Show Jumping: bronze in the final of the Nations Cup
The Belgian show jumping team won bronze in this important international competition, which this year took place in Barcelona, and thus finished a fine third after the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The show jumping Nations Cup is an international competition organised by the International Equestrian Federation, the FEI. What makes it special is that it is a team event where the best countries meet each other. With its already splendid list of honours, the Belgian team was invited to this highlight of equestrian sport.
The ninth edition took place this year at the beginning of October in Barcelona, Spain. The Belgian riders, not very sure of themselves in the preliminaries, were only placed eighth in the final, last after Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, Ireland and the United States.
Fortunately Belgium did considerably better in the final. The two recent Olympic medal winners, Jérôme Guéry (with his horse Quel Homme de Hus) and Grégory Wathelet (with Nevados S) each had a clear round one after the other. But just before that, Nicola Philippaerts (with Katanga v/h Dingeshof) and Niels Bruynseels (with Delux van T&L) both knocked down a pole at the end of their round. But overall this was a fine result for Belgium, good for a third place after the Netherlands and Ireland.
The riders of the coach, Peter Weinberg, are accordingly bringing home bronze for the third time in a row, following the Tokyo Olympics in July and the European Championships in Riesenbeck in September.