Hey, hey, hey, jump, jump, jump the USAToday, Jumping made its spectacular entrance on the sporting scene of the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. The winner of the speed competition – one of four part of the World Championship programme – is Beezie Madden (USA) aboard Authentic (77.62 time faults – 0 points). Eric Lamaze (CAN) on Hickstead is second (78.40 time penalties – 0.39 points) and Gerco Schröder (NED) on Eurocommerce Berlin is third (78.47 time penalties – 0.43 points). Beezie, who knows Aachen well, felt confident; Eric Lamaze could not believe his luck and Gerco Schröder was particularly satisfied with the quality of the footing, which despite the frequent abundant showers is very solid. All three unanimously praised Official Course Designer’s Frank Rothenberger’s 600-metre long, 13-fence, 16-jumping effort track. “The difficulties were nicely spread,” Beezie Madden commented. The complexity lay in the unusual approach – especially to the water – and technical lines rather than in the size of the obstacles. Every fence, except for number three, fell, which is the sign of a fair course. Fence three offered left-hand side (long route) and right-hand side (short route) options but given that this was a speed competition, all the riders were bold taking the short route. The vast Aachen arena offers plenty of space and it was a pleasure to watch today’s happy horses thoroughly enjoying it. Frank Rothenberger’s creative design has brought the flavour of traditional Aachen monuments in the stadium, which combined with lavish flower displays, makes up for what must be horses’ Garden of Eden. The way penalties are calculated is somewhat intricate and deserves some explanation. Faults are penalised in seconds which are added to the time taken by the competitors to complete their round. This sum is divided by two. This is the final score expressed in time faults. The best rider receives to penalty points. The penalty points of the following riders are the difference between the scores of the leading rider and their own. The penalty points are carried over in the next competition. On the basis of these scores, The Netherlands finish in first of the teams (6.01); they are followed by the USA (6.85) and Brazil (6.99). The main part of the team competition, in which no less than 25 teams will be participating, will take part over two days beginning tomorrow Wednesday 30 August.