August 30, 2006 – Aachen, Germany – Canada's Eric Lamaze maintained his runner-up position following the second day of show jumping competition on Wednesday, August 30, at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany.

After a faultless performance in Tuesday's Speed competition, Lamaze once again posted a clear round in the first of two days of Team competition on Wednesday to maintain his second place standing in the Individual rankings.  Unfortunately, the Canadian Show Jumping Team comprised of Lamaze, Jill Henselwood, Ian Millar and Chris Pratt, finished the day in 13th position, and will not be among the top 10 teams that advance to Thursday's Team Final.

"It was a bad day for Canada, for sure," said Terrance Millar, chef d'equipe of the Canadian Show Jumping Team.  "But Eric has been brilliant, and Jill has been commendable and solid."

Competing 19th in the order from the starting field of 24 nations, Terrance Millar made the decision to alter the planned order that the Canadian athletes would compete in.  Instead of Lamaze, Henselwood acted as the pathfinder, followed by Pratt, Lamaze and, as planned, Millar as the anchor rider.

"We discussed it last night and we changed the order due to our late draw of nineteenth," explained Terrance Millar.  "If we had drawn early we would have put Eric first, but Jill had the opportunity to watch some other riders go and she rode really well.  We also changed the order to give Eric a good chance today."

As the first Canadian to tackle German course designer Frank Rothenberger's track, Henselwood and Special Ed, a 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Juniper Farms, were jumping well before experiencing difficulty at the triple combination at fence nine, which would prove to cause its fair share of problems throughout the day.  The pair knocked down both the 'a' and 'c' elements to incur eight faults, plus added one time fault to their total for exceeding the 98-second time allowed.  Added together with her score from Tuesday's speed round, Henselwood ended the day in 56th position individually from the starting field of 116 competitors.

Like Henselwood, the next Canadian competitor, Pratt of Belfountain, ON, also had trouble at the triple combination.  After successfully jumping in over 'a', Rivendell, an 11-year-old Westphalian gelding owned by Susan Grange, stopped at 'b', throwing Pratt out of the saddle.  The elimination saw Pratt end his first major games in 110th position individually.

Then came Lamaze.  Having guided Hickstead, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Torrey Pines and Ashland Stables, to a fast and clear round in Tuesday's speed competition for second place, Lamaze once again proved that he is one of the world's best by going clear and maintaining his second place standing.  There was no change at the top of the leaderboard individually.  Olympic Team Gold Medalist American Beezie Madden of Cazenovia, NY, and Authentic were also clear to maintain top spot, while third-place competitor, Gerco Schroder of the Netherlands was again faultless riding Eurocommerce Berlin.

Teammate Ian Millar commented on Lamaze's performance, saying, "That was excellent!  As good as yesterday was, I liked it even better.  A horse builds into something like this.  What you want is for the horse to get comfortable here, and the horse looks extremely comfortable."

Unfortunately, things did not go as well for Millar, an eight-time Olympian, who incurred nine faults to finish in 62nd position individually.  Riding In Style, an 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Susan Grange, Millar knocked down the 'b' element of the triple combination, then had the final fence down, a plank set on flat cups, for eight jumping faults, plus one time fault.

Only the top 10 nations advance to Thursday's Final Team competition, which will be held in the evening from 7 to 11 p.m. over a different course.  Course designer Rothenberger announced that there would be no water jump in the Team Final due to safety concerns over jumping the open water under floodlights, and in fairness to the competitors, some of whom may compete while it is still light out while others will be jumping well after dark.

The Netherlands currently leads the Team standings with a total of 7.01 faults while the Ukraine holds second with 13.17 faults.  The United States (Margie Engle, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, McLain Ward) is in third position with 14.85.  Canada officially ended its 2006 World Equestrian Games bid in 13th position with 33.93 faults.  In addition to determining the World Champions, the Team competition also acts as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Games with the best five teams earning their tickets to Hong Kong, where the equestrian portion of the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be staged.

Individual competitors wishing to do so, including Eric Lamaze as Canada's sole representative, may also compete in Thursday's Final Team competition, as the standings will determine the top 25 Individuals that move forward to Saturday's Individual competition.  From there, the top four will compete in Sunday's 'Final Four'.  A true test of horsemanship, the competition sees the top four riders completing one round with their own horse, then rotating to jump each of the other three horses.  Canada's own Gail Greenough of Edmonton, AB, remains the only North American, and the only female, to ever win the World Championships, doing so in Aachen, Germany, in 1986 riding Mr. T.

Held every four years, the 2006 edition of the World Equestrian Games runs from August 20 to September 3 with the show jumping portion scheduled for August 29 to September 3. Featuring seven disciplines recognized by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), the World Equestrian Games sees more than 800 equestrian athletes vying for the title of World Champion. Over 500,000 visitors are expected to attend the Games. For more information, please visit the official 2006 World Equestrian Games website, www.aachen2006.de.

About Jump Canada
Jump Canada is a committee of Equine Canada responsible for all hunter, equitation and jumper activities in Canada from the grass roots to the international level. Jump Canada is governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are elected by the stakeholders in the sport. For more information regarding Jump Canada programs and activities, please visit www.jumpcanada.ca.