Equestrian FEI Eventing European Championships 2023 Road to Paris 2024

[phelps 6,883]

 Michael Jung 19.4 and takes the lead with quite some margin on the  armada

 

 still leading the team ranking, with  being the only opponent for the team title at the moment

 

now it's time for the bloody fight for the olympic spot between  and  with their respective 4th riders in succession ( for now are ahead of them, thanks basically to the very good ride by Karen Donckers)

[Gianlu33 3,577]

Oh well, that not what I expect by Susanna. Not a great day for us.

[Rafa Maciel 1,260]

13 minutes ago, phelps said:

 Michael Jung 19.4 and takes the lead with quite some margin on the  armada

 

 still leading the team ranking, with  being the only opponent for the team title at the moment

 

now it's time for the bloody fight for the olympic spot between  and  with their respective 4th riders in succession ( for now are ahead of them, thanks basically to the very good ride by Karen Donckers)

Personally think that Italy have the more balanced team - all of them are capable of scoring low to mid 30s. Bit surprised that Bordone scored so poorly - 7 points less than she managed at the Worlds (I appreciate that this is a different dressage test so direct comparisons aren't possible) 

 

For Netherlands and Belgium, their team performance is really build around 1 rider - Heffernan for  and Donckers for . 

 

Still think that Italy are marginal favourites for the second quota behind Belgium but ahead of Netherlands.

[phelps 6,883]

1 hour ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Personally think that Italy have the more balanced team - all of them are capable of scoring low to mid 30s. Bit surprised that Bordone scored so poorly - 7 points less than she managed at the Worlds (I appreciate that this is a different dressage test so direct comparisons aren't possible) 

 

For Netherlands and Belgium, their team performance is really build around 1 rider - Heffernan for  and Donckers for . 

 

Still think that Italy are marginal favourites for the second quota behind Belgium but ahead of Netherlands.

I hope so, but I fear that our team isn't good enough in cross-country...we risk to be too much behind  and  before the final show jumping phase (which should be favourable to us again)

[phelps 6,883]

Team Ranking after Dressage

 

1.  67.1

2.  76.3

3.  90.9*

=4.  93.1

=4.  93.1*

6.  94.4

7.  98.9

8.  99.1*

9.  103.5*

 

* = teams fighting for 2 Olympic spots

[phelps 6,883]

Individual Ranking after Dressage

 

1.  Michael Jung 19.4

2.  Rosalind Carter 21.3

3. Tom McEwen 22.0

4.  Laura Collett 22.4

5.  Yasmin Ingham 23.4

6.  Tom Jackson 25.7

7.  Jerome Robine 26.0

8.  Karin Donckers 26.5

[dcro 10,182]

So far so good for Belgium.

We'll see what happens, but the Dutch have been pretty inconsistent across the country lately.

[Benolympique 1,654]

8 minutes ago, dcro said:

So far so good for Belgium.

We'll see what happens, but the Dutch have been pretty inconsistent across the country lately.

does italy still have a chance?

[Rafa Maciel 1,260]

12 minutes ago, Benolympique said:

does italy still have a chance?

Absolutely - Netherlands have less than 2 fences in hand over Italy and they still have to get round the Cross Country. 

 

Looking at the recent results the dutch team don't chase the cross country time so can easily rack up 20-30 time faults.

 

Theoretically, Andrew Heffernan should be the weakest link in the Dutch team - he's ranked 121 in the world - but he has had some solid results this year and is very much the team leader this weekend. He will be their pathfinder for tomorrow's cross country and should be able to put in a solid round although would expect him to be outside of the optimum time. If he puts in a good round, it will give the rest of the team a boost of confidence. 

 

Janneke Boonzaaijer had a good result in both Strzegom and Baborowko this year - but again on neither occasion was she within the optimum time. Also worth pointing out that this pairing were eliminated during the cross country at the Tokyo Olympics. 

 

Sanne de Jong will be the 3rd rider for Netherlands and is perhaps, the weakest link of the team having been eliminated in the last Europeans and picking up 48 cross country penalties at the worlds last year although she does have a 5th place finish from Strzegom event in June. 

 

Finally, Merel Blom-Hulsman is the 4th line rider for the team but can't see any recent results for this pairing.

 

 

[dcro 10,182]

8 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Janneke Boonzaaijer had a good result in both Strzegom and Baborowko this year - but again on neither occasion was she within the optimum time. Also worth pointing out that this pairing were eliminated during the cross country at the Tokyo Olympics. 

One of the couple to get eliminated at those Olympics for jumping the same obstacle twice.  Didn't get the alternate routes right back then.

 

9 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Finally, Merel Blom-Hulsman is the 4th line rider for the team but can't see any recent results for this pairing.

A bit of an unknown quantity, but the Dutch team selectors seem to be pretty confident to put her in the anchor position.

 

It's still all open between with tomorrow likely being the big day. would need to get extremely lucky, especially since they didn't make themselves any favors by not sending the fourth rider.