August 31, 2006

Gold for Holland

Germany Claims the Bronze in the Mercedes-Benz Prize

Aachen, Germany - The 40,000 spectators in the crowded stadium all held their breath. Marcus Ehning entered the ring as the last German rider, after slipping back to fourth position in the interim result; gold was once again now possible. However, the ride came to an early finish when Ehning’s horse had difficulties at the wall in stamp-format – suddenly all hopes of gold were shattered.

In the end Marcus Ehning, Ludger Beerbaum, Christian Ahlmann and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum won the bronze medal. The Dutch team won the Nations’ Cup ahead of the equipe from the USA. The German rider with the best prospects in the individual classification is Ludger Beerbaum, who is currently lying in third place. "Küchengirl was obviously very stressed," was how Ehning explained the faux pas, "but luckily my colleagues had completed good rounds up until then, so that we at least achieved our minimum target of bronze." Together with the National Coach, Kurt Gravemeier, the riders were unanimous that the Dutch team had deserved to win. "They were simply better than us across the whole board," stated Ludger Beerbaum. The winners were in fact rather surprised themselves: "We thought if everything ran extremely well, we could perhaps be up for silver," explained an overjoyed Jeroen Dubbeldam. The winners were presented with their gold medals by the Chairman of DaimlerChrysler, Dieter Zetsche.