Omaha, Neb. – The 2023 Burlington Capital FEI Vaulting World Cup Final concluded Saturday with Free Tests, which saw Kimmy Palmer finish as the highest-placed U.S. athlete, earning fourth place overall in the Individual Female Final. Daniel Janes took sixth place overall in the Individual Male Final in his first individual appearance in an FEI World Cup Final competition.
(US Equestrian)
Palmer (Half Moon Bay, Calif.) produced a clean Free Test, earning an overall final score of 7.791, a collective average of their Technical Test on Thursday and their Free Test on Saturday. Palmer noted she was unable to include some of her more difficult moves today due to the tempo of Romeo, a 2009 Westphalian gelding owned by Summit Equestrian LLC and lunged by Christoph Lensing, in the competition arena. However, overall, she was still pleased with her test and her experience in Omaha. The pair had never competed together prior to this week, so Palmer took time to get to know the gelding and had to adjust some of choreography.
“I think it went pretty good. It started off pretty strong and I was happy with my performance. I skipped a couple of my harder moves just to ensure that I would keep the performance rolling. It is what it is. It is hard to make choices within the one minute 10 seconds that you have to do your routine in front of everybody. I’m okay. I’m happy with it,” said Palmer.
The crowd was enthralled with Palmer’s performance with loud cheers erupting after her final dismount. Looking ahead to the rest of her season, Palmer will head to Europe in a few weeks in hopes of earning an invitation to CHIO Aachen in late June.
“I couldn’t tell if [the crowd] was happy because I am from the U.S. or happy because they loved [the routine], but I’m just going to go with they loved it,” Palmer said with a smile.
(US Equestrian)
In his first FEI Vaulting World Cup Final competing as an individual, Daniel Janes (Moss Beach, Calif.) was proud of the effort and results of the week. With a minor mishap in Thursday’s Technical Test, Janes rebounded today with a solid Free Test score of 8.299.
“That is exactly what I was hoping for—a round like that. Nothing is ever perfect, but this was close to perfect for me on my progression with Romeo. It is really awesome,” he said. “There were several moves that we really hit to the full extension, even better than in practice. The mount, the flying ground jumps—those were even better today than normal. That was even a little bit of a surprise for me in a way.”
Speaking of Romeo, Janes felt his partnership grew with him throughout the course of the week and spoke of the experience overall, which is another building block and step in his international career as an individual having competed in a pas de deux partnership for many years.
“He was calm and collected and was really nice to vault with. That was really fun to wave at my family in the crowd and a lot of friends and people I know in the U.S. vaulting world and around,” said Janes. “The arena itself is lovely to compete in, the footing is wonderful, and the atmosphere is both exciting and also like I am in my own world in the light, and I really like that. It’s fun.”
Competition Information
Learn more at omaha2023.fei.org.
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