Swede ready to write history – with a fully charged horse
A World Cup final in jumping is a drama in four acts, where it can swing a lot in the results list.
When the first two acts are completed, the Frenchman Julien Epaillard is in the lead.
Behind him, Henrik von Eckermann shares second place with the home run Martin Fuchs. Fuchs was seen in advance as one of the biggest favorites to the final victory, but he got a less successful start in the World Cup final in Basel. In the first round he got a demolition, and ended ten.
In the second round, which was decided on Friday night, he took revenge and won. As a result, he took a real jump upwards in the results list, and is very much included in the victory discussion again.
These three are also challenged by three riders Kevin Staut, Lillie Keenan and Ben Maher, all three are less than a demolition behind Epaillard.
After one fourth place In the initial time jump for Henrik von Eckermann and the mare Iliana, the team demolished an obstacle in the second round that was decided late on Friday night.
In normal cases, the Swedish world set is usually somewhat annoyed after a demolition, especially considering that he says it was because he made a mistake, but not this time.
Rather, he believes it may have been an advantage that the ship did not move on to the jump on time.
– This means that Iliana has a round less in the body than some of the other final horses will have, says Henrik von Eckermann to DN.
– It became a long and tough jump, and it takes some power to jump such a track. Now she dropped it and hopefully have a little more in the idea of Sunday, he continues.
Because Iliana is a fast horse, the demolition did not become so costly. The team was the fastest of them with four errors, and since only six were flawless, the seven came in the second round.
Leader Julien EPAILLARD From France had about the same thought as von Eckermann. Although he and the horse Donatello d’Ube were faultless in the first round in Friday’s class, he chose something unexpected not to put up in the jump.
This after a little head count.
– If we did not put up in the jump, we would end six, and the riders who were on to jump that was closest to me in the results list was Martin Fuchs who did not pass me, explained Julien Epaillard in an interview with SVT.
– By not setting up, it became a little fewer leaps for my horse.
At the same time, he admitted that they took a little risk. Had they won he would have extended the distance slightly to those chasing behind.
On Sunday Everything is decided. The final is divided into two rounds. In the first, the top 30 from the two introductory rounds are allowed to participate. In the second the top 20.
World Cup winners are the riders who, after all final rounds, have the lowest number of errors.
Should Henrik von Eckermann win the final for the third year in a row, he will be the first in 25 years to succeed. The last time it happened was when Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa won three times in a row 1998-2000.
