Today history was written and the German hegemony after 42 years from the first European championship in 1965 was broken by the Dutch.
After very strong, clear and faultless rides from both Anky van Grunsven and Imke Schellekens-Bartels finally happened what had been the hope for many many hard working years. The Dutch won the gold team medal, the first team medal won by a non-German team after the Russian victory at the Olympic Games in 1972. “This is the only medal I have not won yet until now, the team gold. It makes me very happy!”, Anky van Grunsven commented, “the more as we have achieved this with a good team as a total, riding all to the maximum we could.”
Isabell Werth congratulated the Dutch saying: “They have been fighting so long and this is their show, they deserved it! I have to be honest, we did not win the silver, we lost the gold. That’s a fact of life. It’s good for the sport, nevertheless I hope this will be for once only!”
All hopes for the historical move got high when Anky van Grunsven and Keltec Salinero stayed at the relaxed and safe side and went for a correct, and constant test without faults. A very valuable championships test, as Salinero was not as brilliant as he sometimes can be, but got high marks for his evenness and relaxation and ended at the first place.
Nadine Capellmann and Elvis had no proper answer on Salinero’s score of 77,542%. Elvis had a nicer and better contact than he had in Aachen, but lacked some straightness in some parts of the test like the piaffe and passage. The score was 72,417%.
Imke Schellekens-Bartels had a great ride partnering Hunter Douglas Sunrise. She commented that she never had this real soft contact in a test before. “I really had a great feeling during the test. The control, the looseness, the focus of the mare, it was great”, Imke said. Her test was rewarded with 74,167%. Mathematicians found out fast that 77,999% would be the score for Isabell Werth to ride to get equal with the Dutch. However already in the first part of the test this challenge was lost as Isabell was too strong with her right leg in the first half pass. Isabell Werth: “I wanted to go for the 9 as this is a strong point of Satchmo, instead I received 3 and 4. I took a lot of risks and tried to go for it but it didn’t work out. Well, next year another championship.”
Bronze for the Swedes
The struggle for the bronze medal was almost just as hard as the one for the silver and the gold. Swiss Silvia Iklé had a very good test with her passage-machine Salieri. Her second horse Romario had done a very good performance with her new rider Veronika Marthaler, winning three weeks ago the Swiss championship. Veronika only did her first Grand Prix test in march of this year, quit a performance. Now the Swiss have qualified a team for the Olympic Games, just like Great Britain and Sweden. In the end although Jan Brink had some problems with a tiredness of Briar and had both mistakes in the one tempi changes and the two tempi changes, the Swedes won the bronze team medal.
Final Results
1. NED Chef d'Equipe: Mariette Sanders GOLD
Exquis Nadine Minderhoud,Hans Peter 70.458
Hexagon's Ollright Van Lieren,Laurens (68.542)
Keltec Salinero Van Grunsven,Anky 77.458
Hunter Douglas Sunrise Schellekens-Bartels,Imke 74.167
Total 222.083
2. GER Chef d'Equipe: Ferdi Wassermeyer SILVER
Whisper 128 Theodorescu,Monica (69.708)
Donatha S Schulten-Baumer,Ellen 71.667
Elvis VA Capellmann,Nadine 72.417
Satchmo 78 Werth,Isabell 76.750
Total 220.834
3. SWE Chef d'Equipe: Elisabet Lundholm BRONZE
Orient Sandgaard,Per (66.583)
Isidor Nathhorst,Louise 67.750
Solos Carex Wilhelmsson-Silfven,Tinne 71.042
Bjorsells Briar 899 Brink,Jan 69.208
Total 208.000
4. SUI Total 205.333
5. GBR Total 205.042
6. DEN Total 202.792
7. RUS Total 199.624
8. AUT Total 199.166
9. FRA Total 194.875
10. ESP Total 193.375
11. POR Total 192.875
12. BEL Total 192.