European Champion Joanne Eccles won the inaugural CVI**Neeroeteren at the weekend. Joanne put on another polished performance to lead the pack again with a good margin. Simone Wiegele and Antje Hil form Germany filled the next two spots, but Antje had to fight for the 3rd spot as Hannah Eccles GBR (Joanne’s sister) was so close and the two girls swapped places through the 4 rounds, but it was Antje who finally took the higher place in the end. Both girls competed on their regular horse WH Bentley lunged by their father John Eccles.

The Eccles sisters then also won the Pas de deax class by a huge margin, a new championship class comprising of 2 rounds of freestyle. They score a very high 8.0, this was the first time the girls competed internationally in this class. They competed on their individual horse WH Bentley, lunged by their father John Eccles.

The Scottish Equestrian vaulting Team (SEVT) put on a very solid performance to achieve 6.3 and finish 6th in a very competitive class. The team was lunged by Amanda McLachlan on their horse Tylers Kernal.

In the junior individual Elliose Cundy (14) in her first international finished 16th on 6.1 achieving a international qualifying score and it was a very good performance as she competed on a borrowed horse from John Eccles that she sat on for the first time on Friday! Helen finished just behind in 23th.

Results summary:

CVI** Female individual
1st Joanne Eccles GBR 8.359
2nd Simone Wiegele GER 8.007
3rd Antje Hill GER 7.983
4th Hannah Eccles GBR 7.921
5th Simone Jaiser SUI 7.766
6th Kristina Boe Germany 7.542

Pas de deux
1st Joanne Eccles & Hannah Eccles GBR 8.077
2nd Esther & Cyndy Sneekes NED 6.6

CVI* Team
1st RPZ Peiler-Hamm GER 7.331
6th Scottish Equestrian Vaulting Team 6.399

CVI* Indivdiual Female
16th Elliose Cundy GBR 6.1
23rd Helen Anderson GBR 5.2

Hannah Eccles, Joanne’s sister finished an impressive 4th Just behind the two Germans on a final score of 8.443.

Both girls head straight to Belgium from Wiesbaden for the new international CVI there next weekend where they will compete in both the individual class and the Pas de deux together.

Both girls have had a great start to the year, Joanne being unbeaten, having won in France and Holland and Hannah finishing 4th and 5th behind her sister.

They are both working hard to fund raise the £11,000 to take their horse to WEG in Kentucky in September for which they have already been selected for.

Sister Hannah Eccles, who is now also competing in the senior class, came 6th with a score of 7.7 and achieved the second highest score of the day for her freestyle on the second day. The Eccles sisters have made a strong start to their campaign for achieving podium places at the FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, USA.

Brogan Moffat a ‘Wee Counties’ team member came 6th in the CVI* (Junior) class in her very first international competition, scoring 6.6 on Tylers Kernal lunged by John Eccles. Brogan is working towards selection for the Junior Championships to be held in Austria in August of this year.

Summary

CVI**
1st Joanne Eccles GBR
2nd Megan Benjamin USA
3rd Mary McCormack USA
6th Hannah Eccles GBR

CVI*
6th Brogan Moffat GBR

European Champion Joanne Eccles retained her female title for a 3^rd year on her own WH Bentley lunged by her father John Eccles, her sister Hannah performed a very strong new freestyle to put her in 4^th and Lucy Phillips another to have improved hugely over the winter close behind in 5^th.

Ross Foreman impressed all with his freestyle to finish in 5^th in a close male competition. This was won by French European champion Nicolas Andreani.

The Team Class was won by the German team from Koln with a very difficult freestyle but close behind where the South Scotland Select team from GBR who have worked hard all winter and performed beautifully to finish in 2^nd place. The English Vaulting Squad who have rearranged their routine to be ready for WEG in September finished in 5^th place.

2010 was the first year Saumur have included a Nations Cup class, due to the good results achieved in the normal team class, GBR were able to enter 2 nations cup teams. 7 teams competed including France, GBR, Germany, Holland & Belgium

All 3 members of GBR 1  preformed fantastically under pressure in a tense packed  arena to lead throughout and clinch the top spot, this is the first time GBR has won such a class.  GBR 2 also meant business and performed better than day 1 clinching the 3^rd place on the podium, with France managing to hold onto second in between them.

A nations team is made up of 2 individuals and 1 team, all 3 do their freestyle routine and the scores are added together to reach a final score.

