AWC 2018: Sweden has dreamed out and Germany struggled during the second day

After a brilliant start yesterday, the first decisions were already on the agenda today. Namely, the one of the team competition. With the local heroes from Sweden in a promising position. But it should not be the day of the Swedes. Also the Germans would have imagined the day a little bit different. Although they got the first two medals today. Also a medal, the golden one receives Estonia. The very first ever in history of Estonia.

It was a close match after yesterday’s jumping in the Large team competition. Up to 11th place, all teams were within four seconds. Accordingly exciting was the first medal award. Relatively early on the start in the series was Russia. And Russia has been the only team with clean runs today. This took over the interim leadership. However, with the knowledge in mind that the joy will probably take only a short time. Because the 10 error points from the previous jumping are usually not enough. But when one team after another failed, they were suddenly back in the race. In the end it was enough for second place ahead of Finland. Only Belgium beats them. Although the Belgians did not stay clear, just they were the only team with fewer than two mistakes. And Sweden? Jenny Damm could not finish the run with Lilli and Ziv had a mistake. Ebba Eriksson was also involved in a disqualification.

Large Team:
 Van Beeck, Maunaerts, Andrews, Cusumano
 Shternberg, Povalishcheva, Lobanova, Kurochkin
  Leinonen, Liuhto, Linna, Kurkinen

Exciting until the end was the medium team competition. After jumping, Germany came first ahead of Brazil, the Czech Republic and France. The probability that the medals were divided among these four teams was big. France started first from the favorites and immediately put an exclamation point. So a safe run alone would be not enough. The Czech Republic, arguably the most successful medium nation in recent years, withstood the pressure. But the time wasn’t fast enough. So France were still the interim leadership. The Brazilians were unable to cope with the pressure and subsequently got two disqualifications. Now it was only up to Germany to close the bag or not. But Bozena Schröder as second runner got a disqualification. Husband Daniel Schröder as third runner kept his nerves and laid down a sovereign run. Now it was time for Silas Boogk to perform a flawless run that also needed to be fast. For once, the luck was not on the side of Germany, when Beam dropped a bar. Instead of the gold medal, they had to be satisfied with the bronze medal. The disappointment was written on their faces.

Medium Team
  Bruna, Callec, Caclin, Castelain
   Kaletova, Mokrisova, Maderova, Klimesova
  Graf, Schröder, Schröder, Boogk

After being eliminated from a promising position in the large competition, the small team had to take care of the medal in their own country. After all, the Swedes are considered as the top favorite in the small tournament. And as  in the Large Tournament, they started here from second place too. A good or bad omen? It was similar to the Medium tournament, where the decision has also fallen among the last team. With Italy, Slovenia, Estonia, Sweden and how could it be otherwise, Germany were probably the five strongest teams with many strong individual runners represented. France, usually in this category had a clean Agility run, but already some points from the previous course. Nevertheless, they were on the first intermediate rank before the last five. Italy as the first team of the five, showed unusual nerves. Even the otherwise so safe Alberto Marmo did not manage his run for once. So Italy was thrown back behind France, who were already fifth at this time. Slovenia showed, especially the two men in the team Sandi Okanovic and Roland Kolenko three safe runs. Slovenia took over the interim leadership. What a great ending for Roland Kolenko and Ammy at the last World Championship for that team. Estonia also showed a sovereign performance and finished three of the four runs without a mistake. Despite a brief, startling moment with Marta Miil, who nearly crashed and Keida Raamat almost pulled Sheltie My beside the tunnel. Although they were behind Slovenia in terms of time, the gap from the jumping was enough. And Sweden? In fact, it was relatively quickly quiet in the audience as Fiona Lövdinger and also Enya Habel got each a refusal. The dream about a team medal was over. Now the medals need to come in the individual competition. And Germany? Leaning back was far from easy. But here the same as with Sweden. The fans from Germany were quite quickly. After all, they saved the bronze medal in the end. But also here, they had hoped for more. The first place will give Estonia the very first gold medal in the country’s history.

Small Team
Piirsalu, Miil, Brand, Raamat
 Kolenko, Mikec, Okanovic, Kolenko
  Schlathölter, Brands, Schröder, Wüst