The FEI World Equestrian Games Bank of America Jumping Championships get underway on Wednesday 19th of September, with the first team and individual qualifier being jumped between 9.00-17.00 (Tryon, NC time). Team and individual medals are up for grabs at the FEI World Equestrian Games Bank of America Jumping Championships, along with coveted qualifying spots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. 

The starting order in the first competition has been drawn, and Shane Sweetnam on Chaqui Z (Chacco-Blue x Quinar Z) will be first to go for Ireland in Tryon on Wednesday and Pedro Junqueira Muylaert on Prince Royal Z MFS (Prince de Revel x Ramiro Z) for Brazil last as start number 124. 

This first competition is conducted over a big Table A course judged under Table C, and the fences will be set at 1.55m. 

The score obtained by each horse-and-rider combination in the first round will be converted into penalties according to the following method laid out in the rules for the championships: Each riders’s time will be multiplied by the coefficient 0.50 and converted into points; the points must be rounded to two decimal places. The second decimal place will be rounded up from .005 and rounded down from .004. The rider with the lowest number of points after this conversion will be given zero penalties, the other riders being credited with the number of penalties representing the difference in points between each of them and the leading rider.

The scores of the best three pairs from each team in the first competition, and in each round of the second competiton, count toward the team placings. And the total penalties of each athlete count towards their individual ranking.

A new draw takes place to decide the starting order for the second competition, which takes place over two rounds on Thursday and Friday. This time there will be a jump-off against the clock if teams are tied for first place, and only the top ten nations will go through to Friday’s team medal-decider.

Sunday’s individual final is open to the top 25, with riders starting in reverse order of merit. This is a two-round competition over two different courses with approximately the same number of fences but a greater degree of difficulty in the second round, and a jump-off will only take place in case of equality of penalties for first place.

For the number-crunchers here are a few: 

• 3 competitions, 2 sets of medals
• 49 Nations: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Taipei, Thailand, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.
• 25 teams, a few with only three team members

With the startlist including eight of top ten riders on the Longines Ranking, and all of the top five: The Netherlands’ Harrie Smolders, America’s McLain Ward, Germany’s Marcus Ehning, Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann and Canada’s Eric Lamaze - the battle for individual glory is guaranteed to be a mighty one. World no. 7 Peder Fredricson, who claimed individual silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and is reigning European Champion, will lead the Swedish team while world no. 9 Steve Guerdat who claimed individual gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games, will be anchoring the Swiss side. Rounding up the representatives from the world’s top ten is French star Kevin Staut.

The Irish are the reigning European Champions and under the management of Brazilian ace Rodrigo Pessoa are expected to be highly competitive despite the fact that only two of the combinations that clinched gold in Gothenburg (SWE) last summer will be in action this week. France, USA and Germany topped the Olympic podium in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) two years ago but it was the Dutch who claimed all gold in jumping at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ at Caen in Normandy (FRA) four years ago. 

Competition this week runs from 09.00 through to 17.00 on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 September, while the top ten teams will battle it out on Friday afternoon starting at 13.30. Sunday’s finale is scheduled to begin at 09.45, and just a few hours later the 2018 individual world champion will be crowned.