Charlotte Dujardin & Valegro Score Personal Best of 91.250% for European Championship Freestyle Gold
12 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Charlotte Dujardin & Valegro Score Personal Best of 91.250% for European Championship Freestyle Gold
KENNETH J. BRADDICK
HERNING, Denmark, Aug. 25–Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro won the European Championship Freestyle gold medal Sunday with a personal best score of 91.250 per cent in an event charged with emotion that brought tears, laughter and perhaps some of the best sport ever both in and out of the competition arena.
The Freestyle gold medal score for the 28-year-old Olympic double gold medalist was just 1.05 per cent off the world record and the second individual gold at these championships having won the Grand Prix Special on Friday a day after leading Great Britain to team bronze.
Helen Langehanenberg of Germany and Damon Hill NRW scored 87.286 per cent to place second, as they did in the Special to claim silver but that did not match the emotion of the gold Germany won in the Nations Cup, their first championship victory since the 2008 Olympics.
Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands and Jerich Parzival, the world’s No. 1 ranked combination and both horse and rider more relaxed than perhaps ever before with a return to Holland’s national coach, secured the bronze with 86.393 per cent. The pair won bronze in the Special and team silver.
Emotion was the order of the day after the intensity of competition which began with the biggest prize, the Nations Cup, last Wednesday and wide open with Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, the team of Denmark and Sweden all given a shot at being on the medals podium. The highest spot went to Germany, with the Dutch a step down and Great Britain on the third level determined by the marks of a single judge that was so controversial as it deprived Britain of silver that the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said it will renew championship judging procedures to try to avoid this happening again.
However, the Grand Prix Special seemed to restore confidence–along with unseasonably balmy weather that put everyone in a good mood and brought a total of 61,500 spectators to the 10,000-seat soccer stadium before it ended its brief life as a horse show.
Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro collected the gold, Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill the silver and Adelinde and Parzival the bronze, as well as several tearful interviews that she ascribed to how amazingly well her horse is performing after heart problems threatened the competition career of the KWPN gelding. Renewed joy in competing on a horse that Adelinde developed in her spare time as a school teacher to be a sales project because Parzival had been too crazy for anyone else to ride to become the No. 1 combination in the world, plus changes in the elite Dutch squad so she could go back to the coach who helped her to the top.
The mood of the crowd for Sunday’s Freestyle was set early when Britain’s Michael Eilberg on Half Moon Delphi–the victims of the judging issue that saw a 10 percentage point difference between the highest and lowest score in the Grand Prix–were the first of 15 horses and riders into the arena. The crowd clapped along with Spanish music in his freestyle.
Charlotte disclosed after her ride that Carl Hester, her coach, mentor and part-owner of Valegro, had sugested the horse get the day off Saturday following the Grand Prix Thursday and Special on Friday, a move she said was to make him fresh for the Freestyle, but “scared me a little.”
“It really worked,” she said. “He came out today and felt really on form. He felt so relaxed and we really had fun.”
Results:
European Championship Grand Prix Freestyle
- Judge K: Isabelle Judet (FRA0 Judge E: Dietrich Plewa (GER) Judge H: Gustaf Svalling (SWE) Judge C: Leif Törnblad (DEN)
- Judge M: Andrew Gardner (GBR) Judge B: Francis Verbeek-van Rooij (NED) Judge F: Susie Hoevenaars (AUS)
