Swiss Win, Belgium and Germany Tie For Close Second
U.S Still Second in Overall League Standings
From: Louise Parkes/FIE
Rotterdam, the Netherlands - Switzerland came out on top in a super-tight finish to the Dutch leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League series in Rotterdam today and now stands at the top of the league table.
It would be difficult to imagine a more exciting conclusion to any show jumping competition with last man in, Pius Schwizer, running into trouble at the end of the course but still managing to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
At the end of the day, the scoreboard showed Switzerland with just a one-point advantage over the joint-runners-up from Germany and Belgium. The Irish at last scraped off the bottom of the leaderboard when slotting into fourth with a much-improved performance, but the French were struggling when having to settle for fifth while luck still evades the Dutch who were sixth. The British finished a disappointing seventh, while the new rotation of American riders wound up last. However, after the superb run from their predecessors, the USA still lies only 0.5 points behind Switzerland at the head of the league table and it is still up in the air as to who will cme out on top at the end.
There were four double-clear rounds during the day - two each from the winning team and from Germany - and Switzerland's Markus Fuchs produced one of these with La Toya. Fuchs described Linda Allen's track as "not really tough but very, very clever and a little bit sharp because you had to be 100% correct with your turns - if you got them wrong you had big problems - it was a little bit different" he said.
He got his line just right all the way however and when Steve Guerdat (Tijl Van Het Pallieterland) and Fabio Crotta (Mme Pompadour) did the same then Pius Schwizer and the aptly-named Unique did not have to jump as they could not improve on their side's zero score.
Germany lay second at the halfway stage following clears from both Christian Ahlmann (Coster) and Marcus Ehning (Gitania) while both Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Checkmate) and Lars Nieberg (Lucie) collected just four faults each. Joining them on a first-round four-fault score were the surprising Irish who had a shaky start when Billy Twomey and Anastasia arrived home with 10 faults on the board but who rallied with clears from both Harry Marshall (Ado Annie) and Clem McMahon (Gelvin Clover) while Jessica Kurten ensured Twomey's score could be discounted when bringing Castle Forbes Maike home with just one fence on the floor.
The French and Belgians were tied on eight faults after round one while Great Britain carried nine and the Dutch and Americans had already clocked up 12 faults apiece.
Another 24 faults in round two put paid to American chances however - Aaron Vale's total of 20 faults proving expensive - while the British were only marginally better when adding 21 to their tally as Ellen Whitaker failed to maintain the good form she showed in the earlier rounds of the series.
The Dutch were hampered by a second-round 16-fault result for Leon Thijssen (Nairobi) while Frenchman Philippe Leoni (Cyrenaike FRH) collected a colossal personal total of 36 faults to do his side no favours so the real battle was waged in the closing stages between the remaining four nations.
The Belgians were really impressive this time out. Dirk Demeersman (Clinton) produced their only first-round clear but both Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe (Osta Rugs Tresor) and Jos Lansink (Cavalor Cumano) left the second-round course intact and with just a single mistake from Ludo Philippaerts (Parco) they completed with 12 faults.
Ahlmann and Ehning went clear again for Germany but Lars Nieberg's mare Lucie picked up a total of 19 faults over the two rounds and when Meredi