Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

HERNING, Denmark, Aug. 22–Germany won the European Championship Nations Cup Thursday, the first time in eight years for the once dominant country and the first championship gold since the 2008 Beijing Olympics in a nail-biting finish that saw the Netherlands take silver and Great Britain bronze.

The position on the medals podium came down to Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill NRW as the anchor for Germany and three hours and 20 minutes after Carlotte Dujardin and Valegro gave fresh life to Great Britain’s medal hopes with a new world record in the Grand Prix of 85.942 per cent. That beat their previous best of 84.447 per cent set at  London’s Olympia on Dec. 17, 2012 following the pair’s double Olympic gold medal performance at home.

The margin of difference between gold medal Germany on 234.651, the Netherlands with silver on 233.967 and Great Britain bronze on 233.540 was just 1.111, the closest race in the 20-year history of the Europeans that are held every two years.

The 10,000-seat soccer stadium to stage the European Championships of dressage, jumping and para-dressage together for the first time was half-full for the second of two days of the Nations Cup although the weather was unseasonably warm after the first day of rainy, drab weather.

Helen did not know how many points she needed for Germany to win gold, “but I knew I had to ride for a lot of points and it wouldn’t be easy,” she said, “but I would try my very, very best.”

Her very best was a personal best Grand Prix score of 84.377 per cent, that team mate Isabell Werth descrobed as “the ride of her life.”.

“Luckily,” Helen said, “I have relatively good nerves.”

Edward Gal and Glock’s Undercover with a score of 81.763 per cent and third individually led the Dutch team to silver, with Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival placing fourth with 80.851 per cent.

“The horse was a little tense to start but I get a better feeling every time I ride him. He’s getting so much better so next year he will be fantastic,” Edward joked.

Adelinde, ranked No. 1 in the world with Parzival, said she was thrilled to be competing as just six weeks ago she thought the KWPN gelding’s heart problems would not enable her to compete. Parzival, she said, used to be known for his spookiness but the ride Thursday show how “perfect” he was. She did not, however, take him in the victory gallop because she keeps a heart meter with her and that Parzival’s heart rate went up to 100 from 60.

Francis Verbeek-van Rooij of the Netherlands, president of the ground jury, defended the scoring of the British combination Michael Eilberg and Half Moon Delphi where six of the seven judges awarded scores above 70 per cent, the highest being 75.638 per cent from Isabelle Judet of France while Sweden’s Gustav Svalling gave the pair 65.532 per cent.

Calculations showed that if Michael and Half Moon Delphi had received the same score as the next lowest judge–71.809 per cent–Great Britain would have had a result of 234.437 that would have been good enough for silver medal instead of the bronze.

“We are working as a team with seven judges in different positions around the arena,” she said without providing an explanation although it has been a hot topic at these championships.

Frank Kemperman, chairman of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Dressage Committee, also came to the defense of the ground jury, saying,”we are happy with the judging and there will always be differences of opinion” and he saw no reason to change the system of seven judges and a judge’s supervisory panel of three that can change errors or mistakes but not opinions.

The seven judges awarded a total of 16,835 marks, 37 marks for 65 horses. The JSP made only 34 corrections, he said.

The final team standings were:

	Nation		Total
1	GERMANY		234.651
2	NETHERLANDS		233.967
3	GREAT BRITAIN		233.540
4	DENMARK		224.604
5	SWEDEN		218.846
6	AUSTRIA		212.021
7	BELGIUM		207.097
8	FRANCE		205.668
9	SWITZERLAND		203.572
10	FINLAND		203.070
11	PORTUGAL		202.766
12	ITALY		199.620
13	LUXEMBOURG		194.802
14	NORWAY		130.699