| Rank | HORSE – Breeding sex\colour\born\sire x siredam\ | € | K | E | H | C | M | B | F | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RIDER owner | technical artistic | technical artistic | technical artistic | technical artistic | technical artistic | technical artistic | technical artistic | |||||
| 1 | Valegro – KWPN G \ Bay \ 2002 \ Negro x Gerschwin | GBR | 12500 | 90.00 | 86.00 | 89.75 | 88.75 | 90.50 | 86.50 | 86.00 | 91.250 | |
| Charlotte Dujardin Mrs R Luard Mr C Hester | 97.00 | 94.00 | 91.00 | 95.00 | 93.00 | 97.00 | 93.00 | |||||
| 2 | Damon Hill NRW – WESTF S \ DarkChestnut \ 2000 \ Donnerhall x Rubinstein I | GER | 10000 | 89.00 | 85.25 | 83.50 | 84.75 | 84.75 | 81.25 | 83.50 | 87.286 | |
| Helen Langehanenberg Christian Becks | 90.00 | 88.00 | 87.00 | 90.00 | 91.00 | 94.00 | 90.00 | |||||
| 3 | Jerich Parzival – KWPN G \ Chestnut \ 1997 \ Jazz x Ulft | NED | 7500 | 84.25 | 82.00 | 82.25 | 86.50 | 84.50 | 83.75 | 83.25 | 86.393 | |
| Adelinde Cornelissen W.P.J. Cornelissen / M.A. Cornelissen | 91.00 | 86.00 | 84.00 | 92.00 | 91.00 | 91.00 | 88.00 | |||||
| 4 | Glock´s Undercover – KWPN G \ Black \ 2001 \ Ferro x Donnerhall | NED | 6000 | 81.75 | 82.00 | 86.50 | 81.00 | 83.75 | 82.50 | 80.25 | 84.911 | |
| Edward Gal Ghpc Holding Bv | 88.00 | 87.00 | 86.00 | 83.00 | 90.00 | 89.00 | 88.00 | |||||
| 5 | Desperados FRH – HANN S \ Black \ 2001 \ De Niro x Wolkenstein II | GER | 4000 | 83.75 | 81.75 | 77.75 | 77.00 | 77.25 | 78.00 | 77.75 | 81.875 | |
| Kristina Sprehe Paul & Albert Gestüt Sprehe GmbH; Sprehe | 88.00 | 86.00 | 85.00 | 80.00 | 83.00 | 85.00 | 86.00 | |||||
| 6 | Uthopia – KWPN S \ Bay \ 2001 \ Metall x Inspekteur | GBR | 2500 | 79.75 | 79.00 | 79.75 | 76.25 | 79.00 | 77.50 | 79.50 | 81.696 | |
| Carl Hester Mr Carl Hester & Mrs Sasha Stewart | 88.00 | 85.00 | 82.00 | 83.00 | 84.00 | 85.00 | 86.00 | |||||
| 7 | Donnperignon – FWB G \ DarkChestnut \ 1999 \ Donnerhall x Mozart II79 | DEN | 2000 | 78.25 | 76.25 | 77.00 | 76.25 | 77.75 | 76.50 | 76.25 | 80.161 | |
| Anna Kasprzak Kasprzak Family | 83.00 | 84.00 | 83.00 | 84.00 | 84.00 | 82.00 | 84.00 | |||||
| 8 | Don Auriello – HANN G \ Bay \ 2002 \ Don Davidoff x White Star | SWE | 1500 | 79.50 | 76.50 | 79.50 | 76.75 | 77.75 | 77.00 | 78.00 | 80.071 | |
| Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven Lövsta Stuteri / Antonia Ax:son Johnson | 82.00 | 81.00 | 83.00 | 83.00 | 83.00 | 80.00 | 84.00 | |||||
| 9 | Digby – DWB G \ DarkBay \ 1997 \ Donnerhall x Sandro | DEN | 1000 | 81.75 | 78.25 | 77.25 | 76.50 | 76.75 | 76.75 | 77.50 | 79.554 | |
| Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein Dr. M. Siebert, R. White Nathalie zu Sayn Wittgenstein | 83.00 | 81.00 | 79.00 | 82.00 | 82.00 | 80.00 | 82.00 | |||||
| 10 | D´Agostino 5 – HANN G \ Chestnut \ 2000 \ De Niro x Shogun xx | GER | 600 | 74.50 | 75.75 | 73.75 | 74.00 | 75.75 | 75.50 | 76.50 | 77.411 | |
| Fabienne Lütkemeier Gina Capellmann-Lütkemeier | 75.00 | 82.00 | 78.00 | 79.00 | 80.00 | 80.00 | 84.00 | |||||
| 11 | Santana – HANN S \ Black \ 2001 \ Sandro Hit x Rubinstein I | SWE | 480 | 77.25 | 76.00 | 70.50 | 72.25 | 73.00 | 77.25 | 72.00 | 76.589 | |
| Minna Telde Minna Telde AB / Berit Telde | 81.00 | 81.00 | 77.00 | 78.00 | 79.00 | 80.00 | 78.00 | |||||
| 12 | Augustin OLD – OLDBG S \ Bay \ 2000 \ August der Starke x Rohdiamant | AUT | 480 | 72.25 | 74.00 | 74.00 | 70.00 | 73.25 | 74.00 | 72.75 | 75.518 | |
| Victoria Max-Theurer Elisabeth Max-Theurer, Schloss Achleiten | 79.00 | 79.00 | 78.00 | 76.00 | 79.00 | 79.00 | 77.00 | |||||
| 13 | Kingsley Siro – KWPN G \ Black \ 1999 \ Gribaldi x Hemmingway | NED | 480 | 78.00 | 74.25 | 73.50 | 71.25 | 75.25 | 74.00 | 74.00 | 75.304 | |
| Danielle Heijkoop D.Heykoop & T.E.G.van Grunsven & J.J.v.Verseveld | 80.00 | 78.00 | 76.00 | 72.00 | 78.00 | 74.00 | 76.00 | |||||
| 14 | Donnerfee – OLDBG M \ Bay \ 2000 \ De Niro x Rosenkavalier | BEL | 480 | 74.50 | 72.50 | 71.00 | 72.00 | 73.25 | 73.25 | 73.50 | 74.786 | |
| Claudia Fassaert Dirk Hooghe-Verhoeven | 78.00 | 75.00 | 74.00 | 79.00 | 76.00 | 78.00 | 77.00 | |||||
| 15 | Half Moon Delphi – HANN M \ Grey \ 2002 \ Dimaggio x West Wall | GBR | 480 | 73.25 | 74.75 | 72.00 | 72.75 | 72.50 | 74.00 | 73.00 | 74.232 | |
| Michael Eilberg Mr Jon And Mrs Julie Deverill | 74.00 | 79.00 | 74.00 | 75.00 | 75.00 | 75.00 | 75.00 |
