Home victory and third place at the start
Home victory at the start of the international jubilee tournament in Achleiten! Victoria Max-Theurer won the Grand Prix of the Freestyle Tour with Abegglen FH NRW with 72.696 percent ahead of the Belgian Laurence Roos with Fil Rouge (71.391) and the Swiss Estelle Wettstein on West Side Story (70.782). The Grand Prix of the Special Tour was won by Isabell Werth with Emilio, with third place going to Austria's Florian Bacher with Fidertraum.
"Not our best test and still certainly above the required Olympic limit," Victoria Max-Theurer summed up and practiced self-criticism. "There were some costly mistakes in there, the zig-zags alone cost 2 percent, then we didn't catch some transitions one hundred percent and there was also a misunderstanding in the backward straightening. We still have to work on the fine-tuning and we know exactly what homework we still have to do until Tokyo."
Oliver Valenta was happy about 4th place and his personal record score of 68.435 with Valenta's Fantast. And this in front of the prominent jury with the five five-star judges Christof Umbach (LUX), Thomas Lang (AUT), Katrina Wüst (GER), Hans-Christian Matthiesen and Kurt Christensen (both DEN).
Isabell Werth wins superiorly, Florian Bacher on place 3.
This exclusive cast of judges stayed right in their positions for the second Grand Prix of the day to see a superior victory by Germany's exceptional rider Isabell Werth with Emilio, with a score of 77.348 percent.
"That was a safe round for the first show this year for Emilio. He did have two good shakes, but an insect must have disturbed him," laughed Isabell Werth.
Second place went to Jeanna Hogberg from Sweden with Lorenzo and a score of 73.761 percent. Making it into the top three was Florian Bacher and the reliable Fidertraum with 72.674 percent.
The Austrian Olympic candidate didn't expect to have to appear at the award ceremony: "There would have been more points, but I had three self-inflicted faults in the canter - they lowered the score. I'm still super happy with how Fidertraum felt and how he rode. We were really on a good way, maybe even our personal best score would have been possible, but it doesn't help. We are looking positively ahead and I know I can rely on him."
