Markus Renzel might not have been the German rider most would have bet on to win the Grand Prix of Balve at the Balve CSI (Germany), June 8-10.
   
While his victory at Balve aboard Conally might be his biggest success to date, Renzel, 35, has been knocking on the door for a while now. In 2006, he was fourth in the Balve Grand Prix and then sixth in the Grand Prix of Munich (Germany) on the 11-year-old, Holsteiner gelding (Caretino—Lord Z mare).

Renzel out-rode four of the five top riders in the FEI World Rankings for the prize, including Markus Fuchs, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Christian Ahlmann and Jessica Kürten. The victory was all the more rewarding for Renzel, who works for Axel Woeckener, since he’s developed Conally from a 4-year-old up through the levels.

“I am very proud how consistent his performances are and how much I can rely on him,” Renzel said.

For the second round of the grand prix, 25 percent of the 52 participants qualified. Of those 13 combinations qualified, eight proceeded with a clear round, one with 1 time penalty and four riders with
4 penalty points. The combinations took their penalties into the second round, of which, in case of equal penalty points, the time counted for the placing.

As the second starter of the second round Luciana Dinz, who holds both a Brazilian and a Portuguese passport and is now competing for Portugal, achieved a fast clear round over Frank Rothenberger’s course aboard Locarno in 44.15 seconds and placed sixth with her 4 penalty points of the first round.

Jasmin Chen of Taiwan, who had already had top placings in the grand prix events of the Sunshine Tour in Spain, repeated her one-penalty ride of the first round, eventually placing fourth aboard the 9-year-old, Holsteiner gelding Quin Chin.

Renzel achieved the first double-clear round as the eighth starter. He opted to ride two outside turns, but “Conally has such a long stride that he is very fast and I have been taking advantage of this. The course suited us very well,” Renzel said.

Janne-Friederike Meyer, the German female champion, and her 9-year-old, Holsteiner gelding Lambrasco stayed clear in 44.31 seconds, becoming runners-up. The female threat was completed by Germany’s Mylene Diederichsmeier aboard the Holsteiner mare Countess G, who looks to be back on top form after a year off due to injury.

Heinrich-Hermann Engemann of Germany and Aboyeur W placed fifth with the fastest four-fault round, pulling a rail in Round 2.

Last year’s Balve Grand Prix winner, Christian Ahlmann, missed the qualification for the second round after a late pole down. Jessica Kürten of Ireland won the grand prix qualifier on Libertina, but saddled Quibell for the grand prix and retired after some faults.

Peter Wylde debuted Ratatouilly at the international-level grand prix but retired the 8-year-old gelding after a few rails in Round 1.

Georgina Bloomberg and Cim Christo ranked 32nd after having two poles down.

But Bloomberg was more successful in the final  of the medium tour, placing sixth aboard the 12-year-old mare Nadia, who was also second in the opening class and fourth in a speed and handiness class earlier in the week.

New Zealand Qualifies For Olympics
The Balve CSI had an Asian touch, since the Olympic qualification for the FEI Regional Group G (Asia, Australia, New Zealand) took place there in a Nations Cup on June 9.

It was a class just for the Asian and New Zealand teams and a very serious matter for the teams from Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and South Korea and individual riders from six more nations—among them one rider for the first time from India. It was their only chance to qualify their countries for the 2008 Olympic Games at Hong Kong.

Australia earned the right to compete in Hong Kong at the World Equestrian Games (Germany) last year, and China qualifies a team by virtue of being the host nation. But only one other team from Regional Group G, and one individual, would qualify for Hong Kong.

Officials of the Regional Group G decided to have its qualifier in Europe, since most of their top riders are training in Europe. Paul Schockemoehle, with whom many of the Asian riders train, proposed Balve for the qualifier because of its good sand footing.

The riders from New Zealand won with a score of 26 points, in spite of the fact that Bruce Goodin was eliminated for taking the wrong course in the first round. Runners-up were Japan (29) ahead of South Korea (40), while the third rider of the three-rider team of Taiwan did not start at all.

For South Korea it was quite a disappointment not to have qualified for Hong Kong, after having qualified three riders for the individual final in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Two Japanese riders—Eiken Sato on Cayak and Taizo Sugitani on Obelix—secured the individual Olympic slot for Japan after sharing first place with the New Zealand rider Kirk Webby on Sitah, coming out of the two rounds with just one pole down.