Germany dominates first leg of Nations Cup

Michael Jung has started the event season on top form, taking first and second place at Fontainebleau in France (27 March), while leading his team to victory in the opening leg of the FEI Nations Cup Eventing.

German domination

The Olympic and European champion took the individual CIC3* honours for the second year running, riding his faithful partner La Biosthetique Sam FBW – who is entered for this year’s Badminton.

Germany dominated the competition, taking the top three places, as well as winning the team event. Michael was second on FischerRocana FST while world champion Sandra Auffarth came third with Opgun Louvo.

Sandra was the only rider to finish the cross-country without time penalties, crossing the line exactly on the optimum time of 6 minutes 15 seconds.

Mixed day for Brits

It wasn’t a great day for all-female British team who dropped from fourth to sixth place, after both Gemma Tattersall (Quicklook V) and Dani Evans (Smart Time) had refusals at fence 18. Laura Collett was eliminated on the cross-country with Pamero 4.

Izzy Taylor, who had the second fastest cross-country time of the competition, was the highest placed Brit, finishing in 14th place on Allercombe Ellie.

Izzy did come sixth with her other ride, Orlando, while Nicola Wilson and One Two Many finished ninth, though neither were part of the Nations Cup team.

Host nation second

The French host nation came second, while Ireland was third. Australia led after the dressage phase, but slipped to fourth when Andrew Hoy (Cheeky Calimbo) had a run-out at fence 10a.

The next leg of the Nations Cup 2016 series will be held at Ballindenisk in Ireland on 22-24 April.