The Israelis won the Olympic qualification of parkour teams in Chuchli, and the riders of Poland took the second place. The Czech team, whose members were Vladimír Tretera, Filip Doležal, Anna Kellnerová and Aleš Opatrný, finished fifth behind Hungary and Turkey.
In the Olympic qualification in Chuchle Arena Prague, which took place as part of Friday’s Cup of Nations, the Czechs entered the rink from the third starting position.
In the first round, Vladimír Tretera started with Gangster V/H Noddevelt and got off to an excellent start. He didn’t make a single mistake until the twelfth obstacle, which was a blue wall with the logo of the organizing Czech Equestrian Team, but the new obstacle with an unusual visual got scared and refused to cross it twice, which meant his disqualification. The other members of the team thus knew that all their results would already be counted, which naturally created more pressure on them.
Filip Doležal in the saddle of the gelding Coup de Coeur GP Madame Z made three mistakes and added a small time penalty. This meant a load of fourteen penalty points. Anna Kellnerová made one less mistake with the mare Catch Me If You Can Old, and she mainly regretted the penalty on the water obstacle. Two more were added to the eight points for time, and the Czechs thus had 24 penalty points after three rounds. The finisher Aleš Opatrný on Locanta RN added four more and after his ride he was already firmly convinced that the Olympic dream for the Czech riders had definitely vanished, as Israel had four points, Hungary five and Poland six. “Even if we had three nil in the second round, from what I could see, none of those teams would get past our 28 penalty points,” he said in a televised interview.
However, the Czechs continued to the second round in full force, among other things, because of the home fans, who filled the walkways of the Chuchel racetrack to the last place and thus created a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, in the case of Vladimír Tretera on Gangster, the situation from the opening part of the competition was repeated and he again did not pass the twelfth obstacle of the course. Filip Doležal with Coup de Coeur recorded three mistakes in quick succession on obstacles six, seven, eight and then on jump 10A. Anna Kellnerová did not drop any of the obstacles on Catch Me, but again she did not jump over the boundary of the water feature. The reward for the large audience was a clean ride performed by Aleš Opatrný and the only eight-year-old Locanta RN. In the final totals, the Czech team had 48 penalty points and finished fifth.
The fourth place was occupied by Turkish riders, whose team belonged to the wider list of favorites. As expected, the best performance was performed by finisher Omer Karaevli on the stallion Policeman 2, who took only four penalty points to the finish line in both rounds. However, the total score was 45 penalty points.
The fight for one of the two promotion spots between the Poles and the Hungarians was open until the last races. The Polish representatives performed very evenly, with no one missing more than once in each of the rounds. However, only Maksymilian Wechta on the stallion Chepettano recorded the only zero.
In the case of Hungarian riders, on the other hand, Gábor Szabó junior with the mare Mezohegyes Chabala, Ferenc Szentirmai on the gelding Melypso Blue PS FRH and András Kövy junior went clean. But at the same time, higher point penalties were also coming, and Kövy’s last run decided in favor of our northern neighbors.
The leaders were the Israelis after the first round, when they scored only four points. They continued their solid performances in the second round as well, although Robin Muhr with the gelding Galaxy HM chose a weaker moment in the second run. Nevertheless, the moment Daniel Bluman rode the gelding Ladriano Z into the final ride, it was clear that the finishing pair could afford up to three mistakes. In the end, Bluman finished with four points and the Israelis could start celebrating even more than the Poles at that moment.
Although Czech parkour fans witnessed a great sporting spectacle, they had to accept the information that none of our riders – in the team or among individuals – will go to the Olympic Games in Paris in this discipline. Anna Kellnerová and Aleš Opatrný ruled out that they would try to collect Olympic points in the coming months, because in the middle of the season they only have one horse available for such high competitions and the chance to succeed in very strong competition is basically unrealistic.
International show jumping competitions continue in Chuchle Arena Prague until Sunday. Saturday’s highlight will be the Diamond Tour with obstacles up to 150 centimeters from 1:30 p.m., which should be with one timed jump-off. In this competition, participants will have the last chance to qualify for Sunday’s Grand Prix. It will start at 15:00. Details about the program and ticket sales are available on the website www.csiopraha.cz.
Photo: Kateřina Návojová
2023-07-28 19:14:00
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