Italians crowned reining champions in Aachen

Italian reiners defeated the Germans at FEI European Championships in Aachen yesterday (August 14) to claim team gold.

Our day

It was a tightly fought battle between the rival countries, with just two points separating the winners from the silver medallists.

But the Italian’s had the edge, and fielding a team of relatively young riders the group was overjoyed to take the top spot with a total score of 658 points.

The German’s had to settle for silver with a final score of 656 points, followed by the Dutch who put in a strong performance to claim bronze with 644 points.

Italian chef d’epuipe Filippo Masi said: “We are competing with a very young team and weren’t really sure how things would go. We only knew that Germany had got a strong team. But it was simply our day today.”

Tightly fought

German Volker Schmitt laid down the gauntlet with score of 217 with Smokin Mifillena, but when team mate Stephan Rohde was eliminated after his horse scraped itself the pressure was on for the remaining riders.

Elias Ernst stood up to the test to collect 217.5 points – leaving the team in a strong position with one rider to go.

But last-to-go for the Italians – 22-year-old junior and young rider gold medallist Giovanni Masi de Vargas – set an incredible target for the Germans with a whopping score of 221.5 with Dance Little Spook.

This meant the final German rider Grischa Ludwig would have to score 224 to take the top spot. The German champion, who was fourth in the World Equestrian Games, put in valiant performance but couldn’t match the Italian’s score.

More bling for Anky

The Dutch riders, who counted dressage legend Anky van Grunsven among their numbers, were thrilled to take home bronze – their first European championship medal in the discipline.

Anky calls reining her ‘hobby’ – but even as a relative newcomer to the sport she is already picking up medals at the highest levels of competition.

The team from Great Britain managed a strong performance despite having just three riders to claim fourth (635 points), closely followed by France in fifth (634.5 points) with Denmark claiming sixth.

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