Page 101 - Puissance Euro 1

We should like to ask you a question as a chauvinist Belgian for once. We get our inspiration in Holland quite often by granting many famous Dutch riders the Belgian nationality like your teammate Jos Lansink. Do you see any young talent rising in Belgium in the near future?As the Tour has expanded and grown strategically acrossthe world, it has been a pleasure to see talented new riders competing and developing as they compete at our events and experience the sport at its highest level. In Belgium as in other countries we notice some fantastic young riders coming through like Pieter Devos, who won our Grand Prix in Shang- hai in 2014 and Constant van Paesschen, who has enjoyed a tremendous success on the Tour. We have the Philippaerts brothers, Olivier and Nicola, riders such as Jos Verlooy and several more. It is great to watch this new generation of talent breaking through.You have a special gift, both your friends and enemies say, not only for discovering top horses, but also for selling them. What makes the difference between you and your colleagues at this level?I think that to really know horses is a feeling that you are born with, and can be developed further with experience. I have worked with many different horses and riders and one of the keys is to understand that you can have a great horse or a great rider but is the combination that matters most.You have good contacts in Qatar. Are the Arabic countries the future for equestrian sport, do they have good riders already? Will they play a role at the top level in the years to come?Show jumping is growing globally and it is good to see the Middle East and Asia really developing talent and interest in the sport along with other regions. The Qatari riders work very hard and I am very proud as trainer to see their growing success and their qualification for the Olympics next year.Some people compare you with Bernie Ecclestone. Are you the Bernie Ecclestone of equestrian sports? Equestrian sport had gained a greater international reputa- tion in recent years although soccer and tennis are still more popular and reach a much larger audience.Equestrian sport is in a kind of way elitist, do you agree on this point of view? Will this change or doesn’t it matter?I have a great passion for our sport and my goal is to continue to make show jumping bigger around the world and to make sure our fans always see top sport at great locations. We work hard to increase media coverage and bring show jumping to more fans, on TV and online audiences around the world as a sport everyone can enjoy. That is why we have also workedU heeft bijzonder goede contacten in Qatar. Zijn de Arabische landen de toekomst in de jumping? Springruitersport groeit wereldwijd en het is goed om zien dat in het Midden-Oosten en Azië echte talenten op het voorplan treden en dat deze regio, net als andere, een groeiende interesse heeft voor deze sport. De Qatari-ruiters werken bijzonder hard en ik ben als trainer trots te kunnen meewerken aan hun groeiend succes en hun kwalificatie voor de Olympi- sche Spelen van volgend jaar.De ruitersport verwierf dejongste decennia een steeds grotere internationale uitstraling. Toch blijven bv. voetbal entennis veel populairder dan de elitaire ruitersport. Komt hierin verandering?Ik koester uiteraard een grote passie voor deze sport en mijn doel blijftdat de ruitersport wereldwijd verder mag groeien. We werken hard omeen nog grotere mediabelangstel-ling te krijgen en jumping bij meer sportliefhebbers bekend te maken.Dat wereldwijd zowel via televisieals via online-media, zodat iedereener van kan genieten. Hiertoe werken we nauw samen met de instanties en steden waar ruitersport minder of niet bekend is, ten einde deze meer toegan- kelijk te maken bij een breder publiek.99