U.S. fourth in League of Nations Final in Barcelona
- Details
- October 6, 2026
- By SARA CAVANAGH
BARCELONA, Spain--The U.S. jumping team just missed the podium in the League of Nations Final in Barcelona on Sunday, Oct. 4, finishing fourth behind Germany, Brazil and Belgium.
Laura Kraut on Tres Bien Z (Photo by Digitshots)The team of Laura Kraut on Tres Bien Z, McKayla Langmeier on Riesling van de Gaathoeve, McLain Ward on Jordan Molga M and Kristen Vanderveen on Bull Run''s Jireh, finished on a two round score of 12 faults.
It took a jump-off for Germany to beat Brazil, as both finished the two rounds with four faults, and Belgium was third with five faults.
The course was set by Santiago Varela of Spain, and, in the sign of a really good course, it caused faults at every fence but the last, which interestingly was the biggest but still never fell.
The top eight teams from the League's four qualifiers made the Final, along with the home team of Spain, and under the League's format, in the Final all nine teams made the second round in which only three riders from each team competed, making round two a cut throat, do or die final.
In round one,, Kraut and Ward were clean, Langmeier had just barely a foot in the water for four faults and Vanderveen had five faults for the U.S. to go into round two tied with Brazil with four faults and behind Germany with zero faults and Belgium with one fault.
In round two Kraut and Ward were clean again but Langmeier had two down, the black plank and a really cheap rail at the out of the double.
Laine Asker on Lovedance leads on 32.7 following her 29.9 in dressage and 2.8 time penalties in show jumping.
