Two-time team Olympic champion McLain Ward (USA) won the European Prize at the CHIO in Aachen, the first highlight of the show jumping competitions.
On the 13-year-old gelding Contagious, Ward won with a lead of seven hundredths of a second over world number one Martin Fuchs (Switzerland) with Conner Jei. The best German was Daniel Deußer with Bingo Ste Hermelle in eighth place, after the first round he was still in the lead.
In addition to Deußer, only last year’s German champion Tobias Meyer reached the second round of the 14 best with Greatest Boy, he was twelfth after two knockdowns.
European champion Andre Thieme with Conacco dropped out after the first round, as did four-time Olympic champion Ludger Beerbaum with Mila and three-time World Cup winner Marcus Ehning with Priam du Roset.