WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES
At the 2018 edition of the World Equestrian Games (WEG) at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, horses and riders once again tried their best to showcase the most exciting aspects of this unique and popular sport.
Concerning the showjumping, the WEG started with great adversity of all kinds (heavy rain, heat, and an ongoing construction site, big difficulties for grooms), the second week was less difficult and chaotic than the first. Course Designer Alan Wade did a good job in his first experience at a World Championship, building fair, jumpable courses that respected the horses.
The excellent sport showed by horses and riders, as always, makes people forget the gaps and problems that have emerged in the preceding weeks and days.
The three superlative final rounds from the showjumping medallists will be remembered for a long time.
A pleasant surprise was the high number of young riders entered by several National Federations, and courageous chefs d'équipe, who were rewarded with exciting medals.
So our compliments go to all the medal winners, whilst we rejoice in noting that a lot of them are members of the International Jumping Riders Club or the Narg.
ATHLETE REPRESENTATIVE
The showjumping athletes elected their new athletes’ representative in the figure of the Olympic Irish rider, Cian O’Connor, who took over the role previously held by legendary rider Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA).
O’Connor will carry the voice of the riders to the FEI Jumping Committee and will be part of the Athlete Commission, which is formed of representatives across all FEI disciplines.
The IJRC strongly believes the new Athletes’ Representative will have a unique opportunity to work for the common good of all athletes at high levels, as this role provides a voice to the jumping community within the global decision making process.
The IJRC hopes to count on O’Connor's active support and involvement in the various issues that the Club is currently taking forward, as well as any that may come up in the future.
NEWS CONCERNING PROPOSED RULE CHANGES
Concerning the proposal to change the Jumping Rules and the Invitations System, the IJRC Club believes that the following rights from the IOC Athletes Chart should be considered:
· to compete (where qualification criteria are met, and as per team/delegation selection rules)
· to a fair and transparent selection process
in respect to the principle that all athletes must be treated equally.
The IJRC would like to ensure that as far as possible, the new rules guarantee the access to all competitions and events on the basis of meritocracy.
The implementation of a correct Invitation system by the FEI is a great opportunity to guarantee access to all athletes to competitions based on meritocracy.
The IJRC Club would like to underline that it is important to specify when the rule states “ 60% of the Athletes invited in descending order of the Longines Ranking”, it is only intended just for the athletes that have entered the event and not all the athletes in descending order of the ranking list. This is to guarantee access to the event to the best riders that have been entered for a specific show.
The exception for the CSIO and World Cup finds legal support in the fact that in these two competitions the athletes are selected by the NFs with a transparent process that takes into consideration both meritocracy and results.
The IJRC believes that quota allocated to the NF for 1*,2*,3* and 4* can change proportionally depending on the numbers of home riders registered in the FEI and taking part in international events.
Regarding the CSI Requirement the IJRC would like to see the re-introduction of two meals a day plus breakfast for the grooms.
Moreover, the IJRC is against the increase of the entry fees in CSI 1*,2*,3* for the reason that 550 euro +VAT+manure+parking+electricity means more than 800 euro per horse each week. For three horses this means at least 2,500 euro for each event. This amount is not sustainable for juniors, YRs, coming up athletes, owners and breeders, who represent more than 70% of the participants of 1*,2* and 3* events.
A maximum entree fees or a small increase should be requested by events that provide the maximum prize money for the category, very good infrastructure and very good conditions for riders, grooms, horses (there must be a proportion between entry fees and prize money, it’s not acceptable to have the maximum of entry fees and the minimum of prize money and bad infrastructure and conditions).
Currently the IJRC continues its active work on the following different issues:
· CSI Requirements (IJRC Board);
· Longines Ranking Working Group (Ingmar de Vos, Stephan Ellenbruch, John Roche; Francois Mathy Jr, Ludger Beerbaum, Eleonora Ottaviani);
· Co-operation with FEI Jumping Committee and FEI in general;
· ECS Jumping Event Classification System (Henrik von Eckermann);
· Contamination (Eleonora Ottaviani / lawyers);
· Yellow Card (IJRC Board);
· Athletes Representative (Cian O’Connor);
· Communication (Kevin Staut and IJRC Team with journalists)
The IJRC also welcomes its new members, including several from South America, among them: Patricio Pasquel, Luiz Felipe de Azevedo and Mauricio Ruiz.