The 16th edition of Csi5* Challenge Vincenzo Muccioli will take place this week-end at San Patrignano where spotlights will be pointed on the best riders in the world.
Top equestrian world embraces the social commitment for the 16th consecutive year. The show-jumping CSI "five stars" of San Patrignano will be held this weekend, July 20 to 22. Thanks to the prestigious watch ‘maison’ that is main sponsor of the event, some of the best riders in the world will compete in the excellent riding facilities in the Community, giving their best to win the Rolex Grand Prix Challenge Vincenzo Muccioli.
"These are three days of thrilling competition leading up to the London Olympics", explains Alessandro Rodino dal Pozzo, newly appointed President of the show's organizing committee and head of San Patrignano's stables. He adds, "Sixteen years after the first edition, San Patrignano is an amazing place to have a horse show, and with an added social value, because it gives a new chance to many young people through equitation and horsemanship, to "overcome obstacles" and find a new life".
44 horse and rider best combinations, coming from 13 nations (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Nederland, Spain, Switzerland, United States of America and Ukraine) will invade San Patrignano’s stables, with their 120 horses.
As it happened in past editions, San Patrignano’s Csi5* will host many Olympic medallists: first among all there will be Canadian rider Eric Lamaze, Olympic Gold in Beijing (he is 3rd in Rolex Ranking List) and Belgian World Champion Philippe Le Jeune (53°).
Beside them, many other medallists from Olympic, World and European Championships will take their chance at Sanpa. Like the Olympic gold in Sydney 2000, the Dutchman Jeroen Dubbeldam (63°), the World Champion with the team "orange" Gerco Schroder (26°), the Swiss Olympic team bronze medallists in Beijing 2008 Steve Guerdat (8 °) and Christina Liebherr, who won the individual and team silver medals at the European Championship 2005 in San Patrignano, and the German veteran Lars Nieberg, twice Olympic Champion in '96 and 2000 and team World Champion in '98.
Many riders will take a good chance to “tune their engines” on perfect competition area of San Patrignano, ahead of the London Olympics that will start soon after. Among these most of the riders mentioned above, but also the German-born Katharina Offel (29°), who rides under the Ukrainian flag, Dutchman Marc Houtzager (35°), the Australian Matt Williams and Werner Muff (73°) that will compete at San Patrignano with his Olympic horse.
The competition will give space to some of the best youth of the moment that are already well confirmed in the equestrian world. Swiss rider Janika Sprunger (50°), German Katrin Eckermann (68°) and Italian Simone Coata (208°) are among them. The American Caitlin Ziegler, 17 years old, will be the youngest in the competition, beating a blast Nicolas Philippaerts (109°), 18, who will jump “against” his father, Ludo Philippaerts. It will be family affair for the Gulliksen too, with daddy Geir facing his daughter Viktoria.
Italy will present a very determinated and crowded squad. Emanuele Gaudiano (34°) in the Rolex Ranking List, best Italian), who won the Grand Prix last year aboard Chicago 84, will head the Italian representative while going for the "row winner" (two consecutive times winner of the Grand Prix): an undertaking so far never achieved. To challenge Gaudiano there will be Natale Chiaudani (93°), on his FixDesign Almero, the horse and rider combination that has just graduated Italian Champion, and Juan Carlos Garcia (99 °), who won the Grand Prix in 2002.
Among the Italians, Chiara Arrighetti, at her third consecutive participation at San Patrignano International Show, will be riding two horses of the community, Asha San Patrignano and Utopia di San Patrignano.
The competition, beside its social value, this year will underline its attention to the environment. For the first year, thanks to the collaboration with Bracco and Lifegate, the competition will have impact zero on the planet: the total carbon dioxide emissions caused by the event, calculated in 227,000 pounds of CO2, will be countered by planting and looking after 40,000 square meters of forests in Madagascar.
PM
