The fact that the results of the qualifying rounds are not necessarily indicative of who will win medals was demonstrated once again at the Olympic Games in Paris. There were no medals for the Germans in today’s final, despite them having achieved the best result of all nations yesterday.
Instead, Great Britain won gold, silver went to the US team and France took bronze. The best result from a Holstein perspective was delivered by Uricas v/d Kattevennen by Uriko-Cassini I (Otto Boje Schoof, Hedwigenkoog), line 1916, and Harrie Smolders for the Netherlands: With just one time penalty point, they contributed to the team’s result, enabling the squad to ultimately finish in fourth place. Germany followed in fifth place with Christian Kukuk, Richard Vogel and Philipp Weishaupt (4,4,0), and Sweden came sixth. For Team Sweden, Zuccero HV by Zirocco Blue-Caretino (Hanno Köhncke, Badendorf), registration number 4539, with Rolf-Göran Bengtsson – after their outstanding clear round in the qualifier, they were missing that final bit of luck today: A fault at the first fence prevented another clear round, though the grey’s performance was otherwise once again characterised by impressive composure and quality over the jumps. Luck was also lacking for their team-mates Henrik von Eckermann and Peder Fredricson, who also recorded four penalty points.
On Monday, 5 August, the competition continues with the individual round on the course. All 75 pairs will compete in a fault-time jump-off to qualify for the individual final featuring the top 30 the following day (6 August).
The full results can be found here:
Photo: Stefan Lafrentz (Uricas v/d Kattevennen)
