The second round of the Small Tour and the Medium Tour final took place on Sunday afternoon, in the main arena of the National Riding Hall under brilliant sunshine.
The second round of the 1.30m Small Tour featured 27 competitors, and 11 of them completed the course without faults. This time, Péter Szladek, Kornélia (Nelli) Fodor, and Dorottya Stróbl congratulated the Hungarian competitors, who swept all the podium places.
First place went to Martin Tóth on Jegenye, a Hungarian sport horse.
Less than a second separated the second-place duo of Roland Kovács and Messindra AA from the third placed Szabolcs Krucsó on Coolpoint.
Two Polish pairs, Milena Wójcikiewicz on Juggle Baraka (4th place) and Amelia Jez on Eldorado (6th place), finished again among the placed riders, just as they did in the previous round.
A total of 51 participants started in the 1.40m Medium Tour. The course designed by László Karádi contained 12 obstacles and 15 efforts. The greatest challenges were posed by the combination and the final oxer. Twelve riders from three nations completed the preliminary course clear, including eight Hungarians. For the jump-off a new obstacle was added to the course, shaped like the main building of the National Riding Hall.
The first starters, the Czech and Austrian riders, set the bar high with two fast and clear rounds. In the end, no one managed to overtake Linda Portychova on Lara. Interestingly, she qualified for the jump-off with both of her horses, and finished eighth on her other ride, Black & White P.
To the delight of the home crowd, Gábor Szabó, Jnr. took second place once again in the saddle of Bizar VDL, owned by László Gáncsos.
Third place went to another Hungarian pair, Borbála Burucs and Mia Niana.
The flowing placed rider and horse pairs are: Zsuzsa Csontos – Quintessa, Sally Carina Zwiener (AUT) – Umc’s Dorado Blue, Tamás Mráz – Choral Symphony, Lena Binder (AUT) – Casalli 3, István Hubai – Cover Girl 54, Noémi Virág Szabó – Mijzelf JG, Krisztián Szép – Vivant van de Boss, Roland Kovács – Casallandia PS.
The riders were congratulated by competition director Dorottya Stróbl and Alexandra Kunné Fekete on behalf of the jury. The total prize money of the Medium Tour final was 3,000 euros.
The Count István Széchenyi Memorial Competition continues on Sunday morning at 8:45 with the Small Tour final, followed at 3:00 PM by the weekend’s most prestigious event, the €30,000 1.45m Big Tour final.
Photo: CSIO Budapest / Kovács Petronella