Double gold for Germany at eventing

Germany secured double gold as the Longines FEI European eventing championships concluded yesterday at Blair Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Team member Michael Jung defended the individual title he won two years ago in Sweden but this time on the youngest horse in the field, the eight-year-old Jaguar Mail gelding fischerTakinou. The pair were the only ones in the competition to complete on their dressage score, 33.50.

The Germans won gold on a total of 122.70, host nation Great Britain, took team silver ahead of France who, in claiming the bronze medal on 183.70, qualified for next year’s Olympic Games as did Sweden in fifth.

The Irish team was decimated on Saturday with Joseph Murphy (Sportsfield Othello), Padraig McCarthy (Simon Porloe) and Austin O’Connor (Balham Houdini) all being unseated and subsequently eliminated from the competition.