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Germans establish authority ahead of Dressage team medals finale

Tokyo, Jul 25 (EFE).- Team Germany continued to build up a head of steam while moving to the top of the Dressage Grand Prix leaderboard at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Sunday.

Two great rides, Dorothee Schneider with Showtime and the living legend that is Isabell Werth with Bella Rose, secured pole position at the end of the competition which decided the eight nations that will proceed to Tuesday’s medal-decider, the Grand Prix Special in which all teams start from scratch.

Joining the defending champions will be Great Britain, who finished second on Sunday, followed by Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and Spain.

Meanwhile, the 18 individuals who have made the cut to Wednesday’s Individual medal decider have also been confirmed, specifically the two best from each of the six qualifying groups:

Charlotte Fry and Charlotte Dujardin (GBR), Therese Nilshagen and Juliette Ramel (SWE), Cathrine Dufour and Carina Cassoe Kruth (DEN), Edward Gal (NED), Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, Dorothee Schneider and Isabell Werth (GER), Sabine Schut-Kery and Adrienne Lyle (USA) will all pass through.

Also qualifying were the six next-best individuals: Nanna Skodborg Merrald (DEN), Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (ESP, i.e. Spain), Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED), Carl Hester (GBR), Rodrigo Torees (POR) and Steffen Peters (USA).

The top two spots were claimed by Denmark’s Cassoe Kruth and America’s Lyle in Group D when the action resumed Sunday evening, and Germany’s Schneider headed up Group E after a lovely test.

Schneider, who has only recently returned to top competition for a variety of reasons, said that her horse was “a little bit tense but it’s normal for him on (the) first day.”

“Showtime competed at the European Championships in 2019 and then he was at home because I wanted to keep him safe for the Olympic Games in 2020 and then there were no Games! I wanted to start early in 2021 but then I had an accident in April. But he’s an experienced horse and once he gets out to compete three or four times he’s fine,” she said of the gelding who carried her to team gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and who she has ridden since he was a three-year-old.

A fall when a horse she was competing on dropped dead during an award ceremony left her with a broken collarbone, “but it’s all good now!” she said, adding, “It took a little time to come back and it wasn’t so easy mentally, but we are back now and I’m happy again.”

Schneider’s compatriot Werth headed up the final group of 10 horse-and-athlete combinations and, as the last to compete on Sunday night, underpinned the solidity of the German challenge. She and her beloved Bella Rose scored 82,500 points and Werth knocked Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and the charming little chestnut gelding Gio into second place in that group.

However both of these ladies look to have a lot more in store for the coming days. And Dujardin, whose reign of supremacy with the great Valegro changed the sport of Dressage a great deal in recent years, is clearly super-excited about her latest rising star. You could feel that rivalry between her and the evergreen queen, Werth, filling the air once again on Sunday night.

Talking about Gio, Dujardin said, “I was so happy, he’s a very green, inexperienced horse, so it was a bit of the unknown what to expect. Hagen (Germany in April earlier this year) is the biggest show he’s done and he delivered there.”

“I couldn’t ask for any more today, he went in there and he tried his heart out,” she went on to say. “He’s just unbelievable, he keeps giving. I felt emotional on the last centreline because when you have a ride like that, win or lose that’s what it’s all about for me.”

“He’s like a little powerhouse, he’s small but definitely mighty, for where he is at his training I know he can give even more and I’m so happy with him”, she said.

Werth clearly enjoys the renewed rivalry with her British counterpart because it feeds her competitive edge. “It’s always very important that you have strong field of competitors because then you push each other to top performances and that’s the spirit of competition,” she pointed out.

She described 17-year-old Bella Rose as “my dream horse and when she’s in top shape she is the best – her way of moving, her character, her charisma, her piaffe/passage down the centerline – of course Weihe (her other mare Weihegold) is super, and the younger ones too, but with Bella you have the feeling there is always something more possible!”

Talking about these “Games like no other” in Tokyo, the multiple Olympic champion said the lack of an audience – due to coronavirus gathering restrictions – could be influential. “Mostly you will see it in the medal decisions, especially in the Freestyle. There will be music but no crowd to carry the horses and riders – it makes a big difference – but on the other hand we are so happy that we can be here, can compete that we have an Olympic Games.”

“We are in a discipline that is really depending on Games, because then we are more in the focus of the media and the world and it gives the younger riders at home the motivation and support so it’s a big package we have, and we are very thankful to be here,” she said.

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