17 flags at TAURON Arena Kraków
The international show jumping competition – the final of CAVALIADA Tour and the FEI Jumping World Cup Central European League in Krakow – will have an excellent line-up. All thanks to the event’s well-established position on the equestrian map of the world, its recognisable brand and, above all, the decision to raise the rank of the event to four stars.
CAVALIADA will be held at TAURON Arena Krakow for the fifth time, and for the third time it will also be the playground of the grand finale of CAVALIADA Tour and the FEI Jumping World Cup Central European League. This year, for the first time, the event will reach a four-star rank. This, in addition to the prestige, gives the riders the chance to compete for a substantial prize pool of EUR 239,000.
More than 100 riders from 18 countries were willing to take part in the CSI4*W alone. In the end, the organiser accepted 80 riders with 180 horses. The line-up is completed by 51 horse-and-rider combinations entered for the CAVALIADA Open Tour finals.
As befits such a prestigious event, the cast will be very top-class. The most numerous group of guests are Germans. Those who follow the CAVALIADA Tour 23/24 rivalry will certainly welcome the leader and winner of the PKO Bank Polski Grand Prix in Sopot – Harm Lahde. The German won the World Championships for Young Horses back in 2021. The most successful one in this squad is Felix Hassmann, with a bag of medals of the European Championships in youth categories and more than 100 ranking class wins, including the prestigious CSI4* Grand Prix in Munich. Michael Kolz, the bronze medalist of the German Championships, who won two Grand Prix classes last year – in Zielona Gora and Redefin – will visit Krakow for the first time.
One rider from the current TOP 100 of the FEI ranking is also Latvian Kristaps Neretnieks. He has won as many as nine ranking competitions in 2023 alone, including one at the CSIO5* In Abu Dhabi and one at the CSI4* 4 Foulee in Poznań.
As has been the case throughout the season, the Greek Angelos Touloupis – the 2021 Balkan champion – will be one of the stars of the event. In his career he has already won 11 FEI ranking classes, including three in 2023. He is the winner of the CAVALIADA Grand Prix in Warsaw and the second runner-up of the CAVALIADA Tour 23/24 ranking. Since the beginning of the rivalry, he has made no secret of the fact that his main goal is to win in Krakow.
Lithuanians are faithful participants in the CAVALIADA. Among them, the most successful is Andrius Petrovas – three-time participant of the World Cup finals and participant of the 2022 World Championships in Herning. A very accomplished athlete who has won 28 Longines Ranking competitions over the last 10 years.
Other foreign guests who will travel to Krakow for the first time include Michael Duffy, a member of the Nations Cup winning Irish team at the CSIO5* in Rome last year, the leader of the FEI Jumping World Cup Central European League Sara Vingralkova from the Czech Republic, or riders from America: Colombian Santiago Diaz Ortega and Mexican Ernesto Canseco.
It can’t be CAVALIADA without the best home riders. We will welcome 6 of them from the top ten of the Polish Equestrian Federation’s ranking: the leader – Polish champion Tomasz Miśkiewicz, Jarosław Skrzyczyński, Przemysław Konopacki, Michał Kaźmierczak, Marek Wacławik and Krzysztof Ludwiczak. They will be matched by young riders, including multiple junior and young rider champions Aleksandra Kierznowska and Aleksander Lewandowski.
Full masterlist available in the attachment.
The first CAVALIADA competitions in Krakow start on Thursday, 22 February from 8:15 a.m. at TAURON Arena Krakow. Tickets are available at: https://tobilet.pl/cavaliada-krakow.html
For those who cannot join us but would like to see what the CAVALIADA Tour final looks like, the organiser has prepared an online broadcast. CAVALIADA TV features not only all the competitions, but also interviews with the riders and a studio with invited guests. Online broadcast: https://live.cavaliada.pl/
More information can be found at: www.krakow.cavaliada.pl
Ranking: https://krakow.cavaliada.pl/pl/zawodnicy/rankingi/
The organizer of CAVALIADA Kraków is Grupa MTP. The main sponsor is PKO Bank Polski, the strategic sponsors – ORLEN and LOTTO, the host city is Kraków, and the partners are the Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poznań–Ławica Airport and the Sports Infrastructure Management Board of Kraków
