The Count István Széchenyi Memorial continued with the semi-finals of VIP, Silver and Gold Tour and the first round of 120cm Bronze Tour. Friday’s featured final event turned out to be a real marathon with 61 participants aiming to qualify for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Kinga Károly Mandula Fastest in Friday’s VIP Tour
In the 110cm VIP Tour, rider and horse pairs placed yesterday finished in the top positions today as well, only the order changed slightly. Kinga Mandula Károly recorded the fastest time, ahead of Zselyke Nagy-Élő placed second again.
Only with a small margin did Dorka Nemes on El Coronita capture third position, followed by Virág Szabó and Maja Petes.
Sixth place went to Evelin Krecskovszki on Hárfa.
Gréta Babos Best in Bronze Tour
The first round of the Bronze Tour was won by Gréta Babos on Timpex Inka, who completed the track one second speedier than Péter Osztovits on Quintana and Annamária Zárug.
Gábor Füzér took fourth place, Zsófia Hermann, a successful rider in the Children’s Division of the Nations Cup, finished fifth and Szabolcs Krucsó on Nordstern sixth.
Emma Mécs Double Winner in U25 Competition
The 130cm U25 competition caused no trouble for young Hungarian talents, and they secured the first five places with lightning-fast performances. Especially, Emma Mécs could be glad as she repeated her excellent ride from the day before and won first place again on PM Chaccera.
Lizanna Kiss on Cloé ended second, ahead of Anna Janik, Boglárka Bosits and Kornélia Jakab-Tóth.
Rodrigo Szuhai’s Wide Margin Victory in the Silver Tour
The 130cm Silver Tour, a two-phase contest attracted 35 horse and rider pairs. More than half of the field completed the course without penalty and there were only slight differences among the top rides. The only exception was the youngest member of the Szuhai family, Rodrigo Szuhai, who beat the field by more than two seconds.
Csenge Kata Kisgergely on Bizal VDL finished second, ahead of Andrej Holly from Slovakia.
Fourth place went to Aliz Alasztics placed yesterday as well, followed by Kristóf Szotyori Nagy on Horze Gym Carlsson, and Gábor Fábiáncsics in the saddle of Convey.
Gábor Szabó Wins Gold Tour’s Semi-final
Friday’s closing event was the second round of the 140cm Gold Tour, the last occasion for riders to qualify for Sunday’s Grand Prix with the highest prize money. Twenty riders finished with a clear round in the most crowded contest of the weekend. The first perfect ride was accomplished by Gábor Szabó, Jnr on Filuchi. The pair was not only precise, but quite fast, so they were leading for a long time. Later, several competitors pressured them, and finally Tamás Dömse and Henri Kovács overtook them, pushing the pair to third position. However, Gábor Szabó, Jnr had one more horse left to ride at the end. He took the risk and rode a sensational time, achieving the victory on Chacrinue owned by Gábor Szombati.
The last starter of the field, Tamás Mráz, took second place on BN Silver, pushing youth national team member Tamás Dömse into third and Henri Kovács into fourth on his homebred stallion Tambourino.
Zoltán Czékus finished sixth on Carundy.
Live coverage of the competitions can be viewed on the following websites:
- The CSIO Budapest website, under menu item ‘live stream’ »
- The CSIO Budapest Facebook page »
- The Riderline website, under menu item ‘live stream’ »
- The Riderline Facebook page »
- ClipMyHorse »
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Photo: CSIO Budapest / Krisztina Hajdu