BARCELONA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands won their second title in four years at the Longines FEI Nations Cup jumping final on a thrilling night at the Royal Polo Club here on Saturday.
The start-time was delayed by one hour and 45 minutes because of a fused floodlight failure but when the action finally got underway at 10:45 pm the capacity crowd was sent into a frenzy.
The Netherlands captured the trophy for the second time following their victory here in 2014, finishing with just a single time fault. The United States took second while Belgium, who also finished on a four-fault scoreline, were third when combined times were taken into account.
It came down to the last-line riders to decide the result of this 2017 title-decider. Harrie Smolders, 37, sealed it with a copybook round from his European individual silver medal-winning ride Don VHP.
Jur Vrieling set the stage with a similarly impressive run with the fabulous stallion, VDL Glasgow V. Merelsnest and the only fault they would count would come from Michel Hendrix and Baileys who went just over the time-allowed of 81 seconds. Third-line rider Marc Houtzager was the only one to post a single error, with Sterrehof's Calimero, at the first element of the double at fence five for the discount score.
Team captain Rob Ehrens was delighted with the performances of all his team members and their horses.
"Jur is experienced but Glasgow is quite green, this year is his first time in a Championship and he was extremely good this week," he said. "Michel Hendrix is an up-and-coming rider, very talented, he produced this horse himself. And Harrie is in brilliant form this year, he's in the flow. I'm very happy for him and also for the country. He is a top jockey and an unbelievably good team player."
Smolders admitted that he had felt the pressure and spoke highly of his horse.
"I felt he (Don VHP) started to get a little tired and that I had to carry him around a bit in the second round today, but he gave everything. He gets a rest now that he really deserves. I'm super confident this season because he jumps clear after clear, but still you have to do it, and it was a big track today, a big challenge, the time was really tight so I couldn't afford to leave it somewhere. I had to be really on it, but my horse was incredible."
And Smolders said that the delay had not affected his performance. "In Spain everything is always later. They start later in the morning, and they finish later in the evening - we wanted to win anyway."
