- Newly crowned Austrian champion Alice Janout (Lower Austria) with Kathrin Glock (GHPC director)
Tournament Report 24 June 2012
A dream come true:Alice Janout of Lower Austria is the 2012 Austrian national champion!
Alice Janout was just a split second away from winning the national championship, and that same split second separated Carinthian local hero Dieter Köfler from the title. A lot had happened since the first round in the second category. Lower Austria‘s Georg Hladik, riding Oboras Partano, was unable to defend his temporary lead; he, like so many others, fell victim to the tricky course designed by Adi Appe. Upper Austria’s Astrid Kneifl, however, dealt with the course magnificently – she and her horse Duc De Revel led in the interim scoring, ahead of Alice Janout, who finished the round with only 1.25 time faults with her grey gelding Wodka Lime and was able to move further to the front.
The two Styrians Simon Johann Zuchi and Markus Saurugg also had a great starting position, as did the aforementioned Köfler, who entered the second round at the fore after just one knockdown. The chance to become national champion seemed gone for Alice Janout of Lower Austria, who was the penultimate starter. With a little too much pressure on the vertical halfway into the course, Wodka Lime stopped, but at the second approach the horse took the obstacle just as easily as the remaining course (6.25). All seemed lost. Now Dieter Köfler, as the last starter, could have had one knockdown and still easily emerged as the national champion.
The rail fell at Köfler’s first obstacle. The crowd sat so silently that you could have heard a pin drop as he continued riding his course masterfully; with the title in his grasp, he entered the finishing line with the final two oxers. But there the next rail dropped: the national title was lost for the Carinthian and won for Alice Janout.
Three pairs were now tied with 16 total faults; because the fastest time is what counts in such a situation, Simon Johann Zuchi was ultimately the one to celebrate a second-place finish, while fellow Styrian Markus Saurugg won third place and Dieter Köfler, who had approached his round without urgency, had to accept the thankless fourth place.
“It’s hard to describe, I almost can’t believe it yet,” the beaming new national champion, a lifelong Carinthian, said in her interview with Dorian Steidl on her triumph. “I’ve come in third twice before, and now the title! I’m enjoying this very much right now.” The connection to Carinthia incidentally extends to her sensational Wodka Lime: local hero Gerfried Puck used to ride the horse, so he may also feel a little like a national champion now.
The championship course:
The tricky course designed by Adi Appe of Carinthia extended over 560 strength-sapping metres. Its scope was highly challenging but entirely suitable for a national championship course. As early as the first round, the complete array of riding skills was needed: major stamina, calm nerves and technical ability – with the heat only adding to the challenge. There was a triple bar, approached from the corner, followed immediately out of the next turn by a double vertical combination. Next came was a mighty open water jump, after which the riders had to bring their horses under control as quickly as possible on a diagonal line in order to manage the subsequent vertical. There was a wall that likewise awaited on a curve; then came a strength-sapping triple combination (oxer-vertical-oxer) as the final obstacle, which the riders exited into the last section.
In the second round the tricky challenges awaited the riders in the middle of the course, with no chance to catch their breath. The course went in a snaking line from a vertical on the left to an imposing oxer and again to a vertical jump at a virtual hairpin bend. The triple bar once again had to be taken coming out of a turn and was now part of a combination that finished with a vertical, before the last turn that lead to the concluding oxer. The riders agreed that the course was difficult but excellent.
Competition 10: Standard jumping at S* level-1.40 m
- Christian Juza with Luidor 4 © Nini Schäbel
Christian Juza’s rapid ride to final victory in the M tour
As the last starter in the jump-off, Christian Juza seized the moment today in the M-tour final. Juza, the multiple champion of the Salzburg region, moved fast with the tightest turns across the S*-course on his congenial gelding Luidor. Clocking a sensational time of 44.82 seconds, he ultimately managed to catch Susanne Jurkovic of Lower Austria on Edison 5, who had seemed to be the almost certain winner. The third and ninth places went to the captain of the Alpenspan team, Anton Martin Bauer of Lower Austria, on Confetti 2 and Viper Van De Huize Ruisdael.
“Everything is possible,” the visibly elated Juza said to Dorian Steidl in his interview after his triumph. Asked if we could look forward to interviewing him as the winner at the national championships, he said, “It went very well with Luidor today. Now I’m going to focus on the main competition, and of course it would be a dream if I could stand here again then.”
Competition 15: Standard jumping at L level-1.20 m
- Alexander Esser with Marcel Schoenmakers at the awards ceremony © Nini Schäbel
GHPC Amateur Tour Finale: Good, better, Alexander Esser!
Today he pulled it off! Alexander Esser of Carinthia, who on the opening day had barely missed out on first place, today got his well-deserved victory in the GHPC Amateur Tour Finale with a speedy 66.62 seconds, the fourth successive victory for Carinthia in the competition. Laura Schnorpfeil on Thornhill Philipp (67.90) delivered second place to the host region as well, and in third place Sophia Langwallner on Nirvana 39 (68.70) was able to shine for Salzburg.
“You can’t describe this tournament,” Alexander Esser happily explained during the victory ceremony. “It’s unique and perfect – you really have to come here to understand it.”
All Results here
Source: REITSPORTNEWS – Die Pferdesportagentur