Team, Open

Germany has consistently proved themselves to be the strongest team in the world since London 2012 and had won both European titles available in the period as well as the World title in 2014. If the Germans were to be challenged it seemed France and Great Britain might be the teams to push closest to the favourites. As expected the Germans led after the dressage phase but their lead was surprisingly small and only five penalties covered the first four countries. Great Britain were eliminated from contention by a poor cross-country phase and it was the antipodean pairing of Australia and New Zealand that led France and Germany after the third day of competition. Crucially the French were the only one of the quartet not to have a rider eliminated before they reached the show jumping section. The title hopes of the depleted Australia and New Zealand teams were each ended by one round that they could not discard. In contrast, Germany’s jumping was exemplary and they came within a single fallen rail of closing the gap on France. France’s victory was only the second in their history following their win in 2004.