European Championship gold for Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel
Silver for Anniek van Dulst, bronze for Anna Teibel Raben
"It was totally unexpected!" said the newly crowned European U21 dressage champion, who was overwhelmed. "Of course you have goals, but my goal was never to become European champion. So it's all the better that it worked out." Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel, 48th of the 53 starters, clearly took the lead among Europe's best U21 riders on the eleven-year-old ZINQ Emma FH NRW with a personal best of 75.206 percentage points. And retained this lead until the end: European Champion! Silver went to Anniek van Dulst from the Netherlands on My First Choice-Dutopia, bronze was won by Anna Teibel Raben from Denmark on Sparaday.
"Dutopia was wonderful! He gave me a wonderful feeling, but I never expected this high score," admitted 20-year-old Anniek. "I've only been riding Dutopia for a few months, but he's so incredible and so sweet and then this score - I just can't believe it." Bronze winner Anna was similarly stunned: "It was so incredible in the arena today. It is completely unimaginable that I won the bronze medal, I would never have dared to dream of it."
0.029 per cent decided silver and bronze.
The gold medal was a very clear 'affair' with more than 75 per cent, but this was followed by five riders with a 72 before the decimal point. Places two to six were only the blink of an eye of 0.353 percentage points apart, in the end Anniek earned the silver medal with 72.735 percentage points, Anna followed close behind with a personal best of 72.706 and Lucie-Anouk Baumgürtel, the older sister of Lana-Pinou, missed the podium by just 88 hundredths of a per cent on ZINQ Hugo FH. This means that anything is possible when the European Championship medals are contested in the freestyle on Sunday at the Schafhof. The performance density among the young riders is enormous this year.
The gold résumé
"We were able to improve again today compared to yesterday. The feeling was even better, that was great," said European champion Lana-Pinou, who couldn't stop raving. "I'm incredibly happy. I could never have imagined that it would work out so well." The 19-year-old is supported in training by her mum, Beatrice Baumgürtel, and Marion Wiebusch. On site at the European Championships, national coach Hans-Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen naturally also had his eye on her "Lana-Pinou has become much stronger in terms of her personality and concentration over the past few years and you could clearly see that in the course of the test. It was a pleasure to watch. That is something very special for both rider and horse and we are all proud of that." The national coach also expressly thanked Emma's breeder, Winfried Albers, and the Baumgürtel family for allowing this horse to be part of the team at the European Championships.
Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel and ZINQ Emma FH - the pair have already experienced Kronberg as a highly successful venue. In 2023, the pair were part of the junior European Championship team here and won team gold, individual bronze and freestyle silver. With team gold and individual gold among the young riders, they have already signalled another big exclamation mark in their careers.
Sports Minister Stolz as a guest
On the Saturday of the European Championships, Hesse's Sports Minister Diana Stolz was also a guest at the Schafhof, congratulated the young European champions and was visibly impressed: "The event here is wonderful. And organising a European Championship here in Hessen is of course something very special. Our federal state lives sport with every pore - we consciously call ourselves Sportland Hessen. We are committed to everything from grassroots to top-class sport. So it's all the better that Mrs Linsenhoff is not only our sports representative, but also the host of this European Championship. It's a perfect match."
The outlook for the European Championship freestyle
"My freestyle is completely new," reveals Lana-Pinou. "We wanted to increase the level of difficulty again, I've only ridden it once at home, but never at a show." Last year, she was still quite new to the young riders, when they focussed more on safety. "I could only ride the changes in a straight line, for example - now I'm a bit more advanced." She has kept the music from the 80s. "Our DJ Steve chose it, but now I also really enjoy listening to the oldies."
Silver winner Anniek beams at the thought of the freestyle. "I love dancing with Dutopia. We've ridden the freestyle together three times so far. And the music is like something out of a fairytale, it suits him wonderfully." Like European champion Lana-Pinou, bronze medallist Anna will be performing a new routine on Sunday. "It's a completely new choreography to modern music," she explains. "I'm really looking forward to trying it out tomorrow."
On Sunday, the young riders will compete in their European Championship freestyle at the Schafhof arena from 8.00 a.m., so that by midday it will be clear who has won the medals in this discipline