Germany fight back to take team title

Germany continued its domination of show jumping in Rome yesterday, successfully defending the team title won at the last World Equestrian Games in The Hague four years ago, with the French making an incredible recovery in the second round of yesterday's team decider to match their 1994 silver.

The British quartet, which had led both the team and individual rankings after Wednesday's speed leg, fell to pieces yesterday morning, but rallied in spectacular fashion to snatch the bronze from the Swiss.

But even the most basic requirement - qualification for the Sydney 2000 Olympics - was denied the Irish, who were always fighting a rearguard action to remain in touch. With the Army horse Kilbaha failing to reproduce the form that has won him two Hickstead Derbies, Captain John Ledingham's team-mates were left swimming against the tide and eighth place was all they could salvage from the wreckage.

There was some compensation for Trevor Coyle and Erik Holstein, when both earned their slots in tomorrow's final individual qualifier. Coyle and the stallion Cruising, with a single error in both rounds of yesterday's Nations Cup style team final, ended up 17th, two places clear of Holstein and Ballaseyr Kalosha, who picked up just a single time fault in their second tour of the track.

Peter Charles and the Frenchbred Traxdata T'Aime, who had disappointed with two errors in Wednesday's opening leg, improved their form to hit just a single fence in each round yesterday. It wasn't quite enough to break through to tomorrow's top 25, but under the new system of reserves, Charles is first in line for call-up should anyone drop out above him.

But it was Deutschland uber Alles yesterday. With four perfect zeros in the first round, the Germans elevated themselves from Wednesday's surprise fourth slot to go into the second round holding all the trump cards.

The British had vacated pole position early yesterday, with Geoff Billington's stop at the first fence with It's Otto and Di Lampard's discard score on the Irish gelding Abbervail Dream giving the Germans just the leeway they needed. Britain fell to sixth at the halfway stage, with the Irish just making it through to the top 10 in ninth.

The French, who had claimed team gold at the inaugural World Equestrian Games in Stockholm eight years ago only to buckle under German pressure in The Hague four years later, were exerting an equine version of thumbscrews on their rivals at the break yesterday, with a mere .42 of a fault dividing the two teams.

But the Gallic challenge crumbled dramatically when Alexandra Ledermann, individual bronze medallist in the Atlanta Olympics, returned a cricket score 20 with Rochet M. Matters didn't improve when Roger-Yves Bost and Airborne Montecillo, footperfect in the first round, hit three at the second attempt.

Suddenly, the French were piling the pressure on themselves and only a double clear from team captain Thierry Pomel, with fractional time faults in each round, brought the situation back under control.

The British also turned the tide in their favour, scrambling back up from what had seemed a desperate plight at half-time to challenge for silver when Geoff Billington made suitable amends for his first round error with a clean sheet next time out.