Michael Jung leads Germany to team gold at close of Blenheim Europeans cross-country as rest of team leaderboard juggled

Germany holds team gold in the Agria Blenheim European Championships cross-country results, with a fast clear round for Michael Jung confirming their team place and giving him individual silver overnight.

Michael piloted FischerChipmunk FRH round with 10 time-penalties, the sixth fastest round of the day, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his individual lead and he has dropped behind Britain’s Laura Collett and London 52, who hold the gold. Britain’s Tom McEwen sits in bronze with JL Dublin.

“I tried not to override him in the beginning and to keep a good feeling,” said Michael. “I tried to ride as fast as possible in a few places, but also to let him breathe and have the last few jumps still under control. The feeling was amazing – he was full of running to the last fence.”

There was plenty of action in the final rotation of team riders, before the Blenheim European Championships cross-country results were confirmed.

Germany has a commanding 37 penalties over the rest, with Malin Hansen-Hotopp (Carlitos Quidditch K, seventh) and Jérôme Robiné (eighth) joining Michael as the counting scores.

Behind Germany, the following three teams are grouped within 16.4 penalties, setting the stage for an exciting showjumping showdown tomorrow.

Ian Cassells was the very last rider of the day on course and added 13.6 time-faults with the 11-year-old grey Millridge Atlantis to secure silver overnight for Ireland (and 10th for himself), with Padraig McCarthy (Pomp N Circumstance) and championship debutant Robbie Kearns (Chance Encounter) providing the other counting scores.

“It’s my second championships, so to be part of the team, with a little bit more experience than last time, is amazing,” said Ian. “There was a bit of pressure on for the team, but thankfully the orders came across and we delivered. We’re in silver now, and top 10 individually.

“It didn’t completely go to plan –I lost a stirrup at The Raging Bull Roller Coaster and he kind of drifted left and caught me by surprise, and then in the pond [fence 20abc] I’d planned to go on five strides, but he jumped in so big I thought I’d better commit and ride the distance – but that’s cross-country riding and you have to make it happen.”

Felix Vogg had a stop at the triple brush into The Suregrow Dew Pond (fence 6abc) with Frieda. This took the possibility of silver overnight away from Switzerland, but they could afford for him to become the discard score and still finish the day in bronze, moving up from fourth after dressage. Their counting scores come from Mélody Johner (Erin, sixth individually), Nadja Minder (Toblerone) and Robin Godel (Global DHI).

France’s final rider, Astier Nicolas, broke a frangible at the middle rail of the triple bar arrowhead out of the  The Suregrow Dew Pond (fence 6abc) with Alertamalib’Or, which was damaging to France’s hopes of staying in the podium positions. They drop to fourth overnight.

Lea Siegl’s 9.6 time-penalties with Van Helsing P confirmed a good day for the three-man Austrian team, which moves up to fifth, having been sixth after dressage. Individually, Lea ends the day in equal fourth, sharing the place with German individual rider Calvin Böckmann (The Phantom Of The Opera).

Lea was stopped after fence 14 because the rider before her, Vittoria Panizzon (DHI Jackpot), had broken a frangible device at fence 22.

“The people standing there were quite nice, and they had sponges and cooled him down. He stayed calm and relaxed a bit, as far as it’s possible. I tried to keep the rhythm afterwards, because it’s a bit of a rhythm breaker if you have a stop in the middle of the course, keep going forward and I came into the rhythm again. I was super happy with how brave he was,” said Lea.

Italy is the other nation still in the team contest in the Blenheim European Championships cross-country results, sitting sixth, their effort spearheaded by Vittoria in 27th.

Falls for Yasmin Ingham (Rehy DJ) and Piggy March (Halo) mean the British team, which runs in partnership with Agria, is out of the team competition.

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