FEI announces cancellation of World Cup Finals
The FEI has announced that next month’s World Cup Finals in show jumping and dressage have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus. “It is very regrettable, but the decision was out of our hands,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.
The event was due to be held in Las Vegas from 15-19 April at the Thomas & Mack Center in Nevada.
The FEI World Cup is the annual championship for individual riders in both dressage and show jumping. Irish riders Danial Coyle and Denis Lynch were among the qualifiers in show jumping.
“Like everyone in our community, we are disappointed,” De Vos continued. “We hope we can alleviate that disappointment by returning to Las Vegas for a wonderful FEI World Cup in the future.”
Meanwhile, the five-star Dutch Masters meeting at ’s-Hertogenbosch was the biggest casualty of this week’s fixture list. European action continued today at Dortmund in Germany and at both Vejer de la Frontera and Oliva in Spain, but both Spanish meetings will be curtailed over the weekend following the ‘state of alarm’ declared by the Government there.
In Florida, which has a large presence of Irish riders during the first quarter of the year, the competition has remained in progress during Week 10 of the Winter Equestrian Festival, but from today the classes were to take place behind closed doors.
The Palm Beach Masters meeting, also in Florida, continues with precautions in place.
On Friday,the Irish governing body Horse Sport Ireland said it was recommending that "all competitions, training and other events that exceed the Government limits should be postponed during this period.”
It said it strongly endorsed the position that any events that do proceed should be held behind closed doors.
On Thursday, Dressage Ireland announced the cancellation of the 2020 Winter Finals, due to take place in Cavan on the first weekend of April.
