FRENCH STILL IN FRONT AS SERIES ARRIVES IN FALSTERBO

The defending champions from France still hold the whip hand as the 2010 Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ series moves to Falsterbo in
Sweden this Friday.  Full of flair and confidence they blazed a trail through
the first-half of the season with a spectacular hat-trick of wins, and they hold
an eight-point lead over Great Britain in second place going into the last four
rounds of the eight-leg series.

After a superb victory from the all-girl team in Rotterdam three weeks ago the USA has improved to third with just 3.5
points separating them from the British, while Germany lies fourth, just 0.5
points further adrift.  The Spanish team, newcomers to this top level of team
jumping, have shown themselves more than equal to the task and in fifth place
hold a single-point advantage over the Irish in sixth.  But neither of these
nations can afford to rest on their laurels. 

VITALLY IMPORTANT
The last four teams on the league table at season's end will be relegated to the Promotional League for 2011, so it is vitally important
to stay ahead of the Swiss in seventh and the Dutch in eighth place.  For Sweden
however the moment of reckoning has very definitely arrived.  This week's host
nation has picked up only two points so far and new Chef d'Equipe, Gosta Asker,
will be asking his side to dig deep in order to rescue the situation.  A win, or
at the very least a top-three finish, is required to breathe some life into the
Swedish effort and he has already assigned the task to four of his key players -
Olympic silver medallist Rolf-Goran Bengtsson, Peder Fredriksson, Erika
Lickhammer and Svante Johansson - while keeping his options open about who will
fill the role of fifth-man, or woman, until later in the week.

Still holding on to last place on the leaderboard is the team from Poland who, guided
by Chef d'Equipe Rudiger Wassibauer, have put up such a spirited fight from the
outset but who have failed to pick up a single point so far.  The goodwill they
have engendered through their courageous and sportsmanship however is something
money cannot buy. They have flown their national flag with dignity and
distinction, sometimes missing out on the closing stages by the smallest of
margins, and there would be few begrudgers if Jacek Bobik, Dawid Kubiak, Dawid
Rakoczy and Piotr Sawicki were to steal some of the limelight this
week.

EARNED HIS STRIPES
US team manager, George Morris, has a line-up that includes McLain Ward, Rich Fellers, Robert Kraut,
Todd Minikus and Cara Raether.  Kraut is new to the European scene and earned
his stripes with some strong results in the US selection trials.  Britain sends
out Tina Fletcher who was just pipped in a two-way jump-off for the Hickstead
Derby Trophy two weeks ago, and she is joined by Mark Armstrong, William
Funnell, Gemma Paternoster and Tim Stockdale. 

There is a family feel to the German selection as 28 year old Johannes Ehning is listed alongside older
brother Marcus, Philipp Weishaupt, Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst and Jorg Naeve,
while the French look ferociously competitive with Nicolas Delmotte, Stephan
Lafouge, Eric Navet, Kevin Staut and Marie Etter Pellegrin on call. Marie is
married to Swiss team rider Daniel Etter but there is no danger of any family
rivalry this week as Danny is not amongst Switzerland's selection of Arthur da
Silva, Claudia Gisler, Pius Schwizer and Hansueli and Janika
Sprunger.

THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Manuel Suarez, Fernando Fourcade, Ricardo Jurado, Rutherford Latham and Pascal Levy are on call-up for
Spanish team manager Marco Fuste while Holland's Rob Ehrens will be hoping that
Leopold van Asten, Marc Houtzager, Kevin Olsmeyer, Eric van der Vleuten and Jur
Vrieling can at last turn Dutch fortunes in the right direction.  It seems
remarkable that both the reigning European and World championship teams -
Switzerland and The Netherlands - are struggling to climb out of the relegation
zone in the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ this season, and the Dutch, for sure, must
be due some luck fairly soon. 

Meanwhile Ireland's Robert Splaine will be expecting a more impressive result from his side that has not changed since
they had to settle for equal-seventh in Rotterdam.  Shane Breen, Jessica
Kuerten, Dermott Lennon, Denis Lynch and Capt David O'Brien will be determined
to ensure that Ireland does not slip into the bottom-four relegation group at
this crucial stage of the eight-leg series which will conclude at their home
event in Dublin in just four weeks time.  This final half of the 2010 Meydan FEI
Nations Cup™ is a testing one, with Aachen, Germany coming up less than a week
after Falsterbo finishes, then just a two-week break to the penultimate leg in
Hickstead (GBR) and Dublin bringing it all to an end another week later.  


For further information on the fixture at Falsterbo go to website www.falsterbohorseshow.com or email Press
Officer Malin Fredriksson at press@falsterbohorseshow.se or
secretaryoffice@falsterbohorseshow.se - Telephone +46 40 473463.

2010 MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP™ - STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4 IN
ROTTERDAM:
1.       France                            -         33.5
2.       Great Britain                   -         25.5
3.       USA                       -                  22.0
4.       Germany                         -        21.5
5.       Spain                    -                  16.0
6.       Ireland                            -         15.0
7.       Switzerland           -                    9.5
8.       The Netherlands    -                   7.0
9.       Sweden                          -          2.0
10.     Poland                            -          0.0

Facts and Figures:
Falsterbo Horse Show presents the fifth leg of the 2010 Meydan FEI Nations Cup™
The Irish team were the winners at the Swedish fixture in 2009
Falsterbo is located at the south-western tip of Sweden. 
Its lovely beaches and friendly atmosphere combine to make it a popular holiday destination for Swedish families.
The Falsterbo Peninsula is also popular with bird-watchers who come to view the many
migrating flocks that stop over en route to varying destinations.
Show Director at Falsterbo Horse Show is former Swedish international show jumping
star Jan Olaf Wannius.

MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP™
A Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ event is organised as a five-star Nations Cup, i.e. a
competition in which official teams representing nations compare their merit. At
each event the teams gain points according to their placing. At the end of the
2010 season the team with the highest points wins the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™
and the four teams with the lowest points are relegated to the FEI Nations Cup
series (Promotional League). Two teams from the Promotional League will join the
Top League in 2011.
 
The complete rules, latest news, results, standings and photos are on www.meydanfeinationscup.org

The World’s Top 10 Teams: France, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, The Netherlands,
Sweden, Great Britain, Spain and Poland.

The World’s Best Eight Venues:
La Baule (FRA), Friday 14 May; Rome (ITA), Friday 28 May; St. Gallen (SUI), Friday 4 June; Rotterdam (Ned), Friday 18 June; Falsterbo (SWE), Friday 9 July;
Aachen (GER), Thursday 15 July; Hickstead (GBR), Friday 30 July; Dublin (IRL),
Friday 6 August.

To learn more about the FEI go to www.fei.org