THE Belgian team made full use of their last points-scoring round of the 2015 Furusiyya Nations Cup show jumping series, winning at Hickstead after a thrilling three-way jump-off against the clock.

Chef d’equipe, Dirk Demeersman, surprisingly placed his faith in Pieter Devos to go against the clock, despite the fact that he had provided the discard score in both the first and second rounds.

Devos delivered the goods however, to the delight of his Belgian team-mates who moved to the top of the league table prior to the final round in Dublin.

Janika Sprunger claimed runner-up spot for Switzerland, while an uncharacteristic mistake from Beezie Madden and Cortes C saw the USA having to settle for third.

The Belgian and Swiss teams led at the halfway mark with both posting zero scores. The USA carried just four faults into round two while the French carried five and the host nation Britain had six on the board.

The British added five more in the second round which allowed Germany to overtake them for fifth place at the finish, but the real battle was played out between the Belgians, Swiss and Americans.

IRISH SPORT HORSE

As round two drew to a close, the Swiss looked set to clinch victory when both Paul Estermannn riding the Irish Sport Horse Castlefield Eclipse and Janika Sprunger (Bonne Chance CW) posted a second clear.

However a four fault score from Martin Fuchs and Clooney had to be counted when anchorman Pius Schwizer returned with 15 faults aboard Giovanni van het Scheefkasteel.

The Americans meanwhile jumped into contention when Laura Kraut was clear second time out with Nouvelle and both Todd Minikus (Babalou 41) and Beezie Madden (Cortes C) completed two more of the nine double-clears on the day. The Belgians began to look vulnerable when Devos led the way second time out with 12 faults.

However clears from Judy-Ann Melchior (As Cold as Ice Z) and Olivier Philippaerts (H&M Armstrong van de Kapel) kept them in the game.

LEVEL

With all three sides now level on a four-fault total it would take a jump-off to separate them.

Madden was first to go, but she left the door wide open when her gelding hit the first element of the double, before an uncharacteristic refusal in front of the second element, to finish with eight faults in 55.32 seconds.

Sprunger and her mare Bonne Chance galloped home in 44.17, but Devos smashed that when breaking the timers in 42.60 to clinch the win.

Devos later admitted his decision to use a hackamore (bitless) bridle in the second round was a mistake.

“I had no control, and that’s why we had all those fences down” he explained.

This was Belgium’s first time to put their name on the coveted Hickstead trophy, and team manager Demeersman was more than pleased: “Finally we have won here. When I came as a rider I had many disasters - I’m very happy for the win and it’s great that we are now qualified for Barcelona; that was our goal,” he said.

MADDEN WINS KING GEORGE

The USA’s Beezie Madden won the prestigious Longines King George V Gold Cup for the second consecutive year at Hickstead, becoming the first back-to-back winner of the class since 1962.

The 52-year-old rider meant business after Friday’s Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup,

“It’s quite an honour to win it back to back,” said Beezie. “Friday’s jump-off was not my finest moment, but I learned a little from that as he likes to jump left and I took too sharp of an angle and didn’t compensate.”

Penelope Leprevost finished as runner-up for France with Flora de Mariposa, while Dutch rider Jur Veieling posted the only other double clear round to finish third with Zirocco Blue.

Both of the Breen brothers finished with two fences down, Trevor was riding Adventure De Kannan while older brother Shane was aboard Golden Hawk.