ST. GALLEN, Switzerland--The U.S. finished fourth in the Nations Cup in St. Gallen on Friday, June 5 in a competition won by the home team of Switzerland.
Aaron Vale on Carissimo 25 earlier this year in Ocala (Photo by Andrew Ryback)Aaron Vale on Gray's Inn also won the featured Speed and Handiness on Thursday and was second in the featured Prize Suttero Speed on Saturday.
The competition was so close in the Nations Cup that the U.S. was just one rail out of second place in the CSIO5* 1.60m class.
The team of Katie Dinan on Out of the Blue SCF, Mimi Gochman on Iron Maiden, Charlotte Jacobs on Playboy JT and Aaron Vale on Carissimo finished on 20 faults, with Switzerland winning on eight faults, Austria second on 16 faults and Great Britain third on 17 faults.
"We had a good day," said chef d'equipe Robert Ridland. "We just had too many four fault rounds. We weren't that far sway from the podium, just one rail. But finishing fourth is always annoying."
"We beat some pretty good teams," said Ridland. "The course was right on."
It was a tough course, with only two, Jason Smith of Switzerland and Katharina Rhomberg of Austria, going double clear.
In round one, Dinan had four faults, Gochman had 16, Jacobs finished with four faults and Vale was clean to be third on eight faults going into round two.
in round two, Dinan, Gochman and Jacobs all had four faults, but Vale had eight to add 12 faults to their first round score and finish on a score of 20.
"MIMI PUT it all together in the second round," said Ridland. "She's only 21 and in her first Nations Cup."
The job of riding the identical round a second time plus the pressure of riding for your nation and your teammates makes riding in a Nations Cup a unique experience.
"It's all a part of Nations Cup learning for Mimi," said Ridland.
The home team won Friday’s CSIO5* 1.60m Range Rover Nations Cup of Switzerland in front of an electrified crowd at the Gründenmoos stadium in St. Gallen.
After finishing the first round in fourth place on 8 penalties, the Swiss team delivered a top-class second round.
As the team's opening rider, Martin Fuchs and Lorde set the tone with a clear round in 72.94 seconds.
Jason Smith followed up by repeating his first-round zero aboard Picobello van'T Roosakker, again clear in 72.11 seconds, and Alain Jufer on Dante MM had 12 penalties – a score that could be dropped, as only the three best results per team counted.
Everything then rested on the shoulders of Steve Guerdat and Alb.
The current world number 10 produced a tidy round with just a single time penalty in 75.20 seconds.
Added to the first-round result, the Swiss total stood at 9 penalties – a score that would have opened the door to a jump-off if the final British rider had gone clear.
However, with the very first rail down for the Briton, the suspense was over and the Swiss victory was sealed.
Following Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain and the U.S., Germany was fifth with 22 faults, Belgium, leader after the first round, slipped to sixth on 22 faults, Ireland was seventh on 27 faults and Brazil was eighth on 32 faults.
France and Spain didn't make the second round.
