Germany wins the Budapest Longines EEF Series Semi-Final

There were plenty of surprises at the Budapest CSI3* W held at the National Riding Hall hosting the second semi-final of the Longines EEF Nations Cup Series over course built by chef de piste Gerard Lachat. Following Deauville, the Longines EEF Nations Cup Budapest was the decisive event for assigning the last five spots available in the Warsaw LES Final, spots won by Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands and Hungary.

Led by chef d’équipe David Will, Germany won today with a total of eight faults – Marcel Marschall riding Coolio (4/8), Sven Schlüsselburg on Bud Spencer (0/0), 24-year-old Sophie Hinners on Million Dollar (0/4) and Jörne Sprehe with Hot Easy (0/4) – repeating a win achieved just two days ago in the Aachen CHIO Nations Cup.

After a first impeccable round with a total of zero faults, in the second round, also thanks to a double clear by Sven Schlüsselburg and his powerful grey, Germany managed to hold its lead and beat both Switzerland (12 faults) and Austria (20 faults).
The other teams competing fought for fourth and fifth place, which meant qualifying for Warsaw. The Netherlands and the Hungarian hosts managed to both finish on 24 faults and were ranked according to time.

For the Dutch team the decisive round came from expert rider Wout-Jan van der Schans on A S Bombay, allowing the ‘Orange’ team to finish ahead of Italy (27 faults). After a first round best forgotten, the clear rounds ridden in the second one by Massimo Grossato on D Mark and Piergiorgio Bucci on Carpe Diem J&F Champblanc were not enough for Italy to recover one position in the ranking.

Having won the Longines EEF Nations Cup Series Final last year, this year Italy will therefore not be competing in Poland to defend the title won in 2021.

The teams competing in the Warsaw 2022 Final in September will be Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland as well as Poland that will compete as the 11th team since it is the host nation.

Starting list and results on Longines Timing – click HERE
Official Show site – click HERE
Complete Longines EEF Series qualifier points table – download HERE