European Championship 2008

The 2008 European Young Rider Championship in Prague

• Schedule • Course plans and results

My Course Design Notes
At the time when I received the information that I would be the Course designer for the European Championship I was in Zagreb as Course designer for the CSIO***W. For several months I had worked on my own marketing to get this job and I was very happy. But some days after I also realised that this job could destroy my name and or career if I do not do my job well. So I decided to make a list of important things I must consider.

1. Main goals:
1st individual qualifer must allow countries with not so high a level of riders and horses an opportunity to compete without too bad a result. It is important to encourage them to invest in knowledge and horses, „to involve them".

• I decided to make a very technical course with lot of options for the best riders but with not so big meassurments of the obstacles witch allows the unexperienced riders a chance to fulfil the course.
• Important to build a course witch minimizes risks of accidents but still increases the drama

2. To see how big the arena is:
The size of the arena was not so big only 80 x 57m, which will not allow difficult enough technical lines with more than three obstacles.

Solution:
• Straight line with technical difficulties on the diagonal and longside and less technical difficulties on bended lines.

The result was that of 76 riders only 5 did not fulfil the course and between the first 30 riders there was a small difference, still everone of them had a chance to win the final on sunday.

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TEAM

Britain and Switzerland walk away with the much deserved Junior and Young Rider gold medals at the FEI European Jumping Championships for Juniors and Young Riders held in Prague (CZE).

The Juniors
Britain's Accenture Junior team took the Gold medal at the 2008 FEI European Jumping Championships for Juniors in Prague, a feat which they had not accomplished since 2004 in Portugal.
From a starting field of eighteen nations (with 3 or four riders) entered in the Junior team competition a battle for medals ensued. Following the opening competition, Course Designer Eduard Petrovič lifted the bar and presented a much more difficult course, with bars reaching 140cm. The British got off to a good start, with just four penalty points after the first round, followed by Denmark with five and the Netherlands sitting on eight. The majority, at this stage, had 12 penalty points, namely Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Ireland.

The second round confirmed Britain's early lead, while Denmark also stayed put to clench silver. Third place was hotly disputed and went to Germany after a thrilling jump off with Switzerland.

Results:
1. Great Britain
2. Denmark
3. Germany

The Young Riders
Fifteen teams took part in the competition, and after a nail biting two rounds, Switzerland took gold, The Netherlands the silver while Britain held their nerve and produced three faultless rounds in the jump off with France to secure the bronze medal. The Swiss are not new to Young Rider success having won the team gold twice since the inception of the series, in 1998 and in 2006.
It was a nail biting experience for the Swiss and the Dutch as both teams were even up until the very last riders. The day went in favour of the Swiss, as Julia Delaporte riding Sir Singular (Switzerland) came out with a clear round while last year's individual gold medallist Wesley Heydens with Pavarottie H, riding last for the Dutch team had an unfortunate error on the water jump. Although it was still a remarkable success for the Dutch team as they edged one step closer to the top spot on the podium, having achieved team bronze last year with three out of the four riders present again on this occasion.

Results:
1. Switzerland
2. Netherlands
3. Great Britain

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INDIVIDUAL

The Juniors
Spain's Manuel Anon riding L'Oreal D'Utah proved unbeatable on the day producing nothing but clear rounds, and even when it came to the crunch during the jump off with Stefanie Lauber thus relegating her into second place. Third place, and also as a result of a jump off went to Switzerland's Martin Fuchs, son of Marcus Fuchs, riding Karin II CH. Unlucky in the final stages of the jump off, Matthew Sampson from Great Britain had to settle for fourth – although this was more than a worthy placing given the 100 starters vying a spot on the podium.

Results:
1. Manuel Anon (ESP) - L'Oreal D'Utah
2. Stefanie Lauber (SUI) – Chrescada
3. Martin Fuchs (SUI) – Karin II CH

The Young Riders
The Swiss didn't stop at team gold for the Young Riders as Philipp Züger riding Liatos II clenched his second gold of the Championships during the individual final with a score of 5.62. He was closely followed by Thomas Weinberg and Escobar 20 on a score of 5.62 from Germany. In third place came fellow German rider Christoph Brüse with 11.65, while Great Britain's William Whitaker only just missed out on a medal, coming in fourth place with a score of 11.83.

Results:
1. Philipp Züger (SUI) – Liatos II
2. Thomas Weinberg (GER) – Escobar 20
3. Christoph Brüse (GER) - Audrey D