A good day for Belgium's Karin Donckers Photo courtesy Katarzyna Boryna/Strzegom Horse Trials
The German team of Andreas Dibowski, Beeke Jankowski and Falk-Filip-Finn Westerich lead after the cross country phase of the FEI Nations Cup at Strzegom in Poland.
Sweden takes the second spot and Great Britain heads into the show jumping in third place with Alex Bragg the leading British rider on Redpath Ransom. Alex was the only rider to produce a double clear cross country round , moving him from 20th after dressage into fifth place individually but it didn’t all go Team GB’s way with Dani Dunn having a fall at the water and Frankie Reid-Warrilow’s team horse Dolley Whisper picking up 20 penalties at 19A,the same fence that also caught out Olivia Craddock’s Billy Liffy
“It was not easy” says Frankie Reid-Warrilow “It was a lot harder than I anticipated when I walked the course”
The line after the second water complex certainly proved difficult and there were some other fences that caught the riders by surprise such as the chequered yellow and black fences on the small hills. Quite a few riders had problems with run-outs and the time and having a rider jumping the wrong fence at the end of the course was frustrating for the team from the Netherlands.
Germany now leads with almost 30 points in hand heading into the show jumping with the team placings currently;
1. Germany 2. Sweden 3. Great Britain 4. Netherlands 5. Italy. 6. Poland
In the individual scores on the FEI Nations Cup Kai Rüder continues to have a successful visit to Strzegom in first place followed by three other German riders and Germany is going to be very hard to beat.
However in the CCI3* it was Karin Donckers who had a great day with two horses in the top ten (1st and 8th). There were plenty of changes in top ten with refusals and time penalties changing the scoreboard but the top three currently are Karin Donckers / Fletcha van´t Verahof in 1st, Merel Blom / Rumor Has it N.O.P in 2nd and Eveline Bodenmüller / Waldmann in 3rd.
In the CIC1* show jumping the overnight leader Noora Cederberg riding Tilda V had one fence down in the last line leaving her in second place closely followed by Julia Elzanowska riding Lucky Comeback in third. Julia rode a clear round both in the cross country and show jumping but nothing could touch the winner of the day Janet Wiesner on her 16-year-old horse FST Golden Joy. Janet had a great start in the dressage and clear rounds in both cross country and show jumping made her the winner just seven weeks after giving birth to a baby girl
The CIC 2* was almost all about the German riders from start to finish. The only riders who had a chance to beat the Germans riders out of a victory in the showjumping today was Jan Kaminski riding Senior and Merel Blom riding The Quizmaster. Unfortunately Jan had one fence down and Merel two fences leaving the German team with a complete top three starring Rebecca-Juana Gerken on Scipio S in 3rd , Elmar Lesch / Lanzelot 113 in 2nd and the unstoppable Kai Rüder in both 1st and 4th place .
Julia Gillmaier riding Quinton 14, the overnight leader in the CCI 1* continued to have super day leaving her still in first position after today´s cross country.
