BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Carl Hester, a member of the gold winning British team at the London 2012 Olympic Games, will be the star attraction in the dressage event during this week’s third edition of the 2015 CHI Al Shaqab, organisers said yesterday.
Hester will join para-dressage star Lee Pearson and nearly 250 other riders representing 33 countries at the week-long event beginning today, Event Director Omar Al Mannai said yesterday.
Qatar’s equestrian squad that qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games last week will also feature at the event, Al Mannai confirmed.
The prestigious event - to run from March 2 to 7 - will be held under the patronage of H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors Al Shaqab.
Sponsored by ExxonMobil, the third edition will feature jumping, dressage, para-dressage, endurance and vaulting competitions.
Para-dressage is an addition to the Doha calendar of events knowing that this discipline was introduced to the Olympic Games for people with special needs.
Al Shaqab Arena, the state-of-the-art equestrian venue, has managed to attract at least 20 new riders to the Qatari capital that hosted 130 riders last year.
The new entries include top riders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt, Omar Al Mannai, Event Director, said yesterday.
Al Shaqab Arena has become a beehive of activity with the event set to kick off today. The first batch of riders started arriving on February 27, organisers said.
The top-notch arena features commercial village for fashion and horse enthusiasts, luxury catering at the VIP Lounges and restaurant, hospitality boxes, a public food court besides a fun area for the whole family.
“Under the patronage of H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, and following the success of the CHI Al Shaqab 2013 and 2014, CHI Al Shaqab is honoured to present you with the 2015 edition of the annual CHI Al Shaqab competition,” Fahad Al Qahtani said in a statement.
“With CHI Al Shaqab 2015, we want to share the pride and invite the whole community to marvel at the excitement of equine sports. This year, we are excited to introduce new disciplines. We encourage everyone to come and enjoy the world-class equestrian competitions and family activities that will take place throughout the six-days,” Al Qahtani added.
“We are honoured and pleased to welcome guests and riders alike to this world-class event that celebrates the showmanship, skills and athleticism of the horses and riders alike. We cordially welcome you to CHI Al Shaqab 2015,” Al Mannai said.
“I am very happy to welcome the equestrian world, its best representatives who will be participating at Al Shaqab 2015 as well as the members of local, regional and international media who will be covering this amazing event, and I would like to share a part of Qatar’s hospitality and our horsemanship traditions with the rest of the world,” he added.
“There will be around 250 participants from 33 countries with a large participation of Arab teams at CHI Al Shaqab 2015 and teams from the Gulf states in particular. The previous competitions were a spectacular success and we are making sure this year’s event will be even better,” Al Mannai said.
The first edition of CHI Al Shaqab in 2013 was broadcast in more than 80 countries around the world, making the competition one of the most watched equine events of the past season.
This year’s edition will break the 100-country barrier with more people tuning in for the week-long event, according to Fahad Al Hajri, the media and communications chief.
Tickets to the match venue are available at Virgin Megastore in Villaggio, organisers said.
The event is also being promoted at embassies in Doha, organisers said.
School students are also encouraged to witness one of the most popular of Olympic Games discipline.
Fans turning up at Al Shaqab Arena will be able to witness the 5* competition with numerous Olympic champions in action.
Family fun has also been arranged for at the venue where kids can feature at the specially-designed ‘Fun Area’.
Young kids can also hitch hike horse rides under the watchful gaze of experts.
The Peninsula
Factbox on Vaulting at CHI Al Shaqab 2015
Vaulting stuns the audience with gymnastics on horseback: backflips, somersaults, handstands, up to three athletes at the same time on the back of a cantering horse, presented by a lunger on a circular line. Following a spectacular show exhibition in 2013, vaulting is now an official part of the program at CHI Al Shaqab 2015 for the second time.
Vaulting at Chi Al Shaqab 2015 will see team and individual competitions:
Five Squads (with 6 members each, mixed gender) and six Pairs (Pas de Deux) and
Women (12) and Men (13) competing individually.
Vaulters in Doha represent twelve different countries.
Euro 60,000 Prize money, makes it the most expensive worldwide
A vaulting final score is comprised of a compulsory performance with eight movements including mount and dismount, a technical program that has a set of prescribed moves that are arranged by the vaulter’s personal preference and the freestyle. Teams are omitting the technical program but show their freestyle twice.
