The Sub 28 Finish

Monday 3rd June 2019
Author: Sam Watson

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The newly-crowned FEI world number one, Tim Price, capitalised on optimal scoring conditions at Tattersalls to register an impressive sub-28 finishing score and land the George Mernagh Memorial CCI4*-S competition. Performance managers working with EquiRatings will recognise that sub-28 zone as the top threshold in EquiRatings Zone Analysis, and the table below shows just how difficult it can be to finish in this territory.

Since 2008, Tim has now registered six sub-28 finishing scores at the top levels (4 and 5 star) which is good enough to place him 14th in the world amongst his fellow competitors with regards to the quantity of results in this scoring zone. Michael Jung has been a standout when it comes to prolific levels of clinical scoring and his teammate Ingrid Klimke is a significant cut above third place Oliver Townend. Jung and Klimke have been familiar faces on championship podiums throughout the decade, and their strike-rates at finishing in the sub-28 range is quite phenomenal.

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The four German athletes listed have the highest strike rates at finishing sub-28, and we do generally see a much higher percentage of finishing scores in this zone at German events. We have also included a table of sub-28 finishes based on the host nation of 4 and 5-star events since 2008. Germany not only comes out on top based on quantity, but it is significantly higher based on the strike rate. The intuitive contributions to these figures will be faster ground conditions, flatter terrain and generally lower scores in the first phase.  However, as the nation that won every championship gold medal at 4 and 5-star level from 2011 to 2015, both as a team and individually, there is more to their low-scoring than just good conditions.

The finishing scores used in this analysis have been adjusted for both the removal of the dressage multiplier and the change to show jumping time penalties. With these adjustments in mind, 24 of the 73 five-stars that took place since 2008 were won with a sub-28 finishing score.

Where Sub-28s come from

 

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