Five Wild Cards Distributed for 2006 World Cup Finals

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2006 World Cup Finals

The FEI has distributed its five wild cards for the 2006 World Cup Finals. Five Western European League riders have been granted a starting place based on their standings and qualification criteria. The reserve wild card rider comes from the Central European League.

The recipients of a wild card are British Wayne Channon (on Lorenzo CH), Swedish Louise Nathhorst (on Guinness) and Jan Brink (on Bjorsells Briar), Belgian Jeroen Devroe (on Paganini) and Danish Natalie zu Saeyn-Wittgenstein (on Rigoletto). Reserve wild card recipient is Russian Inessa Poturaeva (on Zorro).

It is quite a surprise that Danish Zu Saeyn-Wittgenstein has been selected for a wild card and no card has been allotted to Andreas Helgstrand, who won the World Cup Qualifier of Aarhus and placed third in the Kur at the CDI-W Neumunster.

"I didn't expect this but I'm very happy," Zu Saeyn-Wittgenstein commented. "I will have some new music composed and have a meeting with Rudolf Zeilinger and Klaus Balkenhol to set up a trainingsplan for the next three weeks."

Swedish Jan Brink is very happy with his wild card. "Actually, I hadn't planned on getting a place in the finals on my own, so I had my mind set either on a wild card or on starting at the CDI Hagen in April," Brink stated. "So, now I have to go to Amsterdam instead of Hagen." Brink's country mate Louise Nathhorst, a former World Cup Finals winners, is ecstatic about going to Amsterdam. "It's jolly nice to ride the Finals this year, Guinness is in top shape. We will go for it all the way in Amsterdam," Nathhorst said.

British Wayne Channon is very happy to have received an entry ticket for Amsterdam. "I hadn't planned on riding the Finals, but this is a great opportunity," the Belgium based Channon said. Belgian native Jeroen Devroe will be the first Belgian to represent his country in a World Cup Finals since 1990.

Photo copyrighted: Astrid Appels/Eurodressage