Germany’s Sandra Auffarth has knocked Brit William Fox-Pitt off the top spot after the eventing dressage at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, while Team GBR has dropped to fifth place in the team rankings.
Clear lead
Riding Opgun Louvo, the German rider went into a clear lead, finishing on 35.2pen. William was relegated to second with his 37.5pen test from yesterday.
Germany has a massive lead in the team competition, with three team riders – Auffarth, Michael Jung and Ingrid Klimke – in the top five. Their team score is 116.9 while New Zealand are in the silver medal position with 125.5.
Britain has slipped right down to fifth place on 142, although they are less than one showjump behind the USA team after this phase, so there’s still plenty to play for.
Individuals
William, who was part of the gold medal-winning team at the last WEG in Kentucky, is the only member of the team to be in the top 30 after dressage.
Individual rider Oliver Townendfared better, finishing in 21stwhile fellow individual Nicola Wilson now lies 18th.
Oliver was pleased with his performance with Karyn Shuter’s Black Tie.
“I’m really pleased with that test; we didn’t quite get the draw we wanted and he was a bit green in there but I’m still really pleased. It’s his first championships and he’s certainly not done himself any harm with that score,” said Oliver.
Team
Tina Cookfinished on a round 50pen score with De Novo News. “I am a bit disappointed as I know we can do better,” said Tina. “He warmed up well but just got tense with the atmosphere in the arena and went a bit babyish on me which caused a few mistakes which you can’t afford to have at this level. It just wasn’t meant to be today.”
Zara Phillips, who rode yesterday, is now in 53rd, while the last Brit to go today was Harry Meade, who is in 59th place with Wild Lone.
Testing
The cross-country at Haras Du Pin gets underway at 10am local time. After wet weather all week, the ground conditions are likely to be testing and the course is a true four-star challenge.
“The course is a true championship one with plenty of questions,” said Tina Cook. “From walking it, it walks very big and Pierre Michelet has done a good job of creating rider frightener fences, it will be a real test and challenge for everybody.”
At Badminton this spring, wet conditions led to an unusually influential cross-country, and Tina believes that tomorrow’s course will ensure that it won’t be a dressage competition. “De Novo News is a good horse across country and is very scopey so I am looking forward to the challenge, and for GB to hopefully make up some lost ground.”
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