Well Deserved: The British won the European Eventing Championships in Avenches. They won both the individual and the team medals.
Only Ingrid Klimke could have stopped the British on their relentless march to victory. However, it was not meant to be: The bar fell on the third to last jump. The dream of winning the third European Championship in a row was shattered. The drop cost the pair four penalty points and threw them back from second to fifth place. The final score was 25.40 penalty points.
However, even a clear round would have only gotten her the silver medal. It would not have been enough for the third European Championship gold in a row anyway. Nevertheless, she was very satisfied with her Bobby. She summarized, “Bobby went great, he was also good to ride in the course.”
Team silver for Germany
Despite the drop in the jumping, the German team was able to bring the silver medal home, ahead of the Swedes. Klimke’s teammates placed as follows:
- Michael Jung as best German with Wild Wave on fourth place (23.9)
- Anna Siemer with Avondale on 17th place (37.10)
- Andreas Dibowski in 22nd place with a score of 40.80, which was the lowest result.
The British won all individual medals this year. Therefore, the new European Champion is Nicola Wilson with her Diarado son Dublin (20.9). Individual silver went to Piggy March on Brookfield Innocent (23.3) and bronze went to Sarah Bullimore on Corouet (23.6).
Christoph Wahler showed a good performance
Individual horseback rider Christoph Wahler also showed a great round without a drop in the course. With 26.8 minus points, he finished his European Championship performance in seventh place.
Dirk Schrade and his eleven-year-old Casino did not finish their first championship together quite as confidently. With 74.1 minus points they ended up in 44th place.
Silver medal for Hans Melzer
With the silver medal from Avenches, the coach of the national team is looking forward to his farewell at the end of the year with satisfaction. He explained, “You have to look at it from a sporting point of view, the British were better, already in the dressage ahead of us, except for Ingrid. And in the cross-country they were simply faster. But then you also have to ride zero in the jumping. We didn’t have our top pairs here, after all, except for Bobby, and the ones that were here did great.”
Source: FN
