Aachen, Germany—Aug. 23  

Dutch dominance in the sport of jumping continued at its relentless pace when reigning world champion Jeroen Dubbeldam steered the brilliant SFN Zenith to victory in the individual final at the FEI European Jumping Championships. Silver went to Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet with Conrad de Hus, while Simon Delestre and Ryan des Hayettes from France claimed the bronze in a two-round competition that kept spectators in the packed Soers Arena on the edges of their seats.

Dubbeldam now has the big three in the bag: Olympic individual gold claimed at Sydney 2000, the world championship title he took at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in France last year, and now the individual European title, which has not been won by the Netherlands since Johan Heins stood top of the podium in Vienna back in 1977. And he has achieved each of the last two victories after already contributing to team gold with the same brilliant gelding.

Misfortune And Opportunity

Today’s final began without Ukraine’s Cassio Rivetti whose horse, Vivant, did not pass yesterday’s second horse inspection. That saw Dubbeldam move up from third to silver medal spot, and he was only just over 1 penalty point behind the leading partnership of Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya and Carlo as the first round began this afternoon.  

Frank Rothenberger’s first track proved very difficult indeed, with only five keeping a clean sheet from the world-class start list of 25. Big, wide oxers were the order of the day, but it was the line from the open water at fence 6 to the following triple combination that presented the greatest difficulty, and more than half of the faults recorded racked up at this point on the 12-fence course. Amongst its victims were Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Fibonacci, as the breathtaking gray clipped the second element of the obstacle, which consisted of two verticals with planks on top, followed by an oxer.  

But while the German rider dropped down the leaderboard, the two men who preceded her rocketed in the other direction when both Andreas Schou (Lenardo der Kleine) from Denmark and Delestre were foot-perfect all the way.

In The Picture

Wathelet also put himself in the picture when doing likewise with Conrad de Hus. The host nation’s hopes were shaken again when, lying sixth, Ludger Beerbaum’s mare Chiara put a foot in the open water in an otherwise clean tour of the course. A mistake at the second fence blotted Dutchman Jur Vrieling’s copybook, the bogey triple combination penalized Peneleope Leprevost from France, and two fences down saw Switzerland’s Romain Duguet disappear from the reckoning, so the leaderboard kept changing rapidly. 

There would be no mistakes from Dubbeldam and Zenith however, and when Moya and Carlo left the first element of the triple combination on the ground, the Dutchman was already in the driving seat going into the second round with less than a fence in hand over Wathelet in second, Moya in third, Delestre in fourth and Schou in fifth place.

The new 10-fence course was less complicated, and eight of the 22 remaining combinations completed on a zero score this time out. Schou’s medal hopes disintegrated with a single error however, but Delestre was ultra-careful with his 10-year-old gelding and, bringing him home with a just a single time fault on the board, he was suddenly in a threatening position. So when Moya left a pole on the ground, the Frenchman already had bronze in his grasp. 

Never Looked Like Flinching

Wathelet held his nerve to pile the pressure on Dubbeldam with a foot-perfect run, but the Dutchman never looked like flinching. His horse was reluctant to come into the ring today, unsettled by the noise and atmosphere during the week.

“It is not easy for our horses in a place like Aachen,” said Dubbeldam. “I went in after Meredith [Michaels-Beerbaum] the other day, and the stadium exploded, and my horse also exploded too. It happens. We saw this last week with Edward Gal in the dressage—his horse was upset in the prize giving, and the next day he had the same problems. You can’t ask the crowd to be quiet—I love that [noise of the crowd]—but there must be some way to make it easier, [to blend] enthusiasm and horsemanship.”

But once the fences were in front of him he just got on with the job he does so well, and as the Dutch pair galloped through the finish there was a single time penalty on the board, but it made no difference to the final result. A roar of approval from the knowledgeable Aachen crowd accompanied the victory gallop of the most exceptional horse-and-rider combination in the modern sport.

“My thanks goes first of all to my horse,” said Dubbeldam after his victory, “and the whole team standing behind me.”

“You can only dream that it comes true; there is no wisdom for it,” said the newly-crowned Rolex European jumping champion. Dubbeldam admitted he was very aware of the high expectations for himself and his horse coming into this event.

“When you come here to Aachen, one of the most difficult places for a championship and one of the nicest, you know it’s going to be a top battle,” he said. “So many good riders and so many good horses. And you also need to be a little bit lucky. Everything has to be good, you have to be fit, your horse has to be fit, and then you can focus on everything, but in the end you need some luck. I had the luck on my side, and today it is a dream come true.”

A Good Feeling

Wathelet said: “I prepared to bring my horse here as best I can, and he improved a lot. In the last two months he’s been jumping better and better, and he went particularly well in Dinard [France], so I had a good feeling coming here. But I never expected a medal! Then I was eighth before the final today, and I thought that if I could go double clear then I might just get a medal. My horse really fought for me this week.”

“I was in 14^th place, it was really big stuff, and I wasn’t expecting anything big!” Delestre said. “But when I was double clear then I finished in the top three. I’m really happy with my horse and to have three French riders finishing in the top 10 was just fantastic!”

Check out complete results from the individual jumping final.