Fredricson turns silver into gold
The home crowd erupts in delight as Peder Fredricson clinches a tense finale, but there is disappointment for the two British individuals
PEDER FREDRICSON was the silver medallist at last summer’s Rio Olympics, but fast-forward 12 months and the Swedish rider, reunited with his superstar H&M All In, championed the European stage on home turf.
It may sound like a dream year for the pair, and on paper it certainly has been, but it has also been a bumpy road, with the 11-year-old gelding having time off over the winter to recover from stomach surgery.
Most impressively, the son of Kashmir Van Schuttershof only made his comeback to competition five months ago and last week he pulled off an immaculate display of athleticism and stamina under his seasoned rider.
“Since March, these championships have been my main aim with him and to win in front of my home crowd was special,” said Peder, a former event rider who competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
“I knew he was fit but I didn’t know if he was jumping fit, especially to do a total of five rounds in one week — it’s by far the most he’s done since returning.”
Sunday’s individual final was the fairytale finale the Swedes had been praying for all week, even more so, because Peder set the bar remarkably high during the opening qualifying speed round on Wednesday, producing a speedy 75.70-second clear to top the individual standings at the early stage.
It was a lead that the 45-yearold maintained throughout the championship — adding nothing to his zero score in the lead-up to the last day. However, it did not stop the final turning into a tense and particularly tight battle for the medal positions.
Going into the first round of the concluding day — which comprised the top 25 individuals — Swiss rider Martin Fuchs (Clooney 51) was breathing down the neck of Peder, just
2.03 penalties adrift. But two fences down over Louis Konickx’s towering 14-track course put him out of the medal reckoning.
Having helped Ireland to gold medal victory on the Friday night, Shane Sweetnam and Cian O’Connor occupied third and fourth respectively.
Shane, who enjoyed a formidable championship, was unlucky when Chaqui Z tapped the oxer coming out of the intimidating treble at 10, which dropped them down to fourth.
Cian’s stunning clear with Good Luck gave them a grasp on the silver medal ahead of the second round.
Dutchman Harrie Smolders’ clear round (see box) at this stage enabled him to leapfrog from ninth into the bronze medal position after his next four rivals sitting ahead of him on the leaderboard picked up four faults each.
unDER pREssuRE
THE top 12 riders after the first round then went forward into the crucial medal decider.
Louis once again created a true championship test that included a triple bar on a related distance to a flimsy upright and another sizeable treble as the penultimate fence, a challenge for any tiring horses.
The eventual gold medallist had one fence and a time-fault in hand and when Harrie left all the fences in their cups the pressure was well and truly on Cian to maintain his silver medal.
The brilliant stallion tried his heart out for the Irishman but they fell victim to the tricky triple bar-upright question, incurring a costly four faults at the upright, which dropped him behind
Harrie and into bronze, ultimately costing him the gold medal.
As the last rider to enter the expansive Ullevi Stadium, Peder had the weight of his nation on his shoulders.
But displaying ultimate horsemanship and a cool head, he steered H&M All In over the majority of the course and it looked like he had a clear round in the bag.
That was until the penultimate treble when Peder’s gelding touched down on the back rail of the middle oxer, sending it crashing to the ground.
Peder had used his “lifeline” and everyone held their breaths as he jumped the last two fences with ease but then the clock started ticking over the time-allowed. He crossed the finish with one time-fault, remaining just 0.52 penalties ahead, to confirm his new European champion title. At last the patriotic crowd could breathe — or more accurately go crazy with delight.
“He’s quite a special character; he can be lazy during his flatwork at home and looks nothing special until he jumps — then he knows exactly what he needs to do,”
explained Peder of the horse he first spotted as a seven-year-old when he was competing at the World Championships for Young Horses under Nicola Philippaerts.
“I already knew then he was one of the very best horses in the world. He has been super — every
question I ask him, he always has the answer,” said Peder. “He’s very careful, scopey, brave and fast. He has the ability to lengthen and shorten his stride yet jump exactly the same.”
It was a case of so close yet so far for Cian, who narrowly missed
out on the gold medal having it had it within his reach. However, going home with a team gold medal and an individual bronze tucked under the belt is a superb feat, and one that won’t be forgotten.
“Today was extremely costly when we hit the vertical — the margins have been so small all week,” commented Cian. “If you could jump a double clear today, you were in the medals.
“You can’t beat jumping in any class as an individual but nothing comes close to winning team gold. We came here today thinking anything else was a bonus and it’s great to win the bronze medal.”
A LEARNING CURVE
WITH Great Britain only fielding two individual riders, there was disappointment in the British camp early on when Michael Whitaker withdrew Viking ahead of Wednesday’s qualifying speed class.
Having failed the initial vet inspection before successfully re-presenting, Viking was “not quite right” warming up for the opening round and Michael made the decision to pull out the 15-year-old gelding.
“This has never happened to me before at a championship, but I know Viking so well and I knew he wasn’t right to jump today,” said Michael. “Given another couple of days he’d probably be fine.”
Therefore, the British attention turned to his nephew William, who was making his senior championship debut.
The 28-year-old and the experienced 13-year-old
Utamaro D’Ecaussines, a former championship ride of fellow Brit Joe Clee, started his campaign with a foot-perfect clear.
However, they lay in 39th overnight after a costly timing misfortune, whereby William ran two seconds over the 45 seconds allowed to cross the start line, his resulting time of 85.81 seconds pushed him further down the leaderboard.
“Uta gave me everything in there and we saw some horses do uncharacteristic things — it was particularly bright in the stadium today,” said William.
“Running over time was a big mistake on my behalf. They rang the bell straight away and he is quite a laid-back horse so I don’t like to rush him too much.
“When I looked at the clock I had 30 seconds, so thought I had plenty of time and then I just took too long, which was stupid and I’ve never done it before.”
Another exceptional clear round the following day, minus any time issues, propelled the pair up to 17th.
Going into the second team round, in which individuals also jump, British hopes were high for William and Uta.
However, the pair picked up a costly 10 penalties for two fences down and a couple of time penalties during a round in which the clock proved influential.
“It was a shame because he actually jumped really well, but it was the first time we had jumped under floodlights this week and he was spooky, particularly at the upright at three,” explained William.
“When we had that down it just broke our rhythm and we ended up adding an extra stride into the combination where we had the middle element down.”
On finishing the day’s proceedings in 26th, the question was then would William make it into the top 25 in the individual standings for Sunday’s finale?
Following a horse inspection on the Saturday and after the notable withdrawals of France’s Roger Yves Bost and Kevin Staut, and Portugal’s Luciana Diniz, it transpired William had made it into the final hurrah — but only just.
However, after much discussion with Uta’s owners Ludwig and Yasmine Criel, the consensus was not to jump the Diamant De Semilly stallion in the individual final.
“We carry our faults through to the final, so I would have started around the 25th mark. If the slate had been wiped clean, it would have been a different situation,” commented William.
“He’s 13 now so we need to look after him. You can’t just jump in a championship for the sake of jumping — they are all tough rounds — and we have plenty more to play for this year. I’ve certainly learnt a lot this week.”