The 17th and ultimate qualifier of the 2004 season of the FEI Eventing World Cup took place near Waregem in North-western Belgium. The brilliant performance of Germany's Andreas Dibowski riding the 10-year old mare FRH Serve Well gave him the final victory with 54.1 penalty points. Dibowski took an early lead after an impressive Dressage test (41.7) which was strengthened by a faultless Jumping round. Despite the 12.4 time penalties after the Cross Country, which had allowed for no clears, he retained the undisputed leadership. All the more remarkable is the fact that Dibowski, for whom this is a fourth participation in an FEI World Cup Eventing qualifier, also took the third position on Leonas Dancer. Interestingly, the pair had performed the competition's third best Cross Country test (9.2 time penalties), but an average Dressage performance (55.8) and 6 time penalties in the Jumping test, left him on a final result of 71 points.

Andreas Dibowski finishes first on the FEI Eventing World Cup standings. He had placed 9th at Luhmühlen (GER) gaining 14 points on Serve Well. This promising beginning was followed by a victory at Strzegom (POL) on his Olympic mount Little Lemon B bringing 100 additional points, a 6th place at Malmö (SWE) on Leonas Dancer (20 points) and the final and impressive performance at Waregem (140 points). According to the 2004 FEI Eventing World Cup Rules, only the three best results are added up towards the final standings. The results of Luhmühlen and Malmö are hence discarded and Dibowski finishes on 240 World Cup points.

Runner up position was taken by Belgium's own Karin Donkers on the 9-year old gelding Steelbrook with whom she placed 11th in the FEI Eventing World Cup qualifier at Martinvast (FRA) only two weeks earlier. Karin was 5th after Dressage with 49.6 points on this horse but tied first on her other mount Lamicell Idem du Roc (41.7). The gap with Dibowski widened after Showjumping when she had two fences down and one time penalty on Steelbrook and three fences down and one time penalty on Lamicell Idem du Roc. An energetic Cross Country on Steelbrook, outdone only by the French Gilles Pons, where she scored 8 time penalties, left her with 71 penalty points. With a total of 96 World Cup points, Karin places 19th on the final standings.

The full results are available on the events website
http://www.eventingwaregem.be/results.htm

The final leaderboard of the FEI Eventing World Cup is as follows:

1. Andreas Dibowski (GER) - 240 points
2. Sonja Johnson (AUS) - 200 points
3. Linda Algotsson (SWE) - 190 points
4. William Fox-Pitt (GBR) - 150 points
5. Andrew Nicholson (NZL) - 130 points
6. Darren Chiacchia (USA) - 123 points
7. Andrew Hoy (AUS) - 120 points
8. Matthew Grayling (NZL) - 118 points
9. Kristin Bachman (USA) - 109 points
10. Phillip Dutton (AUS) - 105 points
11. Andrzej Pasek (POL) - 101 points
12. Arnaud Boiteau (FRA) - 100 points
12. Robyn Fisher (USA) - 100 points
12. R. de Gouveia Jr. (BRA) - 100 points
12. Pippa Funnell (GBR) - 100 points
12. Pavel Sergeev (RUS) - 100 points
12. Robyn Fisher (USA) - 100 points
12. Bonnie Mosser (USA) - 100 points
18. Viktoria Carlerbäck (SWE) - 99 points
19. Karin Donckers (BEL) - 96 points
19. Pascal Leroy (FRA) - 96 points

The full standings are available on the FEIs website www.horsesport.org (section eventing/results/standings)
(direct link http://62.2.231.126/PDFS/C/03_03/C_04_st_WC.pdf)

The Final of the 2004 FEI Eventing World Cup will take place from 22 to 24 October in Pau (FRA).