Even though in Germany there is nothing that speaks against holding a sporting competition under special infection protection measures, there are different and stricter regulations in other parts of the world regarding quarantine and testing requirements, travel through and return travel regulations or other corona-restrictions. When it was decided to postpone the Championship to December, there was hope that the situation would then at least allow for a Championship with a limited number of people. But the news now shows that the corona situation in other countries is sometimes worse than in Germany. “The safety of everyone involved is paramount and we can’t expect anyone to take long detours on their journey or to have problems returning home just before Christmas,” says event director Wilken Treu, managing director of the Hanoverian Breeding Federation.
Participants from 23 nations should have started in Verden and be judged by an international judging panel. Before entering the show ground, each person would have had to show a maximum 48-hour-old negative corona test. “This of course presents us with special challenges,” Treu continues. “If several judges could not have arrived due to a positive test, according to the FEI regulations, a German judge could not have simply moved in given that these Championships are World Championships. Moreover, we would have had to expect at any time that entire federations would cancel the participation of their horses at short notice while other nations were already on their way to Verden”.
Together with the associations involved, the German Equestrian Federation (FN), the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and the WBFSH, solutions were intensively discussed, but in the end all agreed that a cancellation was unavoidable. “I feel sorry for all those who put a lot of work into the planning and organization, and especially for the riders and owners of the horses who qualified,” Wilken Treu emphasized.
Source Indoor Verden