First week highlights
The first week of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy is in the books and although there have been few surprises thus far, there were some new developments.
The more things change the more they stay the same. The provisional medal count is, for now, a mirror image of the last Games in Lexington, with five nations leading the charge: Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Belgium, which occupy the same spots in these 2014 Games as they did in 2010. Take a closer look at the medal distribution, however, and a few surprises emerge.
In Dressage, one phenom succeeds another
Dressage, in 2014, cannot be boiled down to a simple duel between Germany and the Netherlands. In the interim, a titan of the arena has broken onto the international stage. We’re talking about Valegro and the English rider Charlotte Dujardin. In Caen, the gelding did not have to face Totilas, the star of the Lexington Games, which was excellent news for Team GBR as they took home three gold medals in Normandy. This stands in contrast to Kentucky where Laura Bechtolsheimer’s squad had to settle for three silver medals. The Germans, who didn’t have the results they were hoping for in Lexington, are in the position that history has tended to reserve for the meinschaft.
However, there were fewer changes in the Para-dressage where Great Britain continued to dominate followed by the Netherlands, which improved on its 2010 performance. There were no surprises in Reining either, where the Americans’ stranglehold on the competition continues.
Endurance goes back in time, Gulf countries notwithstanding
There was a major comeback in Endurance. In recent years, the discipline has been dominated by the United Arab Emirates but this year the historic nations of the sport’s history returned to the forefront. For the Spanish and the French, the technical course, with Mont Saint-Michel as a splendid backdrop, resembled the courses at the sport’s beginnings. The United Arab Emirates collapsed at the team level (as did many teams) but they did manage to aid Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum to the victory circle, which was proof that some Gulf riders have become used to less linear courses than those they typically compete on in the desert. The same holds true for Qatar, where Abdulrahman Saad A.S. al Sulaiteen placed third in the individual standings.
Eventing: Germany plays new prominent role
In Eventing, there were also a few surprises: The absence of riders from New Zealand on the podium and Germany’s rise to the top spots in the discipline. The British bucked the trend with a bronze in the individual (William Fox-Pitt) and a silver in the team competition. However, they have a formidable new competitor in Germany, which may have won individual gold in Lexington but came out empty-handed in the team event here at the 2014 Games.
CLICK HERE to see the medal count