Switzerland wins again the Longines FEI Nations Cup of Switzerland

And they did it again! Switzerland successfully defends its victory in the Longines FEI Nations Cup of Switzerland from last year and is once again on top of the podium at the CSIO St. Gallen. Switzerland and Brazil showed an exciting head-to-head race in the second round. After both rounds the two teams had only 4 penalties each and so the jump-off had to decide about the victory. Martin Fuchs with Leone Jei was the first to start and set a strong mark in front of the home crowd with a clear round in a fast time of 42.14 seconds. Yuri Mansur with Miss Blue-Saint Blue Farm QH took up the challenge and also showed a fast round in front of the noticeably tense spectators in the Gründenmoos in St. Gallen. You could have heard a pin drop in the well-filled arena as he headed for the final jump well in time and with no penalties on his account. The time would have been enough, but the bar at the final Longines obstacle fell and thus Switzerland defended its last year's victory much to the delight of the good-humored crowd. 
Behind Switzerland and Brazil, Germany completed the podium. In addition to the eight points from the first round, no further penalties were added and the German team was able to move up impressively from sixth intermediate place to third. Great Britain dropped from third to fourth place. France also showed a strong race to catch up, which was classified in the last intermediate rank with 16 points after the first round. Switzerland's neighbor to the west also finished the second round without any additional penalty points and was thus able to improve to fifth place. 

Our best congratulations go to the home winning team with Edouard Schmitz, Bryan Balsiger, Martin Fuchs and Steve Guerdat, led by the Equipenchef Michel Sorg.

Final ranking Longines FEI Nations Cup of Switzerland:

1st Switzerland     4 / (4/0) - jump-off: 0 / 42.14
2nd Brazil             4 / (0/4) - jump-off: 4 / 41.84
3rd Germany        8 (8/0)
4. Great Britain    12 (4/8)
5th France           16 (16/0)
6th Austria           20 (12/8)
7th Denmark       24 (8/16)
8. Netherlands    28 (8/20)