A key innovation was the introduction of the Pas-de-Deux competition at World Championship level, in which two vaulters compete together, regardless of whether they are male or female.
Since the start of the FEI Vaulting World Championship in 1986, the groups of vaulters competing together were referred as teams. In 2011, the FEI General Assembly approved a rule change according to which the former teams would be referred to as “squads”. At the World Championships, squads competed for the first time in Le Mans (FRA) in 2012. According to the FEI Vaulting Rules, a Vaulting squad is composed of a lunger, horse, and six vaulters.
Twenty-five year old vaulter Lukas Wacha (AUT), who had been unlucky to finish just out of the individual medals in fourth place, had reason to celebrate when clinching gold.
Lukas and his 17-year-old team mate Jasmin Lindner made history as the first FEI Vaulting World Champions in this competition with two nearly perfect rounds on Elliot, lunged by Klaus Haidacher.
Sisters Joanne and Hannah Eccles of Great Britain secured silver on W H Bentley. The success was truly a family affair since the siblings were lunged by their father John Eccles.
Bronze went to Megan Benjamin and Blake Dahlgren (USA), who were competing on Jarl (lunger Lasse Kristensen).
The Swiss squad – coached and lunged by Monika Winkler-Bischofberger – were victorious on Will Be Good. The win put an end to an 18-year drought since this was the first Swiss team victory in a World Championship since 1994, when the nation had won gold at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in The Hague (NED).
The German squad secured silver on Arkansas and host nation France was in bronze on Watriano.
In the female competition, Great Britain’s Joanne Eccles, who had not been beaten since April 2010, was in a class of her own on her 18-year-old W H Bentley, lunged by her father John Eccles.
Joanne Eccles, who would go on to become one of Vaulting’s all-time greats on the same level as Germany’s Tanja Benedetto, Nadia Zülow, and Silke Bernhard, had first began training in the sport at the age of eight. In her stellar career, she competed in five World Championships winning as many medals – three of them gold - along the way. She secured another six at the FEI Vaulting European Championships having participated in four editions from 2009 to 2013.
Eccles, who is a qualified dentist, was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for “services to Equestrian Vaulting”.
Denmark’s Rikke Laumann secured silver on Ghost Alfarvad Z (lunger Lasse Kristensen), while bronze went to Germany’s Sarah Kay on Calvador (linger Andreas Bässler).
A sublime moment occurred in the first freestyle round when Austria’s 17-year-old Lisa Wild surprised the audience with an acrobatic element never before seen in competition. She did a backflip off the horse’s back and then landed back on the horse. The judges rewarded her with second place for her incredible routine, but unfortunately she was injured when she fell off the horse in the final and was not able to end the freestyle as planned.
The male competition developed into a tussle between local French hero Nicolas Andreani (FRA) and Erik Oese (GER). Oese, for whom this was a World Championship debut, won the third round technical test by 0,2 points and had the chance to beat the 2009 European Champion and favourite for the world title. But freestyle specialist Andreani had absolutely no weak points in his last routine to earn 9,089 points – the highest score of the entire event – to claim his first World title.
Oese on Calvador (lunger Andreas Bässler) finished in second place overall followed by another home nation favourite Ivan Nousse on Carlos (lunger Elke Shelp Lensing).
We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies
HEALTH & FITNESS 
TEACH ME 
HORSE & HUMAN 
MY EQUESTRIAN LIFE 
