Triple-Gold for Qatar, Double-Gold for Emirates, and Saudi Arabia Take Team Jumping Title

The host nation took double-gold in Dressage as well as the Individual Jumping title while the United Arab Emirates proved unbeatable in Endurance and Saudi Arabia scooped the team Jumping honours at the 12th Arab Games staged in Doha, Qatar from 6 to 23 December. This was the first time for Qatar to host the event which is staged on a four-year cycle and embraces 24 different sports. Khalifa International Stadium was the main competition venue, but the equestrian activities took place at the Al-Shaqab Arena and at the Mesaieed Endurance Course, with keen rivalry in all three disciplines.

Equestrian sport joined the Arab Games at Rabat, Malta in 1985 and subsequently visited Damascus, Syria in 1992, Beirut, Lebanon in 1997, Amman, Jordan in 1999, Algiers, Algeria in 2004 and Cairo, Egypt in 2007. Jumping has been included on the schedule since 1985, with Endurance joining the programme in 1999 and Dressage in 2007. FEI President, HRH Princess Haya, won individual Jumping bronze at Damascus in 1992.

DRESSAGE

Qatari riders lived up to expectations when taking Dressage Team gold ahead of the Lebanon in silver medal position and Iraq in bronze. Ground Jury members Raphael Saleh (FRA), Juan Carlos Campos (ESP), Fouad Hamoud (ALG), Hans Christian Mathiesen) DEN and President, Carlos Lopes (POR) all gave their highest mark to the experienced Rashid Al Marri who has competed in two Asian Games, and who partnered his new ride, Paso Doble, to a score of 68.784.

Team-mates Mohammed Al Marri (Brentano VD Zuuth) and Abdulla Al Marri (Mabruk) produced the next two best results to secure the team honours while the fourth, and youngest, Qatari competitor, 28-year-old Ahmed Al Badi (Argentino), also achieved a good mark of 61.946. This was fractionally less than the 61.975 awarded to Lebanon's Georges Bitar and Silvan, but there were only three riders on both the Lebanese and Iraqi teams, and the final tally of 58.153 left the Lebanon trailing Qatar by more than eight points.

"This is the first Arab Games gold medal for Qatar", said Rashid Al Marri. "We are very happy because we missed it in China (at the Asian Games)."

Qatar's Al Marri family were again well to the fore on the Individual medal podium when Mohammed Al Marri claimed gold, with the judging panel in full agreement as the 20-year-old was awarded the winning score of 70.843. Rashid had to settle for silver this time out following a stumble on the final diagonal by Paso Doble, while Farah Al Khojai, riding Mazurka Grafin for the United Arab Emirates, broke the Qatari grip on the medals when clinching bronze with a test that began with great flow but lost some of its impact in the canter movements.

Al Khojai joked afterwards that her horse "almost gave me a heart attack!". She said "this was not our best day...things went haywire with the music because we had to change it to fit the test. With music you always have to catch up and slow down - but it worked out in the end!".

The newly-crowned Individual champion was delighted with his result. "I expected to be in the top three, but not to be in first place, and I'm very happy about that", Mohammed Al Marri commented.

ENDURANCE

In Endurance, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made a clean sweep of the medals, repeating the success they enjoyed in Cairo four years ago and the supremacy they displayed when taking gold at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky, USA last year. A total of 30 riders, representing Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Libya and Oman, took part in the 120 km race, but only UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman fielded full teams while Libya sent out three riders. Only two teams completed with the compulsory three finishing scores, and the UAE's combined time of 14:12:54 left them convincing winners ahead of the silver medallists from Oman, who were more than five hours slower.

The competitiveness of the UAE contingent was clear from the outset, with the eventual Individual champion, Yousef Al Beloushi riding Shardell Prince Valiant, heading the field all the way and joined by five of his compatriots in the leading bunch at the end of the first stage which was 30 kms long. The second stage covered the same distance, while stages 3, 4 and 5 were 20 kms in length. Al Beloushi never lost his advantage throughout the ride, and while Sheikh Nasser from Bahrain climbed to second place in the fourth stage, it was the UAE's Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum who rocketed up the field in the closing stages to fill silver medal spot with his nine-year-old gelding Muhannad, while team-mate Sultan Al Maamri steered the seven-year-old Dudley Dick Te into bronze medal position.

After the first three legs, Al Beloushi commented "I went at 24 to 25 (km per hour), that way you can keep some power for the horse. In the fourth leg I will go at 27 (km per hour), and in the last leg I will try to beat everyone!" - and he achieved his goal. However, he finished only fractionally ahead of HH Sheikh Hamdan when breaking the beam at the finishing line after four hours, 40 minutes and 24 seconds. And when Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri and Lourizon Frost registered a finishing time of four hours, 52 minutes and five seconds the UAE were comfortable victors despite elimination of fourth team-member Mohammed Ahmad Al Subose riding Indian Eskalonik.

Oman's Al Khalil Al Nairi and Bashaer was also eliminated, but when Khatar Al Maarari (Majan), Ibrahim Al Maqbali (Musaiter Muscat) and Abdullah Said Salim Al Siyabi (Jammar) registered a joint finishing time of 19 hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds they were assured of team silver.

