Rabat (Morocco), Bromont (Canada), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria) and Wellington (United States) have all received official candidate city status following the initial eight expressions of interest put forward in November. The Australian, Russian and Swedish applications were withdrawn prior to the start of the official candidate phase earlier this year.
A World Equestrian Games 2018 presentation will be made to the five candidates at FEI headquarters in Lausanne on July 11 to explain the Federation’s expectations and procedures concerning the Games. Completed legal documentation, including a signed host agreement, must be submitted to the FEI by December 15 and a final announcement on the successful host will be made at the FEI Bureau’s spring meeting in 2013.
“It is fantastic to have five really strong bids for hosting the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2018 and there could be no better endorsement of the FEI’s flagship event,” said FEI secretary general Ingmar de Vos. “The new bidding process that we put in place last year for the FEI World Equestrian Games has generated a huge amount of interest and we now look forward to welcoming the 2018 bidders to FEI headquarters next month.”
The World Equestrian Games are held every four years, in the middle of the Olympic cycle. The seven FEI disciplines – jumping, dressage and para-equestrian dressage, eventing, driving, endurance, vaulting and reining – are all included on the competition schedule. The first Games to be staged outside Europe was the 2010 event in Kentucky, USA. The next edition of the event will be held in Caen, France in 2014.
