Poles to fight for participation in the 2022 Longines EEF Series grand final

This Friday marks the first of the 2022 Longines EEF Series semi-finals. It will feature Belgian, Danish, French, Spanish, Irish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish teams, who will compete for the right to participate in the Warsaw final in the picturesque French town of Deauville. The best five teams in the two-turn competition featuring obstacles of 150 cm in height will qualify for the final.

Remotely located Deauville will host the Polish national team composed of Cassandra Orschel, Przemysław Konopacki, Andrzej Opłatek and Maksymilian Wechta. It will be a debut in the national team for Cassandra Orschel, the winner of the 2022 Hamburger Derby. “I am very happy that I can race with the Polish national team. It’s a big experience for me and I hope I will do well”, she said when asked about her debut.

Polish competitors emphasize that they have come to France to fight for the best possible place. The spirits in the team are very good. “We are motivated and we came to fight for advancement. The competition in Deauville is also one of the last important tests before the World Championships,” says Maksymilian Wechta, who will fight for the promotion to the EEF finals together with the Polish team on Friday. “We have come such a long way so we cannot come back empty-handed,” he adds.

Przemysław Konopacki also promises to fight in the semi-finals saying “We came here in good shape and the horses took the journey quite well. The most important point of the competition for us is the Nations Cup on Friday. I think we are all very concentrated. It would be great to finish in the top five, but the competition is strong so keep your fingers crossed for us.”

Deauville will host very strong competitors, such as Vice World Champion Patrice Delaveau (FRA), CSI5* Grand Prix Hermès winner Abdelkebir Ouaddar (MAR), Olympian and five-time participant of the European Championships Manuel Fernandez Saro (POR), European Junior Champion Tina Lund (DEN) and the winner of the CSI5* Zurich World Cup Stephanie Holmen (SWE).

The other semi-final will be held next weekend in Budapest (30 June – 3 July) whereas the grand finale will be held in Warsaw in September (8-11 September).