Aachen tinged with orange as Dutch claim 2015 European title.

Holland have ridden to victory in the team show-jumping at the European Championships in Aachen, Germany.
The world champions were in second place after the first stage behind provisional leaders France, but the French failed to replicate their early performances and ended up slipping all the way down into fifth place behind Great Britain and a Switzerland team that along with Germany was able to climb onto the podium in third and second place respectively.
Focusing back to the winners, Holland coach Rob Ehrens fielded the almost exact line-up that won the world championships in Caen, France. There were only minimal changes as Jur Vrieling competed with VDL Zirocco Blue instead of the now retired jumper VDL Bubalu while fellow jumper Glock’s Cognac Champlanc came in for Glock’s London with rider Gerco Schroder. Maikel van der Vleuten with VDL Groep Verdi and Jeroen Dubbeldam with Zenith SFN remained the same and the gold medal in Aachen caps off a remarkable run by the Dutch side and with also the World title in the bag, they remain the nation to beat.
The second stage of the team show-jumping also saw an excellent performance by the Swiss with 2 of its riders registering double clears with Romain Duguet on stallion Quorida de Treho and Paul Estermann on Castlefield Eclipse. Their performances helped the Swiss to third place and the bronze medal. Double clears were also registered by Ukraine’s Cassio Rivetti with Vivant, Jeroen Dubbeldam with Zenith SFN and by a surprising Sergio Alvarez Moya with Carlo 273. Dutch rider Jur Vrieling with VDL Zirocco Blue went close, but picked up one penalty in the second stage of the event.
As for the hosts, the Germans made very few errors in the second phase. There was a clear for Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and the beautiful grey mount Fibonacci 17 (4 penalties in the first stage) while Christian Ahlmann with Taloubet Z likewise cleared. Ludger Beerbaum with Chiara 222 and Daniel Deusser with Cornet d’Amour amassed 4 penalties after clearing the first stage the day before and it was enough to finish in front of Switzerland, but not enough to take the gold.
Narrowly missing out on the medals was team GB in fourth place. The British team were without star rider Scott Brash and so turned to 20 year-old debutant Jessica Mendoza (with Spirit T) alongside the experience of Ben Maher with Diva II, Michael Whitaker on Cassionato and Joe Clee on Utamaro d’Ecaussines. The youngest member of the team certainly didn’t let herself down with 12 penalties in round 1 and just 4 in the second. It wasn’t enough however to go through to the final of the individual show jumping event scheduled for tomorrow.
France as mentioned above missed out on the medals after sitting in pole position at the end of the first stage. Not one of the French riders cleared the course while Penelope Leprevost has also lost her place at the top of the individual standings. The latter collected 4 penalties with her mount Flora de Mariposa just like Simon Delestre with Ryan des Hayettes after clearing the course in the first stage. There were 8 penalties for Kevin Staut with Reveur de Hurtebise (who also cleared the course the day before) while Jerome Hurel with Quartz Rouge ends the European Championships with a total of 14 penalties.
FINAL STANDINGS
GOLD – HOLLAND 8.820
SILVER – GERMANY 12.400
BRONZE – SWITZERLAND 18.230
4th Great Britain 18.990
5th France 21.700
6th Spain 25.580
7th Ireland 25.960
8th Ukraine 32.030
9th Sweden 44.300
10th Denmark 47.270
CLICK HERE for more: http://results.aachen2015.de/show/7/event/31/championship/team/standing/
As for the provisional standings in the individual category, Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya (1.47) now leads the way. In second we find Ukraine’s Cassio Rivetti (2.31) and in third Dutch rider Jeroen Dubbeldam (2.68). The rest of the top-ten is as follows:
4th Romain Duguet SUI 3.66
5th Penelope Leprevost FRA 4.00
6th Jur Vrieling NED 4.29
7th Ludger Beerbaum GER 4.75
8th Joe Clee GBR 5.00
9th Gregory Wathelet BEL 5.04
10th Ben Maher GBR 5.55
The best ranked Italian is Piergiorgio Bucci in 20th (9.65) and he books a place in the final. Lorenzo De Luca follows behind in 42nd (19.88) while Daniele Augusto Da Rios falls down to 43rd. The latter rider collected 17 penalties in the second stage and finished with a score of 20.70. Emanuele Gaudiano was 60th. See here for more: http://results.aachen2015.de/show/7/event/31/championship/individual/standing/
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