Marco Bernal of Colombia on Farewell IV Wins Central American & Caribbean Games Individual Gold

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Central American & Caribbean Games medalists (l to r) Yvonne Losos de Muñiz, Dominican Republic, silver; Marco Bernal, Colombia, gold, and Bernadette Pujals, Mexico, bronze.
Central American & Caribbean Games medalists (l to r) Yvonne Losos de Muñiz, Dominican Republic, silver; Marco Bernal, Colombia, gold, and Bernadette Pujals, Mexico, bronze.

VERACRUZ, Mexico, Nov. 19, 2014–Marco Bernal of Colombia on Farewell IV won individual gold medal at the Central American & Caribbean Games Wednesday with the Dominican Republic’s Yvonne Losos de Muñiz on Foco Loco taking silver and Bernadette Pujals of Mexico on Aurora el Camino the bronze.

Marco and Farewell, which he has been competing since the Westfalen stallion was a youngster, scored 69.800 per cent for the victory in the Intermediate Freestyle.

Yvonne, who returned to the competition arena this Fall after a two-year absence following a bruising legal battle over 2012 Olympic participation, and Foco Loco were close behind on 69.700 per cent.

Bernadette, who had led Mexico to team gold with victories in both the Prix St. Georges and Intermediate 1, was awarded 69.675 per cent on Aurora el Camino.

Mexico won Nations Cup gold, Colombia siver and Guatemala bronze in the team competition that was Prix St. Georges and Intermedate 1.

Marco, based for many years in Wellington, Florida, and the 13-year-old Westfalen stallion had won both team and individual gold at the previous regional championships in 2010. The duo were eclipsed by his 17-year-old son, Marco, Jr. on Zalvador in this two-phase team competition but the young rider dropped to 13th place in the Freestyle.

Colombia's Marco Bernal and Farewell IV. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com
Colombia’s Marco Bernal and Farewell IV. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

The silver medal marked a triumphant return to competition for Yvonne, the 47-year-old mother of two who won individual bronze medals at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo in 2003 and at Rio de Janeiro in 2007. But she was denied a start at the 2012 London Olympics when the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) allowed results from another combination in South America that were obtained with a majority of judges from the rider’s home nation.

Yvonne dropped out of competition to coach the dressage team from Chile but returned to training with British Olympic gold medalist Carl Hester earlier this year with the goal of qualifying for the Pan Ams to be held in Toronto next July.

The placing of Bernadette, also 47 years old, on Aurora el Camino, a nine-year-old Mexican-bred mare, was  a surprise after the pair dominated the team competitions.

She was the most experienced international rider in the championships with the 2008 Olympics, the 1998 and 2006 World Equestrian Games and the 1999 and 2011 Pan Ams on her record.

She divides her competition schedule between Europe and Mexico. She has been showing Heslegaards Rolex in Europe at Grand Prix since competing at small tour at the Pan Ams in Guadalajata. On Aurora el Camino, she swept two CDI3* events in Mexico City this year.

Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala join Canada as the host, the United States that qualified at the World Equestrian Games and Argentina, Brazil and Chile as qualifiers from the South American Games for starting spots in the Pan Ams.

Nations with individual qualifiers for Toronto are the Dominican Republic, Ecuador (2), Puerto Rico and Uruguay (2).

Seven places at the Pan Ams are still to be decided to make up a maximum of 45 combinations that will participate in a unique small tour/big tour format.

Results of the Intermediate Freestyle:

Ground Jury
ROHR Janine – Argentina
E
CUNNINGHAM Marian – Peru
H
WESSELS Isobel – Great Britain
 (President)
C
HOTZ Sandra- United States of America
M
MACDONALD Lorraine – Canada
B
RankRider% Score & (Rank)Total
HorseEHCMB%
1

FAREWELL IV

(5)
68.750
(6)
68.500
(1)
73.125
(2)
69.250
(1)
69.375
 69.800
2

FOCO LOCO W

(1)
70.125
(2)
69.625
(3)
71.625
(3)
69.125
(2)
68.000
 69.700
3

AURORA EL CAMINO

(2)
69.250
(4)
69.125
(3)
71.625
(1)
70.500
(3)
67.875
 69.675
4

VOM PRIMAIRE

(7)
67.375
(1)
69.750
(2)
71.750
(4)
66.750
(5)
66.125
 68.350
5

BENZEMA

(2)
69.250
(5)
68.875
(7)
68.500
(7)
66.125
(10)
65.000
 67.550
6

BELLO ORIENTE

(6)
67.750
(9)
66.375
(5)
69.625
(4)
66.750
(8)
65.125
 67.125
7

AMORINO

(9)
65.875
(8)
66.875
(6)
68.750
(9)
65.000
(4)
66.875
 66.675
8

DON ROYAL

(4)
69.125
(7)
67.375
(10)
65.250
(6)
66.375
(8)
65.125
 66.650
9

ZEDRICK DYLOMA

(8)
66.250
(3)
69.250
(8)
68.375
(12)
62.750
(7)
65.375
 66.400
10

PRESUNTUOSO

(11)
64.875
(12)
63.125
(9)
66.000
(8)
65.875
(14)
63.000
 64.575
11

ROYAL AFFAIR

(10)
65.625
(10)
66.000
(11)
64.750
(13)
62.375
(14)
63.000
 64.350
12

ZARA

(12)
63.000
(11)
64.250
(12)
64.625
(11)
63.000
(11)
64.250
 63.825
13

ZALVADOR

(13)
62.250
(14)
61.625
(13)
63.750
(10)
63.375
(6)
65.500
 63.300
14

QUANDERUS

(15)
61.375
(13)
62.625
(14)
60.750
(14)
61.625
(13)
63.375
 61.950
15

DRAKKAR NOIR 3

(14)
62.000
(15)
58.875
(15)
59.875
(15)
60.250
(12)
63.875
 60.975