FEI EC Rotterdam: Wonderful 8th place for Sterrehof’s Calimero and Marc!

After five strong rounds of jumping, Sterrehof’s Calimero and Marc finished the European Championship in Rotterdam on a beautiful eighth place in the individual rankings. They started at the eighteenth spot in a field of 70 combinations after a flawless round in the opening class against the clock. From there on they only climbed in the rankings. The difficult first round of the team competition resulted in a single jumping fault and after the second round -one time penalty with just two hundredths of a second outside the time allowed- they had climbed towards the top 10 and easily secured their spot at the individual final (top 25). Regretfully the Dutch team couldn’t do better than eighth place this time.

Bizarre round

During the apotheosis of the championship, another clear round seemed around the corner, but the rail on the last obstacle fell harshly. Other competitors didn’t do better in this very difficult first round in the individual final and our duo once again climbed, this time to place nine. And then a bizarre second round followed. Two activists disrupted the ride of Calimero and Marc by demonstratively entering the arena and getting in the way annoyingly. Apparently undisturbed, Marc jumped further on and managed to reach the finish line without a rail down, but only exceeded slightly the time allowed. A standing ovation from the crowd followed and later a clear round too, including an eighth place, because the judges forgave the time penalty considering the circumstances.

‘Super teamwork’

Afterwards, Marc didn’t want to waste too many words about the incident he described as “idiotic” and for which no understanding or whatever could be showed. He’d rather emphasize the great performance of Calimero in Rotterdam. “This is his third big championship in a row and he gets better every time. He really grows in those championships! Our teamwork is just super.”

Eighth place is the best result at a championship with Calimero and after seventh place at the Hong Kong Olympic Games with Sterrehof’s Opium and ninth at the London Games with Sterrehof’s Tamino the third individual top 10 result at the highest level in showjumping.