When she was in the air during the last jump with 13-year-old Vittorio, the tension over Sophie Heiners, the new German showjumping champion, faded. She was the only rider who did nothing wrong on both days.
© Jedi, Michael
For a long time it looked as though Venga Bormann and her mad son Lavina should be able to successfully defend the German women’s showjumping championship, which she won at Risenbeek in 2020, at the Longines Balvey Optimum in 2021. But eventually someone else was allowed to cheer.
Balve – After a first error-free private test, Lower Saxony’s Bormann also knocked out in the first round in Friday’s crucial second competition with a precision that credited the watch sponsor to the traditional Balve Championship.
But in the second round of the Platzmann Federn Prize, Bormann and her 15-year-old companion, who were the penultimate runners to the Wocklum Riding Circuit, made three mistakes – over dreaming of defending their title. The road was very free for 13-year-old Sophie Henners and Vittorio. The 23-year-old show jumping from Vierden near the A1 between Bremen and Hamburg, who has been riding in her partner Richard Vogel’s stable in Dagobertshausen since March, kept her nerves as her second entry so far completely flawless. A flawless ride on the challenging 3-star S-Class track Having been runner-up with Vittorio in the same position two years ago, Amazon has now rewarded itself with the title.
I tried to keep my nerves under control. Vittorio fought and thought.
But before she could accept the congratulations, she picked up her cell phone and called her former coach Emil Hendrix in Barlow, the Netherlands, who couldn’t be there but followed the decision from home. “It feels great. All the pressure is over,” Henners said happily, as his friend Richard Vogel won the first special stage of the U25 Championship a few hours ago, so he will continue on to pole position on Saturday.
“I tried to keep my nerves in check. Vittorio fought and thought. I was nervous, but focused on myself and the horse,” said Henners, who called her competitors Venga Bormann and Melin Cruz my best friends. In this regard, the victory should have been given to her by the vanquished.
After the awards ceremony, at which Prideaux Graf zu Rantzau, president of the Equestrian Association, hung the gold-medal Hinners and tied the winner’s sash to her riding jacket, there was first a champagne shower and then a bath in the watering hole, common in Balve, before only Sophie Hinners with both Katrin Eckermann (Kevelaer) with Cascadello Boy, who took the silver, and bronze medalist Katharina Offel (Rosenheim) rode in the lap of honor with Hearst by a time error. Ovel won the title at Balve in 2004, and Eckermann was already second in 2011.
Out of the top three after day one, Venga Bormann and Kleppo both exited the competition after two throws in the first round, and went perfectly on Lavina’s crazy son card. Jörne Sprehe of Fürth, like Bormann with his two horses flawless on Thursday, did not pass through Luna nor with the Hot easy without a drop. Tina Dewerer and Clouseau, third on Thursday, lost one position on Friday.
The victory in the Federal Platzmann Prize went to Jan-Friedrich Mayer-Zimmermann with Chismo by two free laps and the fastest time on the second lap (68.46 seconds).
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