After a 40-year gap in bringing home the Aga Khan trophy, the Swiss team reclaimed the prize with a stunning victory in the FEI Nations Cup of Ireland on Friday.
Steve Guerdat was the lead-off rider for Switzerland with Venard de Cerissy.
The fans who jammed the stands around the massive arena at the Royal Dublin Society saw an impressive display of quality horse flesh and fabulous horsemanship, but none outrode the Swiss.
The team of Martin Fuchs (whose father, Thomas, was on Switzerland’s last Aga Khan winning team in 1983), Bryan Balsiger, Steve Guerdat and Edouard Schmitz was spectacular in its precision along the swath of emerald turf.
Martin Fuchs on Leone Jei, a member of the winning Swiss team 40 years after his father, Thomas, was on the winning squad at Dublin.
During two rounds over the course laid out by Irish designer Alan Wade, they scored six clears, one 4-fault score and their anchor rider, 24-year-old Schmitz (winner of the grand prix at Dublin last year) did not have to compete a second time because they already had clinched the title.
The Swiss won the first Nations Cup at Dublin in 1926 and are counting on returning for the centennial.
“It’s an amazing feeling to hold this trophy,” said Michal Sorg, the Swiss chef d’equipe, after his team took possession of the massive gold cup.
“It’s the dream of every rider and chef d’equipe to win the Aga Khan trophy and today, yeah, we did it. I will never forget this day.”
The team was reluctant to let go of the trophy, and took it with them on its victory lap. But when they finished, only the lid was still being held by Balsiger. Whoops.
The Aga Khan trophy before it separated…
The victory was so complete that runner-up Ireland did not bother to send out its anchor, Shane Sweetnam, who was fault-free in the first round on James Kann Kruz. The home side had no way of catching up with the eventual winners, whose total was 0 penalties. Ireland’s 12 penalty total offered a safe margin over third-place Mexico (16), a previous Cup winner.
U.S.-based Shane Sweetnam was the anchor rider for the Irish team on Jame Kann Cruz.
Without the top two teams’ anchor riders, the competition lacked the drama of last year’s Aga Khan, when an Irish team member jumped off against a French competitor, as Ireland took the prize to much acclaim from the packed stands.
But enthusiasm still ran high this afternoon, and the fans obviously enjoyed celebrating the Swiss as much as they cheered for the runners-up; Michael Pender, Michael Duffy, Cian O’Connor and Shane.
The eight teams at Dublin did not include a squad from the U.S. The Swiss now have won the European division of the Nations Cup, with 370 points to 330 for Ireland and 305 for Great Britain. In addition to Dublin, they also won at home in St. Gallen and in Falsterbo, Sweden, as well.
The British wound up last in Dublin after Samuel Hutton, clear in the first round on Oak Grove’s Laith, met disaster in the second when his horse stopped at the first fence of the triple combination and he fell off.
Sienna Charles, the daughter of 2012 team gold medal Olympian Peter Charles, had 8 and 12 with Stardust, while her brother, Harry, collected 4 with Romeo in the first round, then had everything go south in the second, winding up with four rails and 13 times faults added to that. Tim Gredley was the best of the squad with 4 and 8 on Medoc de Toxandria, but there was no saving the effort.
Next up for the winners is the European show jumping championships, the equivalent of the Western Hemisphere’s Pan American Games, but dare I say it, but with a greater number of highly ranked riders.
Still, the Pan Ams will be tough enough, as the U.S. likely will be looking to qualify there for the Paris Olympics, if it doesn’t do that at Barcelona in the Nations Cup Finals next month.
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