Aachen, 05. July 2008

Frank Ostholt wins the DHL Prize, CIC03*, with Air Jordan
Germany secures the Nations' Cup ahead of Sweden and Great Britain

"I am overjoyed," beamed the German rider, Frank Ostholt, who rode his Hanoverian gelding Air Jordan to victory at the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen and was also placed third with Mr. Medicott. A top performance. He already competed at the Olympic Games in Athens with his winning horse - but the 13-year-old is not a candidate for Hong Kong. "The weather conditions there are very extreme, so Mr. Medicott is first choice," the 32-year-old reported. "I was of course rather nervous after Luhmühlen, where Air Jordan refused, which is very unlike him. So I was all the more delighted that Jojo performed so well here. It was phenomenal," the rider from Warendorf said. "Mr. Medicott is only nine years old, so I had to take the middle option: On the one hand I had to ride quick, but on the other hand I had to collect him in front of the difficult jumps, which proved to be a tricky task here. Sometimes he was almost too fast in the approach to the fence, but I think we gave ourselves a good recommendation for the Olympic Games with this round," the 32-year-old explained. Second place went to the 22-year-old Dutch rider Tim Lips on the 12-year-old KWPN gelding Blom's Oncarlos.

Germany secured the Nations' Cup title with a score of 188.40 ahead of Sweden on 192.5 points and Great Britain (215.4). The national coach, Hans Melzer was highly satisfied: "We have won the Nations' Cup, won the individual classification, what more motivation does one need before the Olympic Games?" Fourth and fifth place were also claimed by German riders, by Andreas Dibowski and Hinrich Romeike respectively. "My horse gave a great performance here. He is almost a pure thoroughbred and has a wonderful gallop," the 42-year-old said after his ride on Euroriding Butts Leon. With a wide smile on his face, Hinrich Romeike, who is actually a dentist by profession, enthusiastically passed all of the compliments on to his horse: "It was a superb round, Marius Voigt-Logistik simply marched through the course with an incredible amount of conviction. I think you could even place a mechanical monkey in the saddle and he would still perform brilliantly. Marius just marches on like a tin soldier." The today 14-year-old Holstein grey gelding moved to his stables as a five-year-old and was brought on by Romeike himself. "Okay, it was also the result of my training," grinned the German Team World Champion, who was happy to have delivered "such a superb round in such a magnificent setting." The outcome of the other German riders: 13th place for Anna Warnecke: She completed the CICO*** with her 13-year-old Irish thoroughbred Twinkle Bee on a total score of 67.4 points. "At first I thought, the cross-country track was very challenging, especially because of the many narrow obstacles. But in fact we didn't have any problems at all, it all ran smoothly," the 28-year-old reported. Ingrid Klimke unfortunately suffered a refusal with her horse FRH Butts Abraxxas. "It came totally unexpectedly, Braxxi was going fantastically up until then, but the narrow obstacle came so fast and he was taken by surprise, everything happened so quickly and suddenly we had run past," reported the profession rider, who was placed tenth at the European Championships 2007 with "Braxxi". She was a member of the gold winning team at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen with her grey gelding, Sleep Late, who is now enjoying his well-earned retirement. The 40-year-old lives in Münster with her husband and daughter Greta. The 29-year-old Beeke Kaack, who came eleventh at the European Championships in 2007, finished 22nd with Sinjang: "We had problems in the jumping ring, Sinjang even turned round on his heels once, I guess it was due to the atmosphere. However, he was fantastic in the cross, the course was indeed tough, very demanding. But he tackled everything very fluently and courageously," she said happily.
Bettina Hoy didn't even make it to the starting line. The German team manager had to withdraw her 17-year-old gelding Ringwood Cockatoo. He slid into an upright fence on his back legs during the show-jumping yesterday. "We assume that he has pulled something," said the 45-year-old. The 17-year old gelding is currently being examined at a clinic.

Bad luck for the 38-year-old French eventer, Nicolas Touzaint, who was lying in 13th place after the dressage and jumping and was clear in the cross-country until the pond in the main stadium - he raced through the water at top speed, took off too close to the jump and his 13-year-old French gelding Joker d'Helby caught his front leg on the fence. It was a blessing in disguise that the pair didn't somersault to the ground, but Joker d'Helby just managed to find his feet in time. Touzaint, who won team gold in Athens at the Olympic Games in 2004 and took the individual European Championship title in 2003 and 2007, initially gasped for breath, but ultimately neither rider nor horse sustained any injuries. The Polish rider, Pawel Spisak, fell with his horse Weriusz at fence 22, the Cattle Trough. The British rider, Georgie Davies (with Fachoudette) and the Italian rider, Maria Speranza Gardini (with the thoroughbred Freetown) both also withdraw before the cross-country. The Swedish rider Linda Algotsson (with Stand By Me) and the French rider Arnaud Boiteau (with Expo du Moulin) were both already eliminated in the show-jumping.

Opening hours of the CHIO Aachen 2008 ticket sales:
Saturday, 05.07.2008 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday, 06.07.2008 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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