GBR 1 was made up of Eccles sisters Joanne and Hannah, on their own WH Bentley and the ‘South Scotland select ‘ team (Ross foreman, Lucy Phillips, Stacey Macpherson, Katy Nimmo, Lucy Younger, Angus Runciman & Rebecca Kinghorn) on horse Bart Simpson, lunged by Rebecca Morgan.

GBR2 was made up of Lucy Phillips on Pitucelli, Ross Foreman on MasterKey and the ‘English Vaulting Squad’ (Sarah Reid, Emma Runge, Stephanie Hunter, Lydia Barham, Sara Shortland, Paige Brown & Megan Bignell) on horse Go for Gold, lunged by Julie Newell.

GBR also won both ‘best horse’ prizes in the female individual for WH Bentley and the Team horse for Bart Simpson.

**Summary of GBR results:

Nations Cup (made up of 2 individuals and 1 team):  1st (GBR 1) & 3rd (GBR2)

Senior Team class: 2nd South Scotland Select and 5th English Vaulting Squad

Female:

1^st: Joanne Eccles on WH Bentley lunger John Eccles

4^th: Hannah Eccles on WH Bentley lunger John Eccles

5^th Lucy Phillips on Pitucelli            lunger Rebecca Morgan

15^th Louise Sinclair on ILPH Islay   lunger Liz Mackay

29^th Harriet Nicol on ILPH Islay      lunger Liz Mackay

35^th Lydia Barham on Solitaire Legacy lunger Julie Newell

Male: 5^th Ross Foreman on Master Key lunger Rebecca Morgan

Overall best team horse prize: Bart Simpson
Overall best individual horse prize: WH Bentley

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The World Equestrian Games, held in Lexington, Kentucky, will include the Olympic disciplines of dressage, eventing, show jumping and para-equestrian dressage, along with the non-Olympic disciplines of driving, endurance, reining and vaulting – for the British team this potentially means taking more than 50 horses in total.

The squad, made up of 11 vaulters; three individual females, one individual male and seven team members, will attend the Games which run from the 25^th September to the 10^th October.

Individual – female competitors

• Joanne Eccles (20) from Tillicoultry
• Lucy Philips (19) from Solihull
• Hannah Eccles (18) from Tillicoultry

Individual male competitor

• Ross Foreman (20) from Duns

Senior vaulting team

• Emma Runge (22) Buckinghamshire
• Sarah Reid (19) Worcestershire
• Sara Shortland (16) Derbyshire
• Steph Hunter (16) Lincolnshire
• Lydia Barham (15) Northamptonshire
• Paige Brown (12) Hampshire
• Megan Bignell (11) Warwickshire

The Olympic and Paralympic teams are supported by lottery funding via UK Sport, but the non-Olympic sports do not receive funding of any kind. Funding in excess of £60,000 is needed to support the vaulting squad alone to allow them to compete for their country in Kentucky next year.

An online auction – http://auction.equestrianteamgbr.co.uk/ – has been set up to help raise funds to send the British team to the World Equestrian Games in 2010.  All proceeds from this auction will go towards sending the team to the Games and supporting them in their quest to compete and win on the World stage. Top level UK vaulting coaches will also be working together to create as much opportunity as possible to allow these vaulters to succeed. Look out for further fundraising opportunities at www.equestrianteamgbr.co.uk.

“I am delighted that we are able to announce the British vaulting squad for Kentucky,” said Lucy Bell, BEV Chef d’Equipe.  “The squad has been very strong throughout 2009 making a real impact on the international circuit. It is a particularly significant and exciting time in British vaulting following our first ever Championship Gold medal for Joanne Eccles this year. We have selected early for 2010, partly to give as much time as we can for preparation for the vaulters and their horses, but also to allow as much time as possible to raise the funds.”

John Eccles, father and coach to Joanne and her sister Hannah, said: “I am extremely proud of both girls. They have already been developing their new freestyles for this prestigious event and the hard work has already started with a new fitness programme to ensure that they are on top form.”

Julie Newell, senior coach and lunger of the selected team, who are the current British Champions, added: “I am delighted for the girls; they have all been working very hard for the past two years to be selected as Team GBR for Kentucky. They are a relatively young team and I am extremely proud of their achievements. We are excited about the challenge ahead of us.”

Visit www.equestrianteamgbr.co.uk for key Team GBR news and updates.

Press release in can be downloaded in Microsoft Word format here.