Alves wins for Brazil to bring CSIO San Marino Arezzo to a close.

60 horse and rider combinations took part at the San Marino-Arezzo GP yesterday which brought the third edition of the 3 star CSIO San Marino Arezzo to an end. Brazil dominated the Italian event from start to finish and unsurprisingly there was another victory for the South American nation with Bernardo Alves winning the GP.
With his mount Vatson Sitte, the same one that Alves competed with in his country’s Nations Cup victory, Alves rode to a double clear and claimed his second GP win in three editions of the Italian event. Commenting afterwards, he said: “I went last in the second round and I went for broke. I had a few difficulties in the turn for the double cage, but for the rest, I was only thinking about the pace. Arezzo brings me good luck. I already won the GP here in 2009. Today I am really happy. For me, this is the most beautiful course in the world.”
Italy’s Natale Chiaudani and David Sbardella came in second and third place respectively. Speaking on his second place finish, Chiaudani said: “This GP was very hard for a 3 star event and that is shown by the fact there were just 10% of clears registered. We lost a shoe and we lost some time between 3 and 4. It’s a shame. I could have won.”
Just missing out on a podium finish was France’s Alexandra Paillot with Polias de Blondel in fourth. Following behind in fifth was Belgian rider Karel Cox with Cor van de Wateringhoeve. All of the top five registered clears. The standings continued as follows: Zuzana Zelinkova for the Czech Republic with 1 penalty, Hans Dieter Dreher for Germany with 4 penalties, Federico Ciriesi for Italy with 4 penalties, Bernard Briand Chevalier for France with 4 penalties and Ondrej Zvara for Czech Republic with 4 penalties.
Overall, Brazil won 3 of the 8 individual competitions as well as winning the Nations Cup leg and by doing so they cement their place in the competition’s history after also winning in 2013. The President of the local equestrian federation meanwhile was left feeling very pleased with the event: “It was a wonderful sporting event. Uliano Vezzani’s course was conducive to a brilliant show. This year we also had a San Marino Republic fence, designed by Andrea Bruno, which represented the main symbols of San Marino, Monte Titano and the Government building, both part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A curious fact about the fence is the clock that actually works. As for the GP, a beautiful sunny day helped welcome some of the best riders from 17 nations to this arena. The hope is that all those taking part leave satisfied as to be able to come back for the next edition in 2016.”
Source: CSIO San Marino Press Office.
(Photo credit: Stefano Secchi)