Germany the big favorite in team dressage
Sports Desk, Jul 21 (EFE).- Germany, with 13 gold medals in Olympic Equestrian Dressage, is the favorite to climb to the top of the podium at Tokyo 2020 in this team competition that is to have its medals test on July 27.
Since the dressage competition was first introduced at the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928, the Germans, who that year beat Sweden and the Netherlands, have been dominant and it’s looking very much like gold medal number 14 is just around the corner.
Isabell Werth, the six-time Olympic champion, nine-time world champion and 20-time European champion, will lead the German lineup with the mare Bella Rose.
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with TSF Dalera BB and Dorothee Schneider with Showtime FRH complete the trio that has Helen Langehanenberg and her mare Annabelle in reserve.
Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester, the British duo that took silver in Rio 2016, will repeat this year, but both on relatively unexposed horses.
The Netherlands, which took team bronze in 2016, is represented by Edward Gal with Total US and Hans Peter Minderhoud with Dream Boy.
Despite all the disruption suffered in the last 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the equine herpes virus (EHV-1) outbreak in Continental Europe, the German team comes to the Games as defending champion and top contender to take the title.
However, the three-per team format introduced for this year’s Games could prove highly influential. One off day for just one team member and the story could be very different because every ride will be critical.
Stealing the show this year is Australia’s Mary Hanna, whose horse Calanta was the very first to arrive into the stables at Baji Koen Equestrian Park in Tokyo earlier this week.
Equestrian fans all around the world are putting their hearts behind this mother of two and grandmother of four who, at the age of 66, is tackling her sixth Olympics.
