Though the sun is shining bright and strong over Haras du Pin, the site of the FEI European Eventing Championships, today, yesterday was a very different story – the already soft ground took a serious hammering that continued well into the night, prompting concerns from chefs d’equipe, riders, and media alike about the conditions over today’s tough track, which has been described as ‘Luhmühlen technicality over Bramham terrain’.
This morning, we’ve had some crucial updates on how the organising committee is proposing to mitigate these issues. Firstly, the 12.00 p.m. intended starting time has been pushed back to 2.00 p.m. local time (1.00 p.m. BST/8.00 a.m. EST) to allow for further drying and, at least, hopefully make the pedestrian pathways through the course a touch safer to traverse. That means we’ll be out on course until roughly 6.30 p.m., holds notwithstanding.
A loop of the course has also been removed due to waterlogging. Fences 12AB, a pair of airy upright rails over ditches, 13, a hanging brush-topped log, 14, a wide box hedge, 15, a house, and 16, a skinny in water, which represented the furthest loop on the course, have been removed, and the optimum time has been shorted to 8:18 to reflect the new 4730m distance.
Further changes are being debated for fences 5 and 25AB, a brush fence and a pair of offset brushes, respectively, and we’ll keep you updated in due course with news of these changes.
In the meantime, check out riders’ opinions of the track to come, and stay tuned for live updates throughout the day’s action as we get to grips with the inner workings of designer Pierre le Goupil, who will also be our Paris course designer next year.
EN’s coverage of the FEI European Championships for Eventing is brought to you with support from Kentucky Performance Products.
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