Record Olympic champion Isabell Werth has added the 20th German championship title to her incredible collection of titles, even without top horse Wendy.
The “eternal” value remains the measure of all things in dressage sport. What began in Münster in 1991 with their first championship title still has no end 35 years later. On the final day of the DM in Balve on Sunday, the 56-year-old did without top horse Wendy after her victory the day before in the Special, but was also able to rely on her young star Viva Gold.
Young talent hopes ride into focus behind Werth
With Wendy, the woman from Rheinberg won individual silver in addition to team gold at the Olympic Games in Paris two years ago. But in Balve she was unstoppable with her “understudy” Viva Gold in the final freestyle. 83.650 percentage points gave Werth a comfortable lead over Semmieke Rothenberger (Bad Homburg) with Farrington (80.880) and Raphael Netz (Tuntenhausen) with Great Escape Camelot (79.030).
While Charlott-Maria Schürmann (Gehrde) had impressed with her Dante’s Pearl in third place in the special on Saturday, this time the young hopefuls Rothenberger and Netz came out on top behind Werth. At the important screening tournament before the big highlight of the year in Aachen, all three are likely to have at least become the focus of national coach Monica Theodorescu.
Katharina Hemmer and Ingrid Klimke did not start in Balve
The World Championship returns to the Soers from August 11th to 23rd. In Balve, however, all participants benefited from the weakened starting field: Katharina Hemmer and Ingrid Klimke, part of the German European Championship team last year, missed the championships completely this year due to the fitness of their horses, Frederic Wandres, who was second in the DM the day before, was no longer at the start with his Olympic horse Bluetooth in the free skate.
In the special, Werth also had a very narrow victory over her Parisian teammate with Viva Gold – she competed with two horses on Saturday, with only the best-placed horse being counted – but unlike Wendy, she is not riding her young hopeful in her own league.
Show jumper Kukuk wins championship title for the first time
In the show jumping category, Olympic champion Christian Kukuk became German champion for the first time. The 36-year-old won the play-off at Akarad Tivoli. Like Marco Kutscher on Cool Fox and Maximilian Lill on Cascallo’s George, Kukuk remained without penalty points in the two special stages with a total of three laps.
In the jump-off, Kukuk again made no mistakes on his ten-year-old gelding. Meanwhile, Kutscher finished with eight penalty points and Lill with twelve penalty points. A day earlier, Laura Klaphake won the women’s title on Quizano van’t Merelsnest.
Our sources:
- News agencies sid and dpa
- Balve tournament community
Broadcast: WDR.de“Werth celebrates 20th dressage title”, June 7, 20264:03 p.m
