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Jill Henselwood Leads Canada to Show Jumping World Cup Final

April 22, 2008

Last year's Pan American Games individual show jumping gold medalist, Jill Henselwood, of Oxford Mills, Ontario, finished the 2007/08 World Cup season as the top qualifier from the Canadian League. She is also a front-runner for Canada's Olympic team. Having the luxury of having two world-class mounts, Henselwood recently travelled to Europe, where she will contest the World Cup Final this week on Black Ice, before beginning several weeks of Olympic preparation on Special Ed. Special Ed was her Pan American Games gold medal winning mount.

The World Cup Final will be contested in the Scandinavium arena in Gothenburg, Sweden, home of the recent World Figure Skating Championships. Competition begins with a "friendly" competition on Wednesday and the World Cup title is contested in a cumulative formula from Thursday through Sunday. Unlike the always-outdoor, quadrennial World Show Jumping Championships, the World Cup Final is always indoor jumping and is held annually.

Riders qualify for the World Cup Final in leagues around the world. Some leagues are a group of countries, others are a portion of a country and Canada is one league in itself. The leagues are determined by the number of world-class riders domiciled in each region. Canada will have three riders competing at this year's World Cup Final. Henselwood will be joined by native Albertan Darrin Dlin, who now resides in Wellington, Florida. Dlin qualified competing in Canada last year. It was only the second time he has made a bid to represent Canada. Chris Pratt, formerly of Belfountain, Ontario, and now residing in California, elected to earn points in the U.S. West League, but will represent Canada, the country of his citizenship.

Following the World Cup Final, Henselwood will be joined in Europe by fellow Olympic team front-runners Ian Millar, Eric Lamaze, and Mac Cone. They will compete in team competitions in Lummen, Belgium and Madrid, Spain.

"I'm fortunate to have two horses at this level", Henselwood said. "I'm really excited about the opportunity to compete against the best in the world in such an important year."

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