Germany grabbed the lead over the Netherlands and United States in the first round of the equestrian team show jumping yesterday with two riders leading the field with flawless performances.
Germany, looking for their third consecutive team jumping gold medal, finished the first of the two rounds of the team competition at the Markopoulo equestrian centre outside Athens with just four penalty points. The Netherlands and the United States were even in second place with eight penalty points while Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium were in a three-way tie for fourth place. Brazil were seventh with 16 and Italy eighth on 19.
Germans Ludger Beerbaum on Goldfever and Marco Montender on Kutscher rode a clear round on the 14-obstacle course with its 17 jumping efforts of up to 1.6 meters high. The scores of the top three riders per team are counted and Christian Ahlmann’s four point penalty was the only blemish for Germany.
The top 10 four-man teams will compete in the final round of the team competition yesterday evening.
The scores from the two team jumping rounds are also used for the individual show jumping competition that concludes with two rounds on Friday.
For the Netherlands, Jan-Gert Bruggink on Joel had a clear round while Wim Schroder on Montreal and Leopold van Asten on Fleche Rouge each knocked down one rail for the team’s two four-point penalties.
For the United States, Chris Kappler on Royal Kaliber and Beezie Madden on Authentic had perfect rounds but McLain Ward on Sapphire had two misses for eight penalty points.
Two horses were injured in heavy falls. A gelding ridden by France’s Bruno Broucqsault and a mare ridden by Argentina’s Frederico Sztyrle were taken to a nearby clinic. There was no immediate word on their condition.
