With a safe margin of 16.42 points, the German team (Montender/Marco Kutscher, Coster/Christian Ahlmann, Checkmate/Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Gitania/Marcus Ehning, 18 faults) defended their European Championships show jumping gold at San Patrignano in Italy today, July 22.
It’s the sixth win in the 30-year history of the competition for Germany.
Switzerland (La Toya III/Markus Fuchs, LB No Mercy/Christina Liebherr, Madame Pompadour M/Fabio Crotta, Isovlas Pialotta/Steve Guerdat, the defending bronze title holders, picked up the silver medal with 34.42 penalties.
With 35.76 points, the Dutch team Netherlands (BMC Nassau/Jeroen Dubbeldam, Gran Corrado/Yves Houtackers, Nairobi/Leon Thijssen, Eurocommerce Monaco/Gerco Schroder) fell back to bronze from second place in 2003 in spite of two clear rounds from Schroder and Dubbeldam. But they had to leave a 12-point ride in the count.
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The surprise of the day was the host nation, Italy, which managed to move into fourth place. Youngest team member Andrea Herholdt, 21,was the most successful with a clear and four-fault performance.
France was the disappointment of the day after a total of 24 faults in the second round, putting them back to rank seventh behind Belgium and Great Britain.
On 3.79 penalties, Kutscher bronze medalist from the Athens Olympics and the only European Championship novice for Germany, is leading the individual ranking a day before the final. Defending title holder Ahlmann (Germany) fell back to second place after one mistake. French rider Laurent Goffinet is in third place (6.59).
Heavy rains made the course even harder than in the morning with only four clear rounds, but the mistakes were spread more evenly. The horses got used to the wide water, but the last combination over water still proved to be the most difficult.
