Basel: Marcus Ehning Second in the World Cup Show Jumping Competition

Picture information: Marcus Ehning with the stallion Stargold (OLD). Photo: Lafrentz

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Basel (fn-press). Holding one's breath was the order of the day in the extremely fast jump-off of the World Cup show jumping in Basel. Only six hundredths of a second separated the Swedish winner Henrik von Eckermann with his successful horse King Edward from the second placed Marcus Ehning (Borken), who had entered the Oldenburg stallion Stargold.

In front of 5,600 spectators in the sold-out St. Jakobshalle in Basel, one of the fastest and most exciting jump-offs of the current World Cup season came to an end. At the tenth stop (of 14) of the Western Europe League, seven of the 40 starting pairs reached the jump-off. Gerrit Nieberg (Sendenhorst) as the first starter set a fast time in the saddle of his Westphalian gelding Ben (by Sylvain). However, the 34.19 seconds were not to be enough, the number one in the world, the Swede Henrik von Eckermann and his Belgian gelding King Edward crossed the finish line in 33.43 seconds. Marcus Ehning gave everything with his Oldenburg stallion Stargold (by Stakkato Gold), but in the end was six hundredths of a second short (33.49). The Swiss rider Pius Schwizer was third with an equally faultless 34.03 seconds and relegated Gerrit Nieberg to fourth place.

Pia Reich deserves a lot of praise. The 29-year-old former student of Hans-Dieter Dreher, who lives in Bad Bellingen in the border region between Germany and Switzerland, also won her ticket for the jump-off with her Chacco Blue daughter PB Chaconie from the Oldenburg International breeding association after a clear round. PB stands for her Swiss boss Paul Bücheler, with whom "Hansi" Dreher had also worked for a long time.

For Gerrit Nieberg, winner of the Grand Prix of Aachen with Ben in the summer of 2022, the Basel show days were crowned by several great successes: second place in the Grand Prix on Friday with Ben, third place in the Championat of Basel on Saturday with the Swiss gray Blues d'Aveline CH and finally fourth place on Sunday in the World Cup show jumping, again with Ben. The goal of the 29-year-old son of Lars Nieberg is, of course, the World Cup Final in Omaha/USA at the beginning of April. Until then, Gerrit Nieberg will have a few more opportunities to add to his points account.

The ranking of the Western Europe League is led by a wide margin by Henrik von Eckermann (88 points), followed by the two French riders Kevin Staut (63) and Julien Epaillard (62) and Daniel Deußer (60). Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann is currently seventh (35), Marcus Ehning tenth (34) and Gerrit Nieberg eleventh (33). Next weekend, the show jumping World Cup will make a stop in Leipzig at the Turnier Partner Pferd. hen

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(fn-press)

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