World Cup Vaulting Final a thrilling end to a fantastic series

What do Sherlock Holmes, zombies and The Little Prince have in common? They all put in appearance at this year’s FEI World Cup Vaulting Final in Germany.

Wolf vs zombie

The 2016/2017 came to a thrilling conclusion in Dortmond, with the stars of the series rising to the occasion, in front of a full house.

An Italian wolf went head-to-head with a German zombie in the women’s individual. World number one Kristina Boe produced a foot perfect performance of her zombie freestyle. However, it wasn’t quite enough to keep Italy’s Anna Cavallaro from winning her third World Cup title, with her wolf interpretation.

Italy also won the hotly contested pas-de-deux for the first time. Silvia Stopazzini and Lorenzo Lupacchini were the breakthrough partnership of this season’s World Cup, and they put on a show-stopping display of their The Little Prince routine.

High risk

In the men’s category, Germany’s Jannis Drewell – who narrowly missed out on the title last year – returned to top form to lift the trophy in front of a home crowd. He performed a Sherlock Holmes routine and despite miss-timing one ground jump, it was enough to win.

“I had a conversation with my mother before the second round where I asked about the ground jump, as it is high risk,” said Jannis. “It’s always the way, I should have listened to my mother! But I am so happy it was enough to take the title even with that mistake.”

‘Really proud’

FEI director of vaulting Bettina de Rham said the sport has “come so far” since becoming part of the FEI World Cup series in 2011.

“Vaulting is now much closer to our other World Cup disciplines – jumping, dressage and driving. Every vaulter competing at the World Cup is of the highest standard, and it is extremely difficult to qualify for the final, let alone win. We’re really proud of the World Cup and all the athletes competing in this exciting series.”

You can watch all the action from the FEI World Cup Final on Friday 10 March at 9pm on Sky 253. If you don’t have Sky, you can also view the show online by subscribing to H&C Play.