The French recorded a back-to-back double when winning the Mercedes Benz Prize, the fifth leg of the 2009 Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ in the hallowed Aachen arena in Germany tonight.

Winners in Rotterdam, The Netherlands two weeks ago they secured this second victory with the only zero score of the competition, while Germany and The Netherlands shared runner-up spot on a four-fault tally and the USA slotted into fourth on a total of five.

The anxious Irish had the worst of the draw but coped admirably to line up fifth ahead of Belgium in sixth, Switzerland in seventh and Sweden in eighth. It was another tough day for the Swedes and they now lie below the Irish in the standings going into the next leg of the series on their home soil in Falsterbo in two weeks time.

Italy and Great Britain failed to qualify for today's second round and things are now looking grim for the Italians. With just four points after five legs of the series they are really struggling, but the British will need to smarten up next time because they now occupy that second-last position on the leaderboard - a dangerous place to be since two of the 10 participating nations will be relegated at the end of the season.

RESULT MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP
1.France - 0 faults
Jubilee D'Ouilly (Penelope Leprevost) 0/0
Ideal de la Loge (Roger-Yves Bost) 12/0
Lamm de Fetan (Timothee Anciaume) 0/0 Kraque Boom Bois Margot (Kevin Staut) 0/4.

Equal 2.Netherlands - 4 faults
Blauwendraad's O'Brien (Angelique Hoorn) 0/0
Walnut de Muze (Harrie Smolders) 0/4
Oki Doki (Albert Zoer) 0/8
Opium VS (Marc Houtzager) 5/0

Equal 2 Germany - 4 faults
Plot Blue (Marcus Ehning) 0/0
Souvenir (Philipp Weishaupt) 4/17
Corradina (Carsten-Otto Nagel) 0/4
Checkmate (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) 0/0

4.USA - 5 faults
Quick Study (Lauren Hough) 0/5
Pavarotti (Todd Minikus) 4/8
Cedric (Laura Kraut) 0/0
Sapphire (McLain Ward) 0/0

5.Ireland - 21 faults
Je T'Aime Flamenco (Billy Twomey) 5/5
Kiltoom (Capt David O'Brien) 1/9
Rancorrado (Cian O'Connor) 1/4
Lantinus (Denis Lynch) Elim/5

6.Belgium - 26 faults
Vigo D'Arsouilles (Philippe Lejeune) 4/1
Aluna (Niels Bruynseels) 16/9
Sherry Mury Marais Z (Ludo Philippaerts) 4/12
Valentina Van't Heike (Jos Lansink) 0/8

7.Switzerland - 30 faults
Carlina (Pius Schwizer) 0/8
LB Robin Hood (Christina Liebherr) 16/14
Cantus (Niklaus Schurtenberger) 0/16
Tresor (Steve Guerdat) 0/8

8.Sweden - 38 faults
Madick (Helena Lundback) 0/4
Quintero La Silla (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) 12/18
H&M Arctic Aur. Borealis (Peder Fredricson) 5/16
Montender (Henrik Von Eckermann) 0/13


Photo : Harry Smolders en Walnut de Muze