USEF/AVA National Vaulting Championships Page #2
Contact: Lynn Stevens – AVA Public Relations
(925) 370-2173,
During Competition: (925) 352-8055
Or
Sheri Benjamin, AVA VP Development
(408) 872-1562,
During competition: (408) 621-2610 (mobile)
Competitors Showcase Gymnastics and Dance on Horseback
at USEF/AVA National Championships July 27-30
Team and individual events an eye-popping treat for spectators;
admission is free for the whole family!
City of Industry, CALIF., July 14, 2006 – The nation’s best equestrian vaulters will perform eye-popping gymnastics and dance freestyle routines atop cantering horses at this year’s USEF/AVA National Championships. Nationally-ranked vaulters and their equine partners from New Jersey to California will gather to compete for coveted U.S. titles at the 2006 Championships from July 27-30, 2006 at the Industry Hills Expo Center’s Grand Arena in the City of Industry, Calif.
-more-
“Those who have never witnessed this unique and entertaining equestrian sport will consider seeing it an experience of a lifetime,” said Nancy Stevens-Brown, American Vaulting Association (AVA) president. “During the next four days, our sport will showcase some of the best human and equine talent in the world, and anyone who values athletic prowess and nerves of steel will thoroughly enjoy this one-of-a-kind spectator event.”
For a complete day-by-day schedule of events, go to www.americanvaulting.org and look under “National Championships” for a link to the complete schedule and directions.
Competitors include world and national vaulting champions, as well as the vaulting team, four women and three men who have qualified to represent the United States at next month’s FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Aachen, Germany. The FEI World Equestrian Games is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious equestrian events, featuring world championship events in each of seven horse sport disciplines: jumping, dressage, eventing, four-in-hand driving, endurance, vaulting and reining, and drawing upward of half a million spectators.
Competing for the “A” level team championship will be three teams that vied for the single US team slot at WEG: the FAME vaulters (with team members from Southern California’s Venice Beach and Sun Valley, as well as from Northern California and New Jersey), currently ranked #1, will compete against both the Woodside Vaulters (Woodside, Calif.) and the Diamond Bar Vaulters (Diamond Bar, Calif.).
In the men’s division, 31-year-old six-time men’s national champion and 1998 Men’s Vaulting World Champion Devon Maitozo (Venice Beach, Calif.), will compete against
-more-
teammate and former National Champion Blake Dahlgren (Sun Valley, Calif.) and Kenny Geisler (Diamond Bar, Calif.), Todd Griffiths (Simms, Montana) and Chris Littmann (Agoura Hills, Calif.), all of whom will be representing the United States at W.E.G.
In the women’s division, WEG selection trials winner and USEF #1 ranked female vaulter Megan Benjamin, 18, from Saratoga, Calif., will defend her two-time national championship title against competitors including Elizabeth Osborn (Woodside, Calif.), Mary McCormick (a Tennessee native currently training in Northern California) and Ali Divita (Redwood City, Calif.), ranked second, third and fourth among women vaulters in the nation, respectively.
Equestrian vaulting, one of only seven equestrian disciplines recognized by the Federation Equestré International (FEI), is the only equestrian sport that combines gymnastics and dance on a moving horse. The American Vaulting Association, founded in 1966 by Elizabeth Searle and J. Ashton Moore, is the National Governing Body for this equestrian sport, currently houses hundreds of competitive teams nationwide from New Jersey to California.
Vaulting is not new; people have been performing acrobatic and dance-like movements on the backs of moving horses for more than 2,000 years. The present name of the sport comes from French “La Voltige,” which it acquired during the Renaissance, when it was a form of riding drill and agility exercises for knights and noblemen. Modern vaulting was developed in post-war Germany to introduce children to equestrian sports.
The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) was founded in 1917 and provides leadership for equestrian sport in the United States, promoting the pursuit of excellence from the grass roots to the Olympic Games, based on a foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare of its human and equine athletes.
-more-
Video clips and photos available on DVD
More information is available at the following websites:
Unites States Equestrian Federation at http://www.usef.org
American Vaulting Association at http://www.americanvaulting.org/
Federation Equestré International at http://www.horsesport.org/
###