The HSBC FEI World Cup™ Eventing for 2010 climaxes at Schenefeld in Germany this weekend (August 27-29) as riders bid to boost their rankings in this valuable US$180,000 series.

The world-beating German squad will be at Schenefeld in their entirety,   as it is a compulsory selection trial before they head to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky to defend their Eventing team gold medal won at the 2006 Games in Aachen.

Michael Jung (GER), who heads the HSBC FEI World Cup™ leaderboard with two victories, at Marbach (GER) and Strzegom (POL), is a definite starter, as are compatriots Andreas Dibowski, Kai Rüder and Kai-Steffen Meier, all of whom are in the current top 10 of the rankings, plus Ingrid Klimke, Frank Ostholt, Dirk Schrade, Simone Deitermann and Anna Warnecke.

Six other nations are represented - Belarus, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Spain and Sweden – and riders such as Viachaslau Poita (BLR) and Aliaksandr Faminou (BLR), first and third at Minsk (BLR), have a good chance of enhancing their status in the HSBC rankings.

Germany’s team manager, Hans Melzer, comments: “I am expecting a positive three-star class that offers serious challenges, yet does not ask the utmost. Hinni Groth (Organiser) and I share a similar philosophy, so I am sure the Cross-Country course will be the best possible.”

Follow the competition on www.schenefeld-eventing.de

Photographs: High-resolution photographs for editorial use only are available at: www.feiphotos.org

FEI TV: Highlights of Schenefeld will be shown on www.feitv.org

Calendar of events
1. Tallahassee (USA), 5-7 March
2. Kihikihi (NZL), 2-4 April
3. Sydney (AUS), 7-9 May
4. Marbach (GER), 7-9 May
5. Chatsworth (GBR), 15-16 May
6. Tattersalls (IRL), 27-30 May
7. Strzegom (POL), 24-27 June
8. Minsk (BLR), 21-25 July
9. Rebecca Farm, Kalispell (USA), 22-25 July
10. Malmö (SWE), 13-15 August
11. Haras du Pin (FRA), 18-22 August
12. Schenefeld (GER), 26-29 August
 
Standings (after 11 of 12 events)
1 Michael Jung (GER) 142 points
2 Megan Jones (AUS) 138
3 Phillip Dutton (USA) 131
4= Clarke Johnston (NZL) 128
4= Lucy Wiegersma (GBR) 128
6 Alexey Korshunov (RUS) 125
7= Kai Rüder (GER) 122
7= Andreas Dibowski (GER) 122
9= Sonja Johnson (AUS) 119
9= Kai-Steffen Meier (GER) 119
11 Ruth Edge (GBR) 110
12 Andrew Downes (GBR) 104

For the full rankings, see www.feiworldcup.org

Prize-money distribution (in US$)
1st place: 50,000
2nd: 34,000
3rd: 23,000
4th: 18,000
5th: 13,000
6th: 10,000
7th: 8,000
8th: 6,500
9th: 5,000
10th: 4,000
11th: 3,000
12th: 2,000
13th: 2,000
14th: 1,500
15th: 1,000