Fifteen individual jumping athletes will qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and as 2015 comes towards an end Bertram Allen and Gregory Wathelet are amongst those riders topping their respective groups.

There are fifteen teams already qualified for the Games; Brazil (host nation), Netherlands, France, USA, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Argentina, Qatar, Ukraine, Japan and Australia – while individual athletes from non-qualified nations have to battle it out on the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking (Jumping) to make it to Rio.

Fifteen individual quota places of one athlete and one horse will be reserved for NOCs with a maximum of two athletes with one horse each per NOC. Only NOCs which have not obtained a team quota place are eligible to qualify for individual quota places. 

The FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking (Jumping) is limited to the best fifteen results per athlete/horse combination in specified events within the period from 1 January 2015 to 6 March 2016 included.

The FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking will be finalized at the 6th of March, and on the current version results between 1.1.2015-30.11.2015 are counted. Once a month the list will be published in an updated version. 

Four athletes will qualify from group A (North Western Europe), B (South Western Europe), C (Central & Eastern Europe; Central Asia) and F (Africa and the Middle East). The best ranked athlete in the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking (Jumping) from each of the four above mentioned groups will qualify one individual quota place for their NOC.

Group A sees Ireland’s Bertram Allen on top with Romanov (1065 points). Allen is also second with Molly Malone V (1068.06 points) and third is Ireland’s Conor Swail with Viva Colombia (794.50 points).

Gregory Wathelet with Conrad de Hus (1242 points) leads group B, while Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano with Admara 2 (1130 points) is rank two and Portugal’s Luciana Diniz with Fit For Fun (1129.50 points) is rank three. 

In group C, Turkey’s Omer Karaevli with Dadjak Ter Putten (792.75 points) leads the way, while Czech rider Ales Opatrny with Acovaro (685 points) is rank two and Poland’s Jaroslav Skrzyczynski with Crazy Quick rank three (585 points). 

Group D sees Patrick Nisbett from Bermuda on top (57.25 points). 

As for Group D and E, Venezuela has earned two spots, Colombia two spots, while Peru and Uruguay have earned one spot each through the 2015 Pan Am Games. 

Morocco’s Abdelkebir Ouaddar leads group F with Quickly de Kreisker (1162 points).

Taipei has the spot in Group G as they are the NOC of the best ranked athlete in this group following the FEI selected Olympic Qualification event, which was held in Hagen (GER) earlier this year. 

An additional four riders will qualify. The NOCs of the four best ranked athletes from the overall FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking (Jumping) can send riders to Rio.

The current four best NOCs on the list are (not qualified with teams): Belgium (through Gregory Wathelet), Morocco (through Abdelkebir Ouaddar), Italy (through Emanuele Gaudiano) and Portugal (through Luciana Diniz). 

Text © World of Showjumping // Picture © Jenny Abrahamsson