Olympic champions deliver only sub-20 score to hold individual gold after Blenheim Europeans dressage

Michael Jung leads overnight at the conclusion of the Agria Blenheim European Championships dressage, with his test also putting Germany into the team gold position after the first phase.

The final session today (19 September) featured a likely repeat of the Paris head to head between Michael and Britain’s Laura Collett, and after Laura scored 20.6, three-time European champion Michael needed a mark of 19.6 or better to give Germany the edge in the team standings. He delivered that and some with 18.3 on the now 17-year-old Olympic champion FischerChipmunk FRH.

Chipmunk showed a superb uphill outline, with lovely cadence and suspension in his paces, and made no mistakes in a virtually flawless performance. He earned nines across the board for his mid-test halt and nine other nines through his test sheet.

“I’m excited and very proud of FisherChipmunk, he’s just an amazing horse,” said Michael Jung after his Blenheim European Championships dressage.

“It’s just lovely to ride this horse and also today in the dressage. He was really good and listening well. I was always able to ride him with my legs and yes, there were just a few things to do [differently] – but I think there’s always something. So far so good and I’m very happy also to get the marks from the judges.”

Michael said he had “a little mistake after the first medium trot – this was a wake up”, perhaps referring to a tiny wobble at the start of the first shoulder-in, but it was certainly barely perceptible to watchers and his marks never dropped below 7.5 in this part of the test.

Asked about the pressure of riding such a horse, Michael said: “I’m very thankful to have such a horse and I’m very thankful to the Fischer Group for helping me with him. He’s a fantastic horse and I enjoy every day riding him. I enjoy riding him in every phase, so I enjoy it more than I feel the pressure.”

Michael said he is looking forward to tomorrow’s cross-country.

“We are in England, and it’s a big history country with the sport and horse people. I really love to compete in England. It’s a beautiful course and the ground is perfect,” he said.

This is the fifth time Michael and Chipmunk have led the dressage in their championship career together – but the only time they didn’t hold pole position after this phase, in Paris last year when they were bested between the white boards by Laura Collett and London 52, is the only time they’ve claimed the individual gold.

Britain, with a squad running in partnership with Agria, holds the other podium positions after the first phase, with Laura Collett (London 52) in silver and Tom McEwen (JL Dublin) in bronze.

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