On September 14–16 at the Parade Allure Equestrian Club in the central Ukrainian town of Zhashkiv in Cherkasy oblast, the VIAN Tour World Cup Stage, Eastern European area, dressage competition was held, according to KyivWeekly. The World Cup is a series of competitions that are taking place around the world. At the end of the series 15 of the best riders will advance to the finals, where they will compete for a prestigious trophy, KW wrote.
Ukrainian riders are competing in the Eastern-European League. The World Cup stage in Zhashkiv attracted the best riders from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Its purpose was to earn points in several programs from the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), which will be considered when the organization will hand out Olympic licenses and determine qualifying rounds for the World Cup finals. To date, Ukrainian riders have never taken part in Olympic Games and have made it to the World Cup only twice.
In Zhashkiv on the grounds of the Parade Allure Club, representatives of Ukraine performed the best in the main programs, defeating the renowned masters of the sport from Russia. Inna Lohutenkova on VIAN Sandro won the Medium Prize I and Svitlana Kyselyova won the Big Prize on Paris. The Medium Prize I in KUR (free program to musical accompaniment) went to Inna Lohutenkova on Don Gregorius while Kyselyova on Paris won the Big Prize KUR. Lohutenkova on VIAN Stallone took second place.
In fierce competition, rider and coach Inessa Poturayeva and her student Marina Aframeyeva won the most points, while Inna Lohutenkova took two events, which was no surprise, since three-time Olympic champion Anki Van Grunsven has been working with her for the past two years.
VIAN Group, supported by Ukrstalkonstruktsiya, was the organizer of the event. VIAN Group intends to hold the Central European World Cup finals in March 2012 in Zhashkiv, the winners of which will take part in the World Cup finals in s’-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in the Netherlands, VIAN director Mykailo Parkhomchuk said after the event.
