It was game on from the very first minute of today’s competition for the squads competing for medals in the World Championship in Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning. The very first team in the arena in the first round of compulsories was the team from France, who are one of the favorites to take a medal with them home from Denmark and maybe reclaim the world championship they won back in 2016 in Le Mans.
And they started out strong with an overall score of 8.086 after a very nice round of compulsories, leaving no doubt, that they are here to win.
“It’s always a bit hard to be the first team to open the competition. But I think we did a good job, overall, no major mistakes and the score is good, and the horse was calm in the arena. It gives confidence going into the freestyle on Monday”, team member Lambert Leclezio said after the team’s performance in the grand setting in Boxen.
Germany is very close
Team Germany is eager to hold on to their gold medal for another year and did a really good job, with lunger Patrick Looser being on a bit of work with the team horse, Calidor 10, who was not as excited about the venue as the vaulters.
There was a little bit of insecurity in some of the exercises, but the team still managed to give France a run for their money scoring just a little shy of 8 in total with an overall score of 7.940.
“We did quite good, even though we had a couple of exercises, we would usually do better. But this was a good start, we are happy with the horse and look forward to the freestyle”, said German team member Justin van Gerven.
Today’s battle for the 3rd place
There is a real battle going on for the 3rd place, because three nations are close. At the moment we have Switzerland in the 3rd place with 7.659. But right behind them is Austria with 7.419 and the team from Denmark with 7.329.
Final on Monday
In this championship the Squads only have two rounds to prove their worth to the judges with the second round – the freestyle – on Monday. And the medals are still up for grabs. Austria has had a tough season with a lot of injuries but will do everything they can to move into the top three. And the host country Denmark has been doing a really good job in freestyle in this season, so we are in for an exciting day of finals on Monday.
See the scores for today here.
/Herning2022
