FEI Eventing Nations Cup action got off to an exciting start this weekend at Montelibretti, with Team Belgium under the direction of Kai-Steffen Meier taking the win after four days of competition in the beautiful Italian countryside near Rome.
The home nation with Chef d'Equipe Giacomo Della Chiesa joined Belgium at the afternoon prize giving to receive the silver medal. It was Switzerland and their leader Dominik Burger who carried off the bronze, leaving Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands off the podium on the inaugural leg of the new season.
An individual second-place finish for Jarno Verwimp (26.9 points) and Mahalia helped seal the deal for the Belgian athletes, Verwimp having remained in that position since the dressage phase at the start of the event. Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Ducati d'Arville were close on Verwimp's heels, ending their Italian campaign in fourth place.
They were helped out by Karin Donckers with Fletcha Van't Verahof in eighth place, and Senne Vervaecke with Google Van Alsingen finished in the top 15 to propel Belgium to the top of the leaderboard on the final cross country day. In individual competition, Austria's Lea Siegl won first place with Fighting Line, ending the weekend on 24.9 points.
View all individual results here
Joining her and Verwimp at the awards ceremony was Karim Florent Laghouag of France, who took third place with Triton Fontaine (29.1 points). Team Belgium took an early lead, with all four athletes in the top 13 after the dressage segment. Following jumping on Day 2, they held onto the top slot, but it was Austria in the silver medal position, with Switzerland in third, chased by Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. The standings saw a shakeup, however, on the last day of competition with the cross country segment.
This year's FEI Eventing Nations Cup took an early start in March rather than May, and there is an extra opportunity for one team to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, so the competition is sure to be fierce. The season will culminate, as is tradition, with the final leg at Boekelo in the Netherlands in October.
