News Sports•
Sweden is the European vault champion and the Netherlands are only seventh
Dutch show jumping competitors failed to win prizes during the European Show Jumping Championships in Milan. National coach José Lansink’s Orange team were unable to break any pot on the final day of the Nations Cup and finished in a disappointing seventh place.
Sweden, also the Olympic and world champions, took the gold medal. Ireland took the silver and the surprising Austrians took the bronze.
Horses debut
Already on the first day, last Wednesday, things did not go well for the four Dutchmen. Harry Smulders, Michael van der Vleuten, Jur Freeling and Willem Greif were not so clear. For example, a beam fell and time was skipped at the Ipodromo di San Siro, next to the famous San Siro football stadium.
Yesterday there was a recovery. The clear ride by Vrieling and Van der Vleuten gave the show jumpers some confidence. Despite Smulders’ flawless performance, Holland’s performance was not good enough for a team medal today.
We were hoping for a medal, but perhaps we were oscillating too much in our minds.
The fact that the Orange riders’ performance was lower than during last year’s World Cup has a reason, according to national coach José Lansink. Last year, the Netherlands took second place in the World Cup tournament in Herning (Denmark) for the Olympic Games in Paris. However, the pressure to perform is now effectively over.
So Lancinck deliberately brought three very young horses and they made their debut to Milan. TN Highway (Van Greef), Obaile (Van Van der Vleuten) and Orikas (Van Smulders) rode to the top of the podium for the first time. “It’s good for these horses to get used to a big tournament, to the pressure and the crowd. Yes, we were hoping for a medal, but maybe we were too hesitant.”
The final individual tournament will follow on Sunday. Only Freeling (19th) and Greif (22nd) qualified for this final, but given their accumulation in the standings, they could forget about the medal.
Watch the coach’s full response here:
National coach Lansink on show jumping riders: “I expected more”
