Michael Jung snatches gold medal position from Britain’s Laura Collett – but is disappointed with cross-country course

Germany’s Michael Jung has replaced Britain’s Laura Collett at the top of the eventing World Championships dressage leaderboard. Michael and FischerChipmunk FRH dazzled the Pratoni judges to receive a score of 18.8 to take over the gold medal position from Laura and London 52, who scored a personal best of 19.3 yesterday.

The 14-year-old gelding by Contendro I x Heraldik produced a flowing, fault-free round, with particularly high marks given for the medium and extended canter and flying changes. The pair also banked 10s for their final centre line, despite a slightly crooked halt, and for the harmony between horse and rider.

“I’m really proud of my horse; FischerChipmunk is an amazing horse,” said Michael. “It is just wonderful if you can compete at this high level at a championship with another horse, another superstar, and it’s amazing how he performed in the arena. He just brings everything inside and you can ride like you ride at home, so this is a great feeling. He’s so relaxed, but still powerful, and concentrated, so you can ride everything that you train for.”

With Michael’s test, Germany become the first team to complete this phase, finishing the eventing World Championships dressage on a score of 76.1. They are five points behind leaders Britain, who still have one rider to go who could widen the gap further: Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class, who will enter the ring at 4.54pm local time (3.54pm BST).

Former world champion Michael will likely start tomorrow’s cross-country in pole position, but revealed he is disappointed in Giuseppe della Chiesa’s track.

“I’m not so happy about the cross-country, because it is a beautiful place but he didn’t use the whole course. He made it very twisty with many turns where you have to slow down and it’s difficult to find a really nice rhythm at this high level. So it makes it much more complicated,” said Michael.

“But there are nice jumps and a lot of nice alternative routes for some people or horses who do not have the best experience. You want the course to have a few options, so that you can still arrive safely home.”

Eventing World Championships dressage: ‘This may well be his last big one’

China’s Alex Hua Tian made an impact as he slammed a brilliant score of 23.6 on the table – a new personal best at this level for the Britain-based rider and the 15-year-old British Hanoverian gelding Don Geniro.

Alex and this expressive gelding glided through his eventing World Championships dressage test, picking up nines for two of his flying changes, and a 10 for his final centre line.

“I’m very proud of him – he’s 15 now and he seems to get hotter and fizzier as the years go by,” said Alex, adding that Don does not tend to enjoy “heat and hill’, and that he found the journey from the UK to Pratoni quite tough.

The eventing World Championships weren’t Alex’s plan A for 2022 – he had hoped to compete for China at the Asian Games this month, but the event was postponed due to Covid, and so the pair switched their focus to Pratoni.

“This may well be his last big one,” revealed Alex. “He’s getting to that stage in life and career, so we decided to bring him whether we were competitive or not. I think tomorrow will be relatively academic in terms of competitiveness – we’ll set off and try to have a nice round, to look after him and make sure he comes home safely.

“I’m happy to admit that he is quite a hard horse to deal with in life,” continued Alex. “He has quite a lot of quirks and he’s very much a horse that when the stars align and your educated guesswork and his management is good, then everything goes well. But if you don’t get one thing quite right, then the way he is as a person, he sort of punishes you for it at a competition. He has been a horse who suits championships, because you can work your way up to a big event and put everything in place.”

You may also be interested in…

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‘I’m on one of the very best horses in the world’: Britain’s Laura Collett delivers super test to lead dressage in Pratoni

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