Photo: Sportfotos-Lafrentz.de

Leipzig - The best vaulters and team drivers have entered their FEI World Cup™ Finals. In the elegant gymnasts on horseback there were two French winners and one German winning pair. On the carriage bucks, the Dutch rider Bram Chardon relegated the multi-champion Boyd Exell (AUS) to second place.

The finalists of the FEI Vaulting World Cup™, presented by Hirmer Hospitality, started their competition with the technical round. In the women's competition, Manon Moutinho (FRA) delivered the best result with Saitiri. Second place went to Janika Derks with Rockemotion, ahead of Kimberly Palmer (USA) with Rosenstolz. In the men's competition, a Frenchman also prevailed: Lambert Leclezio, also with Saitiri. Second place went to the Italian Lorenzo Lupacchini with Rosenstolz. Third place went to Vice World Champion Jannik Heiland with Rockemotion. The Leipzig audience could celebrate a German victory in the Pas de Deux. Jannika Derks and Johannes Kay with the already highly experienced Humphrey Bogart OLD delivered a great start in Leipzig: "You can already tell from the atmosphere in the hall that this is not a standard tournament. It is something very special to be here. And we enjoy it and are happy that we can come here again," beamed Johannes Kay.
 
The FEI Driving World Cup™ Final also had the first round with the Sparkassen Trophy on the agenda late on Friday evening. In this first round, the fiercest competitor of multi-champion Boyd Exell for a couple of years, the Dutch rider Bram Chardon, won and also relegated Exell to second place at the Leipzig Fair. "I knew Boyd had by far the fastest time," explained Chardon, "so I thought I could only get close to his time with luck. I definitely wanted to keep my distance, I wanted to play it safe. But when the horses felt so good, I just let them run and pushed them to the end when I knew there was more. It was fantastic." Belgian Dries Degrieck crossed the finish line in third place. Sunday's second round will then decide who will emerge as champion from the FEI Driving World Cup™ Final, presented by Sparkasse.
 
In addition to the two competitions of the FEI World Cup™ Finals, there were also numerous exciting decisions in Hall 1 of the Leipzig Trade Fair. In the IDEE KAFFEE Prize on Friday morning, Philipp Schulze Topphoff won with Carla ahead of the Belgian Jos Verlooy with FTS Killossery Konfusion and Mel Thijssen (NED) with Florida Balia NL.

The young Dutch rider Mel Thijssen then rode very fast with Florida Balia NL in the CG Elementum Speed Cup. She won ahead of Rene Dittmer with Farrero. Mario Stevens took third place with Botakara OLD.
 
The PARTNER PFERD Saturday starts with the SPOOKS Amateur Trophy and continues with the FUNDIS Youngster Tour. Afterwards, the first decision of the FEI World Cup™ Finals 2022 will be made, namely in the vaulting. Then another PARTNER PFERD highlight is on the programme, the Grand Sparkasse Prize of Leipzig is looking for a successor for serial winner Christian Ahlmann. The final World Cup decision in the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Freestyle, presented by Meggle, will follow in the evening.

 
Tickets for PARTNER PFERD are on sale at www.partner-pferd.de. Here you can also get a lot of further information about the event. Currently, the Saxon Corona Protection Ordinance no longer imposes any restrictions for events. Nevertheless, the wearing of a mask is recommended.
You can find the current info here: https://www.partner-pferd.de/de/news/ihre-sicherheit-liegt-uns-am-herzen.