After two blank years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CCIO 4*-S in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, started yesterday. This prestigious site, located south-west of Rome, host to the first stage of the FEI Eventing Nations Cup circuit, will also host this year the world championships in the discipline, which will take place from 12 to 15 September. Yesterday, thirty-five riders from nine nations (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) competed in the dressage test. Leading the individual standings, Ingrid Klimke scored 28.4 points with SAP Hale Bob (Old, Helikon XX x Noble Champion), an eighteen-year-old gelding, also putting the German squad at the top of the nations standings with 78 .7 points ahead of France (82.30 points) and Switzerland (87.20 points). The German double Olympic team gold medalist in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, and team silver medalist in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, once again proved her talent from the first test. As a reminder, last month, the couple won the CCI 4*-S of Oudkarspel in the Netherlands. “I’m thrilled because SAP Hale Bob Old put in a splendid performance. He was fresh, felt great and was responsive. He really gave me a good feeling,” explained the fifty-four-year-old German. The rider will be back in the dressage box today as she is also competing with a second mount, Equistros Siena Just Do It (Westph, Semper Fi 4 x Weltrat). “Yesterday I scouted the cross course and I think it’s fantastic. Among the combinations, it is number seven (panoramic corners, editor’s note) which is perhaps the most difficult, but also the penultimate, number fourteen (swan lake, editor’s note)”.she added.
Maxime Livio and Api du Libaire (SF, Fusain du Defey x Trésor de Cheux) are in second place provisionally with 25.4 points. New Zealander Jonelle Price and Faerie Magnifico (SHBGB, Birkhof’s Grafenstolz x Catherston Dazzler) completed the provisional top three. For the other tricolors, Christopher Six and Nicolas Touzaint are in ninth and tenth place with Totem de Brecey (SF, Mylord Carthago x Quouglof Rouge) and Absolut Gold HDC (SF, Birkhof’s Grafenstolz x Verglas). A little further down the rankings, Karim Laghouag and Triton Fontaine (SF, Gentleman IV x Nightko) are in twenty-fourth place.
Today, twenty-eight other couples competing individually will perform the first test of the discipline. The cross is scheduled for Saturday at 10.30 a.m. and the show jumping event for Sunday (10.30 a.m.).
