Fantastic France Take the Win in Strzegom

France knocks Sweden off the FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ top spot...

France took the win in the final phase of the third leg of the FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ in Strzegom, Poland, with the riders contesting a tough 12-fence jumping course to finish off the 3* event.

Great Britain came in second with Poland achieving the third spot on the podium. The result of the third leg means that France are now leading the FEI Nations Cup™ overall standings heading into the fourth leg.

France were the overnight leaders with a total score of 107.8 coming into the Jumping phase. Great Britain were lying second with host nation Poland in third.

France were ready for a battle...

The course presented a lot of questions to the riders with poles falling left, right and centre, especially earlier on in the running order.

The wearier horses seemed to struggle with both the double and treble combination in particular, along with the water tray.

Sweden were leading the FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ standings following the last two events and were looking to further their lead over the other nations in Poland.

The first clear of the day went to Sandra Gustafsson and Koordinat of Sweden.

France - standing in second overall and leading the event at Strzegom – were not going to let the title slip away without a serious fight.

Japanese rider Yoshiaki Oiwa was leading individually coming into the showjumping, with a score of 30.3 aboard his fabulous horse Calle. An exceptional clear kept him in the lead, though being the only rider for Japan there was no chance of a team medal.

Unfortunately for Gustafsson, an uncharacteristic stop on her second ride Kvadrat (half-brother to Koordinat) added four faults to the Swedish total.

James Sommerville on Talent was substituted on to the British team overnight, which with an added 20 penalties gave leaders France some serious breathing room, and with the team lying second, the pressure was on for a good performance.

Luckily for his British teammates he jumped a superb clear, keeping them in second.

Faults played a big part in the final scores in Poland...

William Oakden had to pull up midway through his round due to a technical error with the poles not lying in the cups, but still managed to keep a cool head with a clear; keeping GB looking strong for the team silver.

British team anchor Alice Dunsdon and Sambo unfortunately had two poles, but it wasn’t enough to topple sink them down to third place.

Joanna Pawlak on her FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ debut for Poland piloted her feisty mare Fantastic Frieda to an excellent if slightly electric round, but took an unfortunate late pole to come home on four faults.

Francois Lemiere was the first rider to enter for France and kept all the poles up to get France off to the perfect start.

Christopher Six kept the jumping scoreboard on zero with another super clear, edging France ever-nearer to the gold medal position.

Make sure you follow all the build-up to the FEI World Equestrian Games™ , which begins on September, on FEI.org. Live coverage of all events will be available on FEI TV

Text by Sophie Baker

Images by Libby Law Photography