WEG Kentucky Draws 60 Nations, Up to 800 Athletes
15 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on WEG Kentucky Draws 60 Nations, Up to 800 Athletes
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, May 7–Sixty nations have submitted entries in principle for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky Sept. 25-Oct. 10, and the organizers said Friday that as many as 800 athletes could compete in seven disciplines and para equestrian.
The entries–they are likely to vary over the next five months–are about the same as the actual number of participants in the last WEG held in Aachen, Germany in 2006. Then, 61 nations fielded 852 horses and 773 competitors.
The Kentucky event, the first time that the once every four years WEG has been staged outside western Europe since the first Games in 1990, will be the world championships of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, jumping, reining and vaulting. This will also be the first WEG in which para equestrian has been an integral part of the competition and not separate.
Final entries and individual athletes will be named in August.
The nations that have submitted entries in principle are:
Argentina France Norway
Australia Germany Paraguay
Austria Great Britain Poland
Belgium Greece Portugal
Bermuda Guatemala Qatar
Brazil Hungary Russia
Bahrain India Saudi Arabia
Bulgaria Ireland Singapore
Canada Israel Slovakia
Chile Italy South Africa
China Japan Spain
Columbia Jordan Sweden
Costa Rica Lebanon Switzerland
Czech Republic Lithuania Syria
Denmark Luxembourg Turkey
Dominican Republic Malaysia Ukraine
Ecuador Mexico United Arab Emirates
Egypt Namibia Uruguay
El Salvador Netherlands United States
Finland New Zealand Venezuela
“With 60 countries expressing an interest in attendance at the Games, the World Games 2010 Foundation anticipates as many as 800 athletes could compete,” the foundation said in a statement.
