Switzerland at the Summit

The 7th World University Equestrian Championship closed with an eclectic list of winners – in all, 7 countries took medals at the finals.
The heat was oppressive as the seventh World University Equestrian Championship got underway at La Rochelle for this great international get-together for student riders. The site was La Jarne, owned by the Aunis Riding Society, fitted out in dazzling array to host 17 participating countries. 

The programme for the first day included the first and second rounds of the dressage trials. After a team event of three riders in the morning where each rider was also marked individually, the second tour had all qualified participants ride individually in the ring. Swiss came out ahead, just in front of France, which despite the team's performance qualified only a single man for the second tour (Maxime Livio): that put an end to France's hopes for the dressage and eventing medals, quite a disappointment for Frédéric Peter, coach of the ‘Blues'. "It is always hard to get one's marks on the first day of an event. I'm disappointed, it's true, but I'm still proud and pleased with team spirit that we've shown. We were all very much together and this may make the difference at some point." When it came to listing his particular favourites, the French coach underlined the presence of "the world's great riding countries. Germany has a very handsome team, and Great Britain is good too. Both of them include some strong individual personalities." We must keep in mind that the team results for dressage would only be announced on the second day.

As an outsider from the organization, Frédéric Peter praised the quality of the cavalry present, particularly thanking the Haras du Loing in Fontainebleau and the Haras de Hus (near Nantes) for having lent their best horses. The delegations agreed that they were quite happy with the general level of their mounts.

After the competition, came the ceremonies. At 7 p.m. the traditional Parade of Nations began in the sunshine, cheered on by a large, enthusiastic audience in the tribunals. The atmosphere was cordial and colourful, with official speeches and pledges from the athletes and the judges, all ending with a very solemn raising of the FISU flag. At 8:30, the opening show began.  

The First Podiums
The first verdicts and the first podiums. After the events during the first day, team dressage went to a triumphant Switzerland, ahead of Great Britain and Austria. A logical victory, since the Swiss riders Rahel Parnitzki, Annick Reiner and Stéphanie Gass mastered their subject beautifully – well ahead of their runners-up.

Switzerland proved nearly impossible to attack as it confirmed its superiority in the team show-jumping event. A beautiful double win, and we too had something to crow about – after a disappointment the day before in dressage, the young French trio gave France its first World University Riding medal. Maxime Livio, Martin Denisot and Thomas Lambert took bronze and Germany a well-deserved second place. 

Then on to the last day of the competition. The seventh World University Equestrian Championship would end with an eclectic list of winners as seven countries in all went home with medals in the finals. Switzerland was undeniably the overall winner of the four day meet in the glaring sunshine. It already held two gold medals for dressage and show jumping, and took a third in eventing ahead of Germany and Japan. 

This triumph was rounded off with personal feats by the elegant Annick Reiner in individual dressage (followed by the German Philippe Kloth in second place and Japanese Shingo Hayashi in third) and individual eventing. When we add Stéphanie Gass' bronze medal for individual eventing (Austrian Martin Hauptmann was sandwiched between the two Swiss riders), the Swiss team left La Rochelle with a spectacular total of six medals, 5 in gold.

Finally, only the individual show jumping event did not go to the red and white from Lausanne and Bern. The reasons were the Croatian-French-Estonian threesome consisting of young Tana Car, Maxime Livio and Janus Kalas. 

In addition to the well-deserved success of the Croatian champion, we of course appreciated the remarkable performance of French Maxime Livio, a student at the national riding school in Saumur, who succumbed in the final due to a slip up in the first round. The young man was all smiles, and no doubt he will long remember the time he spent with former Olympic champion Pierre Durand, patron of the championship, who came to congratulate him and then generously joined him in an interview on television.

We'll meet again for the 8th edition of the World University Equestrian Championship that will be organized in 2008. 

Organizing Committee

CR Sport U, 2 bis
allée Jean MONNET
86000 Poitiers.
France

Phone: ++(33.5) 49366290
Fax: ++(33.5) 49366294

e-mail: ffsprtu.poitiers@wanadoo.fr
URL: http://www.sport-u-poitiers.com 

Results

Click on the links below to download the results.