Charlotte Dujardin battles for European gold

In the closest fought victory of her career, world and Olympic dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin defended her FEI European title and won gold in the Grand Prix Freestyle in Aachen.

By the skin of her teeth

The cool-headed rider claimed her fifth European gold medal with a score of 89.054% – just a quarter of a per cent ahead of silver medallist Kristina Bröring-Sprehe.

Victory was tantalisingly close for the German rider, who said that she rode her “best freestyle ever” with Desperados, but the mighty Valegro pipped her to the post.

Last-to-go after Kristina, Charlotte knew she had to do something special to out-do the German’s exceptional performance.

But Charlotte held her nerve and – despite making mistakes in her one-time changes – brought home gold for Great Britain.

Exciting

The British number one entered the arena as the German crowd were going wild at the news of Kristina’s score, but ever the professional, she said it did not put her off.

“I had to follow Kristina yesterday so I knew what was going to come,” she added. “And being here in Aachen with Kristina being in front of her home crowd I knew they were all rooting for her.

“I was really happy with the start of my test, I just came to the one’s and obviously I made a mistake.

“I really tried to ride them but I think I overrode them. Then I came round again and I think I had upset him. I was really happy with the rest of it.

“That is sport and it makes it more and more exciting. It would be really boring if I was winning by miles every time.”

Determined

The German 29-year-old looked disappointed to have to settle for silver, but seemed determined to improve her performance in the future.

“Desperados was so fantastic today he was so easy to ride,” she said. “It feels so good to ride in this atmosphere with the audience. It was my best freestyle ever. I want to do even better next year.”

Spanish rider Beatriz Ferrer-Salat was thrilled to take bronze with chestnut Delgado – who has missed out on a lot of competitions due to injury.

She said: “I have had the horse since he was six and he’s been injured a lot. Every time I did a show I had to stop him again but he was really good so I thought it worth keeping trying.

“Now he’s sound. Our goal was to qualify for the Olympics in Rio which we achieved.”

Barney’s learnt to dance

Charlotte’s mentor Carl Hester was also on top form and rode 18hh Nip Tuck (aka Barney) in one of the best performances of the gelding’s career to score 79.571%.

Fellow Brit Fiona Bigwood had also qualified for the freestyle section, but chose to withdraw the 10-year-old Atterupgaards Orthelia after fantastic performances in the team test and Grand Prix Special yesterday.

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