WEG – Final Squad Competition
I tried to write this post earlier, but I couldn’t come up with a way to explain what was today’s Squad Finals without going on a long and boring trip down memory lane.
ON THE AUSTRIAN FAILURE
I’ve been a vaulting stalker for quite a long time now, and have followed Wildegg since 2005 so it made me really sad to see them fall. I still believe that they can manage to score a world champion, but they will have to put today’s presentation in the past and start over. What happenned was just so very sad. In the end they managed to score a fourth place, and didn’t suffer the deduction we heard about so many times during this WEGs.
ON TEAMS THAT DID A GOOD JOB
I would also like to point out again what a great championship New Zealand and Canada made, both teams have very original freestyles, with creative moves and fun themes.
Another team who made a very good championship was Sweden, we don’t realize that because they are that team that’s always there amongst the top teams. Which is, in fact, true. Sweden has been on the top five teams on 4 editions of the World Equestrian Games (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2014). They made it to 3rd place on two different ocasions (1994 and 2002). On the past two editions, though, they had a lot of trouble and came in 11th place. All this to say that Sweden is now back on top five teams and they should be proud of it and work hard to stay on the top five.
ON THE OBVIOUS REGARDS
After commenting on these matters, I am left to make the obvious regards.
I have a think that Neuss’s freestyle this year is not only sport, it’s art. They took a simple theme and transformed it into something else. I love the way Johannes Kay actually calls for Mona’s feet with his hand on the last trio. It’s just so expressive, but it’s not obvious though, they are not telling a story. Today every move that could go right they managed to do it, and their score (9,058) shows it, clearly.
Switzerland tried to beat them and they could have. But a few small mistakes, that would never have bothered anyone in other circumstances, cost them the gold medal.
Picture by Andrea Fuchshumer.
So these are the results for the team competition at this World Equestrian Games:
1 Germany – 8,724
2 Switzerland – 8,504
3 France 8,315
4 Sweden 7,869
5 Austria 7,831
6 Italy 7,694
7 USA – 7,356
8 South Africa 7,319
9 New Zealand 7,266
10 Canada 7,256
11 Czech Republic 7,066
12 Hungary 6,891