Squads have four minutes for their fireworks of artistics in the freestyle, pairs have two.
Individual vaulters show one minute in front of four judges, giving scores for technical and artistic content and execution. Much thought goes into the choice of personalized music to comply with the “theme” of the performance.
“AL Shaqab attracts the top athletes of today’s vaulting”, says CHI-vaulting manager Barbara Török.
“Next to the multiple champion-pair Jasmin Lindner and Lucas Wacha and the Köln-Dünwald squad, winner in 2014, we expect two individual top stars, the World and European Champion Nicolas Andreani from France and today’s most successful female competitor, the current World Champion Joanne Eccles from Great Britain. They both choose Doha as the fitting finale to their fantastic individual careers. On top of that Doha hosts all the World Cup winners that have just finished their season with the big final in Austria, two weeks ago.
Winners at CHI Al Shaqab 2014:
Squad: Köln-Dünwald (GER)
Pairs: Jasmin Lindner/ Lukas Wacha (AUT)
Individual Female: Simone Jäiser (SUI)
Individual Male: Patrick Looser (SUI), since retired, 2. Erik Oese (GER)
Today’s Vaulting schedule
4:00pm Vaulting Squad – Compulsory Test
5:15pm Individual Female – Compulsory Test
6:30pm Individual Male – Compulsory Test
Tomorrow
3:00pm Indiv. Female - Technical Test
4:15pm Indiv. Male – Technical Test
5:30pm Vaulting Squad – Free Test
6:30pm Vaulting Pairs – Free Test
March 4
9:30am Vaulting Pairs – Free Test, 2nd Round
10:30am Indiv. Female – Free Test
11:50am Indiv. Male – Free Test
1:00pm Vaulting Squad - Free Test, 2nd Round
Quotes
“It is fantastic that this year vaulting is featuring here at CHI AL Shaqab for the second time running. Vaulting is so much different from any other disciplines. We can call it a theatrical discipline in which the athletes perform different artistic exercises, including mounts and dismounts, backflips, handstands, somersaults on the back of the cantering horse. All this is being performed to the unique harmonic musical accompaniment. Hope this discipline will be very popular among the spectators.”
Barbara Torok, Vaulting Discipline Manager
“We have a very promising group of competitors with no less than seven Olympic riders. Despite a very full dressage calendar in Europe and the US at this time of the season, we have Doha getting a lot of attention and the level of interest is certainly to rise in the years to come. Unlike the jumping riders most dressage riders have only one horse for top competitions and they take care to manage it wisely. Qatar hospitality and the prize money are extraordinary, very worthy for a 5* dressage competition and we should expect some extremely good performances.”
Dr Ulf Moller, Dressage Discipline Manager
“I am quite excited to be her because para equestrian dressage will premiere at CHI Al Shaqab 2015. It is the first time we are having a para-dressage competition in this part of the world and the field of competitor’s is outstanding. You won’t see any better outside of any official championships. We will see 21 riders from 11 countries, with Lee Pearson from Great Britain as the rider with the most medals from Olympic Games and world championships. The Netherlands are sending seven riders.”
Alexander Durban,
Para-Dressage Discipline Manager
“Chi Al Shaqab is considered as one of the most important equestrian events in the world with the participation of top level riders and horses. The impressive state of the art venue of Al Shaqab contains the first class surface as well as facilities for both riders and horses. With 9 out of 12 competitions counting for the FEI ranking and a Grand Prix worth ¤500 000, emotions, risk and competitiveness are 100% guaranteed. A well known course designer, Frank Rothenberger, will be taking care of the designs so we will see the demanding, smooth and well designed courses with horses welfare in mind.”
Alejandro Ancin Berdegue, Show Jumping Discipline Manager
“The Endurance competition will take place on March 7 at Sealine and the distance will be 120 km. The competition will be particularly interesting and full of competitors from different countries. I would take this opportunity to thank the organising committee for all their efforts in ensuring the strength of the competition. We are all looking forward to the excitement here at Al Shaqab.”
Rashid Mohammed Al Malki Al Jehani, Endurance Discipline Manager
