Articles: Horse News
Fellers Ends 25 Year Drought and Wins the 2012 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final for
the U.S.
Fellers and Flexible (Susan J. Stickle/PhelpsSports.com)
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2012
By Helen Murray
s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherland s- The 2012 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final came
to an exciting conclusion Sunday afternoon at the Indoor Barbant in the
final competition, held over two rounds. Louis Koninck once again challenged
riders over two stiff courses. However, a total of four rounds of
competition were not enough to crown a winner of the 2012 Finals. Rich
Fellers of the United States and Switzerland's Steve Guerdat remained tied
on one fault following the conclusion of the second round. They would need
to return to the ring for a final jump-off to decide a winner.
When Fellers (Sherwood, OR) and Harry and Mollie Chapman's Flexible entered
the ring as the second combination in the jump-off the U.S. was amidst a 25
year drought of Rolex/FEI World Cup Finals winners.
No more.
Fellers and the 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse stallion scorched to a clear
round over the short course in a time of 25.97; besting Guerdat and Nino Des
Buissonnets by .64 seconds.
"I think it's great for the sport in our country (to have a World Cup
winner)." Said Fellers, "Regardless of who won, it's great for our country."
Chef d'Equipe George Morris summed up the thoughts of all in the U.S. camp
when he reflected about how it felt to have a winner for the first time
since 1987.
"Terrific, terrific, terrific."
Fellers entered the second round of competition in a three-way tie for the
lead after a fault free effort in Sunday's initial round. Just as he had
done Thursday, on his way to winning the speed leg of the Finals, Flexible
produced an efficient, tidy round over the 12 obstacle course. In the second
round, the pair produced another clear round to force the jump-off.
Heading into the final day of the championship, Fellers the runner-up in the
2008 Finals with Flexible, believed he could win with his partner of 10
years.
"I went in there thinking; I've got to win this. I may not get another
chance with Flexible and he's such a good horse."
Listen to a complete interview with Fellers regarding the 2012 Rolex/FEI
World Cup Finals here.
Richard Spooner, Beezie Madden and Kent Farrington also landed in the top
twenty of the overall standings for the United States.
Spooner (Agua Dulce, CA) and Show Jumping Syndication International's
Cristallo finished in 16th place after producing four and eight fault
efforts in rounds one and two respectively. In addition to his World Cup
finish, Spooner also enjoyed tremendous success in the CSI3* this week. With
Molly Ohrstrom's Billy Bianca he won two speed classes; Friday's Brabants
Dagblad Prijs and Sunday's VDL Groep Prijs. While on Saturday night he was
third with Little Valley Farm's Apache in the Rabobank Grote Prijs.
Madden (Cazenovia, NY) and Abigail Wexner's Cortes 'C' completed in 17th
place, in the horse's first attempt in a Finals. In round one they lowered
the height of fences at 10 and 12B for an eight fault total. In the second
round, the U.S. team veteran recovered masterfully after experiencing
difficulty in the triple, to jump an otherwise tidy round.
Finishing in 18th place was Farrington (Wellington, FL) and RCG Farm's
Uceko. The pair had four and eight fault totals in the two rounds of
Sunday's final competition.
The U.S. was also represented in the first round of today's final
competition by Margie Engle (Wellington, FL) and Kirsten Coe (Johnston,
SC).
Finishing in second place overall in the 2012 Rolex/FEI World Cup was
Guerdat, with Swiss countrymen Pius Schwizer with Carlina collected third
place honors.
Follow the 2012 U.S. Jumping Team;
http://usefnetwork.com/featured/2012Jumping/
Details about the Finals are available at http://www.indoorbrabant.com/
ENDS
The vision of the United States Equestrian Federation is to provide leadership
for equestrian sport in the United States of America by promoting the
pursuit
of excellence from the grassroots to the Olympic Games, based on a
foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare
of its human and equine athletes.
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