Time Running Out for Canada to Send Team to World Championships With Combinations Meeting Selection Criteria
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May 26, 2022
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Time is running out for Canada to have enough riders and horses meeting its qualifying criteria for a team for the world championships in two months. Only two rider and horse combinations are close to meeting Equestrian Canada’s requirements with a single international competition remaining in North America a month before the deadline for results.
Ryan Torkkeli and Sternenwanderer, a 16-year-old Rhinelander gelding, and Naïma Moreira Laliberté with Statesman, a 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding, both currently based in Europe, are closest to Equestrian Canada selection requirements for a team of at least three combinations for the championships at Herning, Denmark. The selection criteria states that “to guarantee the selection of a full team for the 2022 WC the final ranking average for the team must be 70% or higher.” The average would be based on the results of each combination in four Grand Prix, three Specials, with one result in each level attained after April 1.
Among factors in the decision on whether to send a team include whether Canada could be among the top six nations to earn a starting place for Paris in 2024 plus the cost of transport and support of a championship team for the weeks of preparation and competition.
If the federation decides not to select a team, the two can be approved to go as individuals. The FEI qualifying minimum is two CDI Grand Prix scores of 66%.
Canada has another chance to qualify a team for Paris, at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile next year where the two best teams earn a start at the 2024 Games. Canada succeeded in a similar strategy for Tokyo, by taking gold at the 2019 Pan Ams to earn a start.
None of the three combinations on Canada’s team at the Tokyo Olympics last year have pursued a start at the world championships in early August.
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu who competes All In is pregnant; Chris von Martels has not shown Eclips since the CDIO5* Nations Cup in Aachen, Germany last September while Lindsay Kellock on Sebastien started in only one event , at Wellington, Florida during Canada’s qualifying period from Jan. 1 to June 25. Megan Lane, who competed at the 2016 Olympics, and the 2014 and 2018 world championships, has not attained high enough scores so far on Zodiac MW, the KWPN gelding 18 years old that she rode at the World Equestrian Games in 2018.
Aside from Ryan on Sternenwanderer and Naima on Statesman no other rider and horse combinations have come close to Canada’s team requirements. The last qualifying competition in North America is a CDI3* at Cedar Valley, near Toronto, June 6-10. CDI3* and above events in Europe ahead of the June 25 deadline would also count.
The only previous team competition for the 40-year-old Ryan and Sternenwanderer was at the Nations Cup in Aachen last September. This year, the pair achieved Grand Prix scores of 70.826% and 68.565% and Grand Prix Special results of 71.426% and 70.404%.
Naima, at 25, is an international veteran on Statesman–traveling reserve for the Tokyo Olympic team, gold medalist at the 2019 Pan American Games and two Nations Cup teams at Wellington, Florida and also at the CDIO5* in Aachen last year. She and Statesman have five Grand Prix results this year, a high of 70.435% and three at Grand Prix Special, the highest 70.851%.
