Switzerland shines as Spain looks to the future at the European Show Jumping Championships | Sports

If at the last Tokyo Olympics the Swedish jockeys were dominant in the showjumping event on horseback, in the 2021 European Championships, to be held in Rizenbeek (Germany), it is the Swiss team that stands out above all, with the team event winning and with the selection of Martin Fuchs As the best single player.

Fuchs was paired with the horses “Leone Jei” and after this success he was happy to receive “another gold medal for his family”, as his father – the current coach of the team – had already won the title in 1983.

The team’s final match was very competitive, as the hosts squeezed the results table and jumped very quickly through the technical circuit Risenbeek, which despite health restrictions had 2,100 people in the stands.

After a complicated first race by Swiss rider Eliane Baumann, with the ‘Campari Z’ dropping three slides, along with another knockout for teammate Brian Balsiger, Germans Andre Thiem and Marcus Ening made a perfect two rounds, with the title looking destined to stay in the the home.

However, in the second half of the competition, Germany added four errors and it was the turn of the best Swiss members. First, Fuchs and finally Steve Guerdat, Olympic champion in 2012, with “Albfuehren’s Maddox”, they changed the situation.

“I got a little nervous because I was losing control of my horse, it got really nervous after the three-part and I had to force myself to stay calm and finish without thinking about the outcome. And I did, so it was a big relief after that,” said Gerdes in an interview with the IAAF. Equestrian (FEI).

And in the bronze medal, the battle was between the current Olympic team champion, Sweden, and the regional champion of the European Championship Rotterdam 2019, Belgium, who led by 10 points.

As for Spain, the national team took seventh place, out of a total of 15 participants, improving its results from two years ago in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, when it took 12th place.

Only Eduardo Alvarez Aznar, this time with the binomial “legend”, repeated the competitions regarding the European past; Although the best rider was Manuel Fernandez Sarro who committed with Garleen de Torres one knockout and one penalty kick only, compared to the three knockouts between the two rounds by Alvarez Aznar.

Overcoming much stronger teams such as Great Britain and Italy, Spain keeps its readiness to play well in the Nations Cup with the leap which, after the break due to the pandemic, returns to Barcelona at the beginning of October.

The European Championship 2021 celebrates, on Saturday, the first classification of the singles program, and the final will be on Sunday, as the Swiss compete for the title with Swede Peter Frederickson, the always dangerous Belgian Jose Verloy and the German Thiem.