A podium finish in Canada has enabled the U.S. to make the cut for the finals of the Nations Cup in Barcelona this fall, a key step in the plan to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The U.S. placed third of five countries in the Nations Cup of Canada in Langley, British Columbia. Ireland won and the home team placed second. The U.S. had two clean trips during the two rounds of the class, as Kent Farrington on Landon produced one in the first round and Karl Cook with Kalinka van ‘t Zorgvliet acheived the perfect score in the second.
“The mandatory all-out effort to get qualified for Barcelona was our goal from the first part of the year,” said U.S. Jumping Coach Robert Ridland.
“This was exactly what our plan was,” he added.
While of course he would have liked to win, “podium finishes are what we go for and we got it.”
The U.S. did not qualify for the finals last year. Show jumping is the only U.S. equestrian discipline not qualified for Paris.
There will be one slot for Paris available in Barcelona for countries that have not already qualified for the 2024 Games. If the U.S. does not qualify there, the last chance for the team is the Pan American Games in Chile a few weeks later.
The U.S. won the two previous North American Nations Cups in Mexico and California to top the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2023 North and Central America & Caribbean standings. Ireland is not a member of that league (because the country is not located in the Western Hemisphere), so it doesn’t figure in the overall standings.
The North and Central America & Caribbean League is going away in the 2024 season under a new format for Cup fixtures that will be qualifiers for the finals. That doesn’t include the prestigious Aachen Nations Cup, because it is sponsored by Rolex.
Click here for Nations Cup results.