It was as though the course were jinxed: although some 90 riders had competed in the qualifier, of which 23 of them moved forward into the winning round, with 18 of them having gone clear in the first round, there were only a total of 3 of them to remain clear in the winning round.
The others had their problems with the technical challenges that course designer Rob Jansen / NED and his assitant Franz Madl / AUT has built into the 1.40 high and difficult course.
Especially the 4th obstacle of the jump-off caused problems for the participating riders, since the path proved too long for many of them to keep their rhythm and correct strides. With the exception of 8 riders, all the others had one down precisely at that jump.
One rider, however, delivered not only a clear but also perfect and fast round: Tobias Meyer / GER, the former Junior European Champion and German National Squad member found his perfect line and combined the precisely fitting strides with persistence and ambition. This brought him today's win in the EYCup, which is all the more remarkable since his horse, Boris, is only 7 years old. The stallion is by Fetiche du Pas, and completed the winning round in the jump-off in only 35.07 sec.
With another clear round in the jump-off and 37.32 secs, Landhut-based German rider Stefanie Schäbel rode the Landkaiser x Argentinus daughter Landana to 2nd place.
Croatian rider Janka Krasovec, who is from Zagreb, had already impressed yesterday, and today she followed suit when, in 37.83 secs., she rode her Holstein gelding Cabano (2nd place in yesterday's competition) to 3rd place, delivering the only other clear round in the jump-off. Marielle Margreiter  / AUT once more was the best Austrian rider: she went clear in the first round, had 8 faults in the jump-off and thus ended up 16th overall.