Talking about his 10-year-old gelding Shardell Prince Valiant, individual gold medallist Al Beloushi said, "he was so good. I have been riding him for one month and I raced him in the UAE. He did well today". And as team gold and individual silver medallist Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum pointed out, this was no random victory for his national side. "We trained a lot for one whole season, not just one day. This was a plan for the whole season", he explained.

Al Beloushi meanwhile reflected on his own achievement. "It was the first time for me in the team. I am so glad they gave me a chance and I could prove that I am one of the best Endurance riders in the UAE", he said.

Team silver medallist, Ibrahim Al Maqbali from Oman, said, "it was difficult to compete with the champions. This is our first big show for Omani riders". And he added that all of the Omani horses were locally bred - "they are our horses, and we are proud of them!" he commented.

JUMPING

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claimed Jumping team gold, but it was no walk in the park as the competition came down to a four-nation jump-off against the clock in which Egypt clinched the silver ahead of Qatar in bronze while the UAE finished just outside the medals.

And the host country turned the tables in the very last equestrian event of the Games when, in the tussle for the Individual title today, Qatar's Ali Al Rumaihi and Ravenna pinned Saudi Arabia's Kamal Bahamdan (Noblesse des Tess) and Prince Faisal Al Shalan (Aphrodite van het Texelhof) into silver and bronze.

A total of eight countries lined out in the Nations Cup which took place on Wednesday, and after the first two rounds of jumping over the course designed by Belgium's Luc Musette, there was a four-way tie on a zero score. All four riders from each team therefore jumped once again, and although Saudi Arabia's HRH Prince Abdullah Al Saud and Senorita picked up eight faults this time out, his team-mates Prince Faisal, Kamal Bahamdan, and Olympic individual bronze medallist Khaled Al Eid (Von Hoeve) - whose record in the Arab Games is quite remarkable - stayed clear and fast to record the quickest combined time of 116.17 seconds. However this was only just over two seconds better than the 118.55 registered by the Egyptians whose Abdelkader Said (Duc de Mariposa), Nayel Nassar (Raging Bull Vangelis S) and Karim El Zoghby (Jument Dufee) were foot-perfect while Ahmed Tolba (Splendor) collected just four faults.

The team from Qatar was almost four seconds further adrift when taking the bronze, as Mubarak Al Rumaihi (LB Casanova) left a fence on the floor while Sheikh Ali Al Thani (Sieshof's Abraskas), Faleh Al Ajami (Logo 28) and Ali Rumaihi (Ravenna) all kept a clean sheet. The UAE, meanwhile, had to add the four-fault result from Sheikh Shakhboot Al Nehayan (Valentino Valia) to the clears from both Sheika Latifa Al Maktoum (Peanuts De Beaufour) and Nadia Taryam (Larina) and this kept them out of the medals. As Sheika Latifa said afterwards however "that's the sport, and it is the beauty of it. We tried, but it was too difficult".

Winning Saudi Arabian team-member Khaled Al Eid said of his horse, Van Hoeve, "everything I asked him, he did today. The Arab Games are always very important, and the pressure here is heavier than at some 5-Star Grands Prix!". Egypt's Karim El Zoghby was delighted with his team silver medal. "I am very proud of my team. It was real team work to get the medal and we had a very young team - apart from me!. To have a jump-off with four teams is amazing. At the Arab Games it was always one or maybe two teams (in contention), and now we have four in the jump-off. That is a big improvement. Some time soon we may even have six teams on an equal level. That is great" he commented. And French Olympic rider, Herve Godignon, who coaches the UAE's Sheikh Shakhboot Al Nehayan, added, "Arab countries have progressed so much. They ride like every other country in the world now" he pointed out.

Today's Individual showdown was another classic, with everything hanging in the balance until the last hoof touched the ground on the landing side of the final fence. Ibrahim Bisharat and the 12 year old stallion Lancelot du Paradis were first to go in the four-horse jump-off but hit the second fence to return with four faults in 46.81 seconds. "It happens!", said the Jordanian rider afterwards, "there's nothing you can do about it. It is certainly not my horse's fault. I was maybe sitting a little behind the movement, and then a bit too strong with my hand, so he made this mistake" he explained.

Next up was Prince Faisal Al Shalan from Saudi Arabia who flew around the course in the quickest time of 46.63 seconds with the 11 year old mare Aphrodite van het Texelhof but also collecting four faults en route, so it was still all to play for as the final two riders took their turn. Prince Faisel's Saudi counterpart, Kamal Bahamdam, really piled on the pressure when breaking the beam with a fault-free effort from the 10 year old mare Noblesse des Tess - formerly ridden by Colombia's Rene Lopez- who crossed the line in 47.97 seconds, and now it was all up to Al Rumaihi. And he didn't flinch, galloping home with the 13 year old Ravenna to claim gold when the clock showed 47.17 seconds.

He admitted however that it was a nerve-tingling ride. "It was not easy, it was the split of a second, and at times it felt like mission impossible!" the new champion said afterwards. His victory left Qatar at the top of the equestrian medal table for the 2011 Arab Games, with Team and Individual gold along with Individual silver in Dressage, and Team bronze and Individual gold in Jumping.

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