William and Cool Mountain just saved Britain’s team score, courtesy of Monty White
From Heather Reimer of GermanEventing.de:
Luhmühlen was struck by a really big thunderstorm last night, with torrential rain and high winds. My internet and mobile phone net was dead for a couple of hours and it felt like the end of the world. However everyone survived the night and it was probably nothing compared to the American storms right now but we are in Europe! On arrival at the show ground this morning there just seemed to be acres of mud. However out on the course all the good preparation that had gone on in the weeks preceding the event seemed to have paid off. The footing was definitely going to be okay for the first riders, how it would hold out however was the question of the day!
The first ten riders completed the course without major problems with a lot of them choosing alternative routes to avoid jumping faults. Nicola Wilson (GBR) and Opposition Buzz, as always making it look easy, coming home within the time and moving up from 39th to 15th place. The first shock came as Andreas Dibowski (GER) riding FRH Fantasia fell at fence 22 and at the press conference afterwards, Andreas still had no real explanation as to what went wrong, however he left the course without a word and the disappointment and frustration were more than obvious in his facial expression. Benjamin Winter (GER) and Wild Thing were next and his performance was a joy to watch. I spoke to him later on, he is not a man of many words and when I asked him how it felt to cross the finishing line after getting through his first senior championship course, the answer was “Pretty good”…as I said a man of few words. The next German shock came just a few minutes later as Julia Krajewski retired at fence 13a to be closely followed by a refusal from Julia Mestern (GER) at 23b after what had been up until then a very convincing round. The pressure was on Germany.
Wega, Sarah Algotsson’s (SWE) grey mare is an amazing horse. In the dressage arena she is totally relaxed and concentrated and in the cross country so full of power. As Sarah said after their brilliant performance, her horse just ate up the course and was still fit and ready for more at the end and her bronze medal overnight position is truly deserved. Her husband Frank Ostholt (GER) riding Little Paint wasn’t quite able to keep up with his wife and dropped down from 3rd to 5th place but guaranteed they will both be celebrating tonight.
The next team rider for Britain was Piggy French and Jakata and they managed to hold their overnight 11th place. Sandra Auffarth was the next German team rider and she knew she had to come through without any faults. Although she admitted later to feeling really nervous at the start she rode a great round and is 4th overnight.
There were further falls, both Andreas Ostholt (GER) riding Franco Jes and Sarah van Hasselt riding Arctic Fox Too fell at the same fence that claimed Andreas Dibowski. Two further very experienced riders, Mary King (GBR) and Karin Donkers(BEL) also fell at 14b and 21 respectively. However none of the falls were serious and although Mary King was treated on the course she was able to get up and walk away.
The footing was definitely starting to suffer and was aggravated by even more rain. However Ingrid Klimke (GER) riding FRH Butts Abraxxas put in a perfect round and was one of the only 5 pairs to ride the direct route at the Rolex corner and defended her gold medal position.
The last set of team riders had to deal with increasingly difficult footing and it was a case of finding a line that not too many other horses had used. William Fox-Pitt had an anxious moment at the 2nd water complex but skillfully changed his route and took the final alternative and crossed the finishing just 3 seconds under the time.
The last horse to go was La Biosthetque-Sam FBW ridden by Michael Jung and he defended his silver medal position.
[German Video Recap, Individual Results, Team Results, FEI TV Coverage, Polly withdraws, H&H Recap]
The team positions have changed with France moving up into third place and Italy dropping down to 6th. Sweden held their fourth position however Germany now has a 42,30 point lead over Great Britain, however the three leading teams have all lost a rider so the vet check tomorrow at 9:00am takes on a very important role.
Captain Mark Phillips was slightly surprised that neither the HSBC Water Complex nor the coffin created any problems but that fence 22 an uncomplicated fence caused 3 falls and he was happy that none of the falls were serous.
27,000 spectators came to watch despite the bad weather and Julia Otto, the organizer was full of praise for her team who worked the whole night dealing with the damage done by the storm.
The decision to whom gets gold will be decided either tomorrow morning at the vet check but hopefully tomorrow afternoon in the show jumping arena.
A number of teams have been rudely woken the past mornings by what they thought was Ingrid Klimke’s youngest daughter crying. However the truth will out and the culprit has been found. Believe it or not the French team have a cockerel as a lucky mascot. He is flying around free in their truck and he feels it is his responsibility to wake everybody up every morning!
~Heather
