Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup set to get underway

The CSIO5* event in Abu Dhabi will begin today with the first stage of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup with 6 teams in action: Ukraine, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia with just 2 places available for the next stage.
The squads are made up as follows:
Ukraine (Alexandr Onishenko, Ferenc Szentirmai, Cassio Rivetti and Ullrich Kirchhoff). The United Arab Emirates: Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed Al Maktoum, Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Mohammed Ghanem Al Hajri, Abdullah Al Marri and  Nadia Abdul Aziz Taryam.
There is great interest in how the Qatar team will perform which has included Ali Youssef Al Roumaihi, the new rider of the extraordinary Palloubet d’Halong, along with team-mates Mubarak Yousuf Al Rumaihi, Sheikh Ali Bin Khalid Al Thani, Khalid Mohammed Al Emadi and Faleh Suwead Al Ajami.
Saudi Arabia will field the team that won the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics: Ramzy Al Duhami, Kamal Bahamdan, HRH Prince Abdullah Al Saud and Abdullah Sharbatly.
The Jordan team will be the first team in action, followed by Ukraine, Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia and finally the United Arab Emirates. However, the rider starting line-up is yet to be formalized.
In the meantime, here are the results from yesterday’s 5 star competition, the Longines Welcome Challenge from 1.45m, which was won by the young Saudi Arabia rider Abdullah Al Sharbatly riding Cantho Z (Cumano). In second place, German rider Jorg Naeve with Cosimax and in third Frenchman Michel Hecart on Nokia de Brekka. The rest of the top-ten was made up as follows:
4th Marion Hughes IRL Crispien
5th Ullrich Kirchhoff UKR Chaccland
6th Al Maktoum shka. Latifa UAE New Jimmy’s
7th Cassio Rivetti UKR Vivant
8th Olexandr Onishenko UKR Carlina
9th Stephanie Brugman NED Witness van’t Paradijs
10th Amre Hamcho SYR Murtajiz Al Hawajer
The other competition yesterday saw riders compete in the Emaar Speed Competition from 1.45m which was won by Marion Hughes riding Heritage Hhs Fortuna. Just behind her in second place was the Moroccan rider Abdelkebir Ouaddar riding Quickly de Kreisker and there was another rider from Morocco, Smires Abdeslam Bennani, on the podium in third place with Mowgli des Plains. The rest of the top-ten was made up as follows:
4th Hmcho Ahmed Saber SYR Quintus 81
5th Frederic David FRA Equadorvan’t Roosakker
6th Jorg Naeve GER Cony 9
7th Al Emadi Khalid QAT Tamira IV
8th Norbert Schoumann ROU Brutus
9th Al Ajami Faleh Suwead QAT Come Soon
10th Michel Hecart FRA Pasha du Gue