December before posting a fifth-place finish at the same venue a week later which left the 28-year-old athlete carrying 50 points. His nearest rival and compatriot Shousha completed with 36 points and Samir took third spot with 28.

Meanwhile in the Middle East Sub-League Saudi Arabia’s Khaled Almobty, team gold medallist at the Asian Games in 2018 who also competed at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2019, collected 16 points for third place in Riyadh in early December before posting a win with Davenport VDL in Al Ain in the UAE as 2023 was coming to a close. More points at Abu Dhabi in January and Kuwait in February were then reinforced by 20 points for fourth place with Spacecake in Sharjah (UAE) four weeks ago.

His fellow-countryman Ramzy Al Duhami claimed second place on the Middle East Sub-League table and Salim Ahmed Al Suwaidi landed third. A total of 68 athletes contested these two Sub-Leagues.

In action

Down under there were 45 athletes in action between March and December 2023, and Australian League winner, 30-year-old Thomas McDermott, lined out at every one of the eight events, producing spectacular results from the 11-year-old Irish-bred Cooley Gangster whose early career was spent in the sport of Eventing with Ireland’s Katie O’Sullivan in the saddle.

The Australian duo finished seventh at Shepparton last March where Sarah-Louise McMillan and Tyrone came out on top, and then won the following leg in Werribee. They were third at Larapinta in April, eleventh at Caboolture in June and sixth in Sydney in August before posting their second win, this time in Tamworth, later that month.

With just two legs left to go they finished third, behind McMillan again in pole position and Robert Palm and Jaybee Vibrant in to second, at Sale in November. And they wrapped it all up with a runner-up result behind Samuel Overton and Oaks Cassanova at the final leg in Sydney in December. With their five best results counting they racked up a total of 80 points to pin McMillan into second on the league standings while Madeline Sinderberry finished third.

Eurasian League

The Eurasian League attracted 47 athletes, with points on offer at six events between April and September last year. Riders from Uzbekistan dominated the final standings when filling the top five places led by Khurshidbek Alimdjanov.

The winner only lined out at the first three fixtures, finishing fifth with the nine-year-old Hannoverian stallion, Champions League, on home ground in Tashkent in round one last April before winning next time out at the same venue a few weeks later. A second victory, at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan in May, was enough to seal victory for the 43 year-old rider who competed at the Asian Indoor Games in Turkmenistan in 2017 and at last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Second place on this league table went to Nurjan Tuyakbaev while Bekzod Kurbanov finished third, Saidamirkhon Turgunboev finished fourth and Azam Tolibbaev finished fifth. Iran’s Faramarz Babolhavaeji finished in sixth place.

The South American South League consisted of five legs that took place between April and November 2023 and it was no surprise when Brazilian riders filled the lion’s share of the top places led by five-time Olympian Doda de Miranda.

The 51-year-old whose record in the Pan-American Games includes team gold in 1999 and team silver in 2011 campaigned at three of the five qualifiers in the series and sealed victory with wins partnering Dinozo un Prince at both the first leg in Curtiba and the third leg in São Paulo.

Second place in the standings went to Guilherme Dutra Foroni while Stephan de Freitas Barcha finished third and Paulo Roberto Brasileiro Miranda finished fourth. Argentina’s Leandro Moschini broke the Brazilian stranglehold when finishing fifth but the next ten places also went to Brazilian competitors. A total of 67 competed in this League.

Western Europe

The Western European League had 14 legs this season, and a total of 172 athletes lined out between October 2023 and February 2024 with 97 obtaining points.

The league began with a double of victories for Ireland’s Richard Howley in Oslo, Norway and Helsinki, Finland while Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet scooped the honours at leg three in Lyon, France. Olympic champion, Great Britain’s Ben Maher won the fourth leg in Verona, Italy and also in November Frenchman Kevin Staut and Germany’s Marcus Ehning won in Stuttgart, Germany and Madrid, Spain.

In December there were two more British wins, Harry Charles taking top spot in A Coruña, Spain and then Ben Maher making it a season double with a big home victory in London. Germany’s Christian Ahlmann won the ninth leg in Mechelen, Belgium to bring 2023 to a close.

Belgium’s Pieter Devos then won leg ten in Basel, Switzerland to get the new year off to a start before Irishman Daniel Coyle posted his two-in-a-row in Leipzig and Amsterdam. Reigning European champion, Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat, headed the line-up at the penultimate leg in Bordeaux, France and the final winner of the busy season was 24-year-old Dutchman Lars Kersten who took everyone by surprise in Gothenburg, Sweden last month.

League winner however was longtime leader and longtime world number one Henrik von Eckermann from Sweden who racked up a massive 86 points. Britain’s Harry Charles and von Eckermann’s compatriot Peder Fredricson finished level on 73 points but Charles got the nod for runner-up spot while Maher finished fourth, Staut finished fifth and Guerdat – three-time FEI Jumping World Cup™ champion – finished sixth in the final ranking.

By Louise Parkes