Graz, vaulter Cavallaro chasing her third title

Graz, February 2015 – Final show this weekend in Graz, Austria, with the FEI World Cup Vaulting Final 2015. From the 19th to the 22nd February the athletes who qualified through the four legs will be competing in order to obtain the title of Champion of the year.

Six male, five female and four pas de deux are about to work their magic in front of the public of the Fest der Pferde, which is hosting in the same days a CDI4* and a CSI3*.

For the men, the Czech Lukas Klouda, the French Nicolas Andreani, the Germans Thomas and Viktor Brüsewitz, Julian Wilfling and the Swiss Lukas Heppler will try their best while, as far as the women are concerned, the battle will be between the Italian Anna Cavallaro, the Swiss Simone Jäiser, the Austrian Lisa Wild, the German Kristina Boe and the Dutch Carola Sneekes. In the pas de deux, two home couples will be there, with Evelyn Freund/Stefanie Millinger and Jasmin Lindner/ Lukas Wacha, against the Germans Gera-Marie Grün/Justin Van Gerven and the Dutch Carola Sneekes/Esther Sneekes.

After Munich, Paris, Salzburg and Leipzig, Graz will crown Kings and Queens of the 2014-2015 World Cup series. At the top of the provisional ranking, Wild dominates among the women with 30 points, followed by Jaiser (28) and Cavallaro (24). Andreani leads the men with 30 points too, ahead of Viktor Brüsewitz and Klouda, both at 26. The couple Evelyn Freund/Stefanie Millinger are top of the ranking (30 pt) in the pas de deux class. German Pia Engelberty/Torben Jacobs (28) missing in Graz are just after, while in third place stands the other Austrian duo Jasmin Lindner/ Lukas Wacha (26).

The attention in these days will be focused especially on the individual female rounds: with her winning freestyle, inspired by martial arts, Jäiser has now achieved a technical maturity which earned her the first place with a score of 9.003 in Leipzig, overtaking for the first time in her career her Italian rival.

In Graz Anna will try her best to confirm her title for the third year in a row. This time the challenge is nevertheless much harder, Cavallaro is aware that the Swiss performed greatly in the World Equestrian Games 2014, where she showed to be very close to her level.

Penalized by Harley’s injury during the season, Cavallaro could take part only in two legs, in Salzburg, where she vaulted on her old horse Adenauer, and in the last one in Leipzig, where the World Cup champion trio Harley-Anna-Nelson was together again. In the German show the vaulter had presented her new freestyle on the music from the Disney cartoon Anastasia, qualifying to be now in Graz.

Determined to change history, Simone feels ready to give her best on the horse Luk, lounged by her mother Rita Blieske: “The first three places in the final are very tight. Everyone is in top condition. I’m aiming to show clear rounds and now I have no doubts that this is possible”, said confident the Swiss vaulter.

17 February